June 26, 2008 | Read Time: 3 minutes
A group of nonprofit leaders, researchers, and academics has proposed a set of ideas for improving how the American government fights poverty overseas.
The coalition, known as the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, called for stronger and better-coordinated leadership on foreign aid, ideally under a cabinet-level director of global development.
The role of providing overseas aid is currently spread among 24 different agencies.
“We now have the challenge and imperative to reshape the whole of our foreign-aid system and to craft a nimble, modern, and capable system,” said Gayle Smith, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a co-chair of the coalition, whose proposal is called “New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century.”
Its recommendations include the passage of new legislation outlining how the government aids poor countries. The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, passed during the Kennedy administration, remains the law governing international aid.
“While President John F. Kennedy was farsighted, he didn’t quite see the world we live in today,” said Ms. Smith.
Worldwide Crises
The rise of threats that affect countries around the world, such as the international drug trade, global pandemics, the food crisis, and climate change, make it critical that the United States modernize how it offers aid, she said.
Steve Radelet, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and a coalition co-chair, said a restructuring of foreign aid couldn’t take place without the hiring of more seasoned experts by the U.S. Agency for International Development. That agency is half the size it was during the 1980s, and a third of its most experienced staff members are eligible for retirement.
In part to fill the void left by USAID, the military has taken on a bigger role in fighting poverty and assisting victims of humanitarian emergencies.
“This is not about moving boxes,” said Mr. Radelet. “This is about rebuilding and reprofessionalizing the strength of our development expertise around the U.S. government, which has been badly weakened in the last couple of decades.”
He also called for Congress to allocate more money for global-development efforts and the establishment of a cabinet-level agency for global development. Mr. Radelet said a new department was needed to coordinate aid and secure adequate financial support.
Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democratic Congresswoman from New York, said there was growing support among politicians for an overhaul of foreign aid.
But she expressed reservations about establishing a cabinet-level development agency. Ms. Lowey said such a department might lead to greater separation of foreign-assistance programs from the shaping of the foreign-policy agenda.
“I’m concerned that all of the interest and energy in reform will be for naught if the debate becomes one about cabinet-level agency versus non-cabinet-level agency,” she said. That issue, she said, “can wait.”
‘Biggest Setback’
Several nonprofit leaders pointed to skyrocketing food prices as an example of why better leadership is needed.
“This thing is the biggest setback in the world’s development efforts for 20 years,” said David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World and a member of the network. “We’re relying on the United Nations and the World Bank to do our thinking for us because there is no one agency in the U.S. government that has the firepower to think about this.”
Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America and another coalition member, said the global food crisis revealed how the U.S. government needs to integrate its approaches to trade, energy, and other areas with the fight against poverty.
“Our approach so far has been really modest. It’s been, Let’s try to feed the people who are hungry,” he said. “But this is a large, systemic problem that’s got major structural implications. It needs a big strategy think.”
The coalition’s report is available free from the Center for American Progress’s Web site.
