Months ago, the ONE Campaign set Feb. 28 as the day for the ONE Power Summit, a day of advocacy in Washington, D.C. The group couldn’t have known at the time that just one day before its event, reports would surface that President Donald Trump was to propose a massive 37 percent reduction in foreign aid spending.
In some ways, the news became a rallying cry for the group of 200 advocates who had descended on the nation’s capital to meet with lawmakers — meetings that several lawmakers referenced as they spoke out against the proposed cuts this week.
“We’re feeling very good that we’ve created a sense of urgency around this and need to continue to rally support to block it,” said Tom Hart, the ONE Campaign’s North America executive director. The ONE Campaign will be looking to “point out as loudly and as often as we can” the disconnect between what the president is proposing as a security budget and making cuts to foreign aid or “soft power — counter to what our own defense leaders say,” he said.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
