“If you want to know how stable a country is,” says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, “don’t count the number of advanced weapons, count the number of malnourished children.”
Showing how foreign assistance can work better has been the main aim of this chapter. The reforms we recommend could help tens of millions of people escape hunger and poverty. Effective aid matters to poor countries and to the United States, as it creates partnerships that fuel the growth of both. Moreover, effective aid that reduces poverty helps to build a more stable world, improving the security of all.
In September 2010, President Obama released a new wide-ranging policy directive on global development to make U.S. foreign assistance programs more effective. The policy affirms that development is a central pillar of the U.S. national security policy, and it states a commitment to rebuilding USAID as the lead development agency. The USAID administrator will be included in relevant National Security Council meetings and the government will formulate a global development strategy that will be reviewed and approved by the President every four years. The policy also creates a U.S. Global Development Council to garner high-level input from the private sector and civil society.
The President’s policy directive does not address a more fundamental problem with U.S. foreign assistance. The United States needs a 21st century legislative framework to replace an outdated Foreign Assistance Act (FAA).The most effective and lasting way to address the problems identified in this chapter would be for the administration to engage Congress to work together to reform foreign aid. Congress passed the FAA in 1961. It has been amended on a number of occasions, but the resulting framework has come to resemble a mechanism jerry-rigged just to keep running, rather than to function as needed in the world we live in. The world has changed dramatically since 1961, when per capita incomes in Africa were higher than in China, the United States defined its relationship with developing countries through the prism of the Cold War, and nobody could have guessed that carbon emissions might one day become the single biggest factor in sustainable development.
Rewriting the FAA will improve the quality of U.S. foreign assistance and strengthen the case for sufficiently funding development programs. The U.S. government is committed to helping poor countries develop. That commitment is honored by upholding high standards for how aid is used, which requires development assistance that is distinct from U.S. diplomatic and defense funding. Congress should pass legislation that makes clear the importance of poverty reduction and development in U.S. foreign policy.
U.S. foreign assistance must reach those who need it most and support their efforts to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty. The main driver of poverty reduction is the hard work of poor people themselves, who will seize every opportunity made available to them.
Issues
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