The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network says there is still one critical question regarding foreign aid reform that has yet to be addressed by U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.
“How will the U.S. foreign assistance system be modernized to institutionalize the importance of development, make U.S. assistance more responsive to local priorities, and deliver transformative results for the poor people we are trying to help?,” a statement by the reform coalition said.
MFAN lauded Obama’s announcement at the G-8 summit in Muskoka, Canada held June 25-26 on a new development policy that focuses on economic growth, innovation, partnership and accountability. The group urged the U.S. government to take three important steps to strengthen the aid reform process:
- Fill the posts of deputy administrators and assistant administrators at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- Put together the U.S.’ first-ever Global Development Strategy in the run-up to the Millennium Development Goals summit in September to deliver on Obama’s pledge to announce “a plan” on the U.S. contribution to eliminating extreme poverty by 2015.
- Announce that the Obama adminisration and Congress will collaborate to modernize foreign assistance, including rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
