Fighting corruption with aid dollars
“His stomach lurched as he realized that tinny, tiny sound was coming from his own midriff. He could barely believe it. The recorder he had taped to his stomach, its wire lead and microphone stuck to...
View Article“If you could grow the grain in Somalia, people wouldn’t be starving.”
Sometimes a quote says more, much more, than the person saying it intended. Today an article in POLITICO looks into how potential reforms to international food aid programs in the US farm bill could...
View ArticleI fight corruption, and I support procurement reform.
Livingstone Sewanyana. Source: http://www.fhri.or.ug My name is Livingstone Sewanyana, and I am a human rights lawyer and Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) in...
View Article“A shoe company exec, a human rights activist, and an aid nerd walk into a...
Sounds like the start of a really lame joke, right? In fact, it’s a clue to the breadth of the coalition that wants the US to invest more aid dollars directly in the success of local governments,...
View ArticleSo, what was that Busan thing, anyway? And what do I need to know about it?
Aid is a vital tool in the fight against global poverty. But too often, aid delivers less than it promises. If you follow the debate over development aid, you’ve probably heard that there was a big...
View ArticleCutting aid that fights poverty? You must be quackers!
With the 2012 election over, the lame-duck Congress is diving back into its unfinished business. First on their to-do list: funding the federal government for next year, including America’s efforts to...
View Article(Mis)behaviour: Donor Policies and Gender Equality
Guest Post by Rosa Musa of the African Women’s Development & Communications Network (FEMNET) Rose Musa of FEMNET was a civil society representative from Kenya at the 4th High Level Forum on Aid...
View ArticleBusan Outcomes One Year Later: 2 Commitments and 3 Challenges
Guest post by Lidia Fromm Cea, Viceminister for Social Policies, Honduras Ministry of Social Development Lidia Fromm Cea of the Honduras Ministry of Social Development was a government representative...
View ArticleNever mind the waste… here are the benefits of food aid monetization
Rice distributed and sold in Liberia. Photo: Ruby Wright/Oxfam International With Farm Bill negotiations simmering on the back burner and an all-consuming Congressional focus on dealing with the fiscal...
View ArticleJust a rumor or overdue reform?
Politico yesterday reported a rumor that US food aid programs could see major changes in the next budget. The article frames this move as putting aid “on the chopping block,” but it is not at all clear...
View ArticleUSAID Progress on USAID Forward?
Tariq Sayed Ahmad is a Researcher with the Aid Effectiveness Team at Oxfam America. On Wednesday Raj Shah will release USAID’s internal progress report on its “USAID Forward” reform agenda. The report...
View ArticleLost in time? Rep. Connolly offers up direction for aid back to the 21st century
Right before recess last week, Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) re-introduced the Global Partnerships Act (H.R. 1793), the first major rewrite of foreign assistance legislation in decades. The bill is...
View ArticleHave DC changes in US government development aid policies affected practice...
This is a cross-post from the Gates Foundation’s Impatient Optimists blog. Aid does not cause development; people do. I’m talking about the local leaders who can access and actually use that aid...
View ArticleDid US foreign aid just get 9% more transparent?
Aid transparency should be the lowest hanging fruit on the aid reform tree. Donors know how much money they are investing, and where; why not just disclose that info? And yet, within the US...
View ArticleGiving cash to people: Why the attention now?
Cash transfers are nothing new, though there’s a lot of hub-bub about them this week in the popular media. One researcher and blogger publishes a paper and, voilà, the next development trend is born!...
View ArticleUS development assistance to local institutions: The beginning of the end of...
How do we turn platitudes of supporting locally-led efforts into a reality? Semkae Kilonzo is the Coordinator of the Policy Forum, a network in of over 100 civil society organizations working to make...
View ArticleTime to get it right: Humanitarian and development aid to Afghanistan
Erin Blankenship is a conflict, security and development specialist who has spent almost four years living and working in Afghanistan for a number of local and international aid and research...
View ArticleAre international aid donors avoiding accountability for their Busan promises?
Nicola McIvor is the aid and inequality policy advisor at Oxfam Great Britian. We’re still waiting for answers to this question. Yesterday the findings of the global aid effectiveness monitoring...
View Article7 things you may not know about US foreign assistance
Few Americans would disagree that the aim of US foreign assistance to developing countries must be to help people help themselves. But did you know…? 1) Foreign assistance is a bargain. For the last...
View ArticleWith US support, Malawi is leading the way on reducing maternal mortality
Dorothy Ngoma is the Principal Secretary and National Coordinator of Malawi’s Presidential Initiative for Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood. Dorothy Ngoma, a former civil society leader and health...
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