Introduction
The year since the release of InterAction's Foreign Assistance Briefing Book has been challenging for the Obama administration and the 111th Congress. Foreign assistance, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the worldwide financial crisis have had to compete with urgent domestic concerns and a bold agenda. We are pleased to report that, despite other challenges and competing priorities, progress (albeit mixed progress) has been made on foreign development policy issues highlighted by InterAction. This Foreign Assistance Briefing Book Progress Report outlines the status of the actions suggested by InterAction one year ago. Each issue has been assigned a progress indicator: a green up arrow for positive progress, an orange sideways arrow for mixed progress and a red down arrow for no progress to date.
InterAction remains concerned that no visible progress has been made on one of the most critical of all recommendations—the naming of an administrator of USAID to strengthen the voice and role of development in Department of State deliberations. This omission hampers attempts to bring strategic focus to U.S. foreign assistance. Additionally, the inconsistent and incomplete aid reform process (the F process) continues to operate without any reevaluation of its effectiveness in elevating a more coherent approach to development. A qualified visionary individual must be nominated expeditiously as USAID administrator and made a permanent member of the National Security Council. USAID needs its own full-time leader to reinforce the secretary's efforts, represent the agency before Congress, OMB and the NSC, and represent the U.S. in international discussions on effective development policy and the coordination of aid. American humanitarian and development programs are vital to U.S. national interests and this appointment can no longer be put off—the time to act is now.
Other actions taken by the Obama administration and the 111th Congress are cause for optimism. Under the leadership of the National Security Council and the National Economic Council, the White House is directing a government-wide assessment of development with the goal of establishing the first-ever national strategy for development. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken of the importance of elevating development as a pillar of American foreign policy and has directed Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, Director of Policy Planning Ann-Marie Slaughter and Acting Administrator Alonzo Fulgham to oversee the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR). Legislation calling for an overhaul of the Foreign Assistance Act now exists in both the House and the Senate. And the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Howard Berman (D-Calif.), has indicated his full support for and personal engagement in foreign aid reform by directing his staff to undertake a rewriting of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act. These actions demonstrate the Obama administration and Co n gress' commitment to and recognition of the importance of foreign development and humanitarian assistance.
InterAction is pleased with the progress on a number of specific foreign assistance issues. Agricultural development has been made a priority, with positive developments on both funding and strategic planning. The administration has taken the centrality of gender equality seriously and moved to ensure that it is integrated into foreign assistance programs. The administration has also worked to end conflicts in Sri Lanka, Burma, DRC and Sudan using bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. InterAction hopes to see continued progress on these and other issues. The administration, in its FY 2010 Budget Request, made clear that it would no longer rely on supplemental budget requests to fund the critical humanitarian budgets—an action long sought by the NGO community.
Progress in other areas has been more ambiguous. On the issue of climate change, the administration and Congress have appropriated more money for climate change adaptation. However, a global plan to deal with the impact of climate change on the world's poorest people is still lacking, undermining the effectiveness of those funds. Positive developments in conflict resolution in Sri Lanka and Sudan may be undercut by delays in providing humanitarian assistance to victims. Similarly, in Afghanistan, U.S. strategy is still too focused on security and, despite the administration's acknowledgment of the importance of development activities there, implementation has been slow. A top-down bureaucratic structure has diminished the role and voice of the USAID mission director in Afghanistan; Ambassador Karl Eikenberry has brought in five deputy ambassadors, one with the development portfolio as his priority, a further example of the subservient role to which development professionals have been relegated in critical U.S. foreign policy environments.
Overall we see the Obama administration's real commitment to raising development as a central tenet of U.S. foreign policy. What is lacking is capacity within the nation's premier development agency and there is a leadership vacuum. Both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have framed a clear vision for development and have launched policy efforts to develop an effective U.S. development strategy. Without new leadership at USAID, without an ongoing commitment to elevate development not just as a policy framework but as a capacity delivered through effective bureaucratic structures, and without a positive partnership with congressional leaders committed to aid reform, this powerful vision of the role development must play in U.S. foreign policy will falter. Early gains in these and other areas must not be followed by complacency. The administration and Congress must follow through on these issues. This report captures a moment in time and InterAction urges the administration to continue to take the steps that will positively transform the role of U.S. foreign assistance as we know it.
