The U.S. Congress passed the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act and the Global Food Security Act of 2016 — both landmark bills for U.S. foreign aid. Meanwhile, world leaders head to the NATO Summit, the Group of 7 supports universal health coverage, and a gender data competition announces a winner in Côte d’Ivoire. This week in development news.
The U.S. Congress unanimously passed the long-sought Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act. About five years in the making, the legislation will require U.S. government agencies to closely monitor and evaluate all foreign aid programs based on their outcomes and improve transparency by publicly sharing the data about what’s working and what’s not, in large part through the foreignassistance.gov portal. This week Devex looked at the final version, what it took to get here and what it will mean.
The Global Food Security Act of 2016, which will guarantee two-year funding of U.S. foreign assistance for food security investments, also got a greenlight from Congress. The funding is mostly for Feed the Future, the Obama administration program that invests in woman-owned farms, small farms and agricultural education programs in Africa, Asia and Central America. The act will focus on empowering women through increased agricultural output, improve existing monitoring and evaluation and create country-specific resources.
About the author
Anne Paisley
Anne Paisley is a former senior manager of editorial planning and production at Devex, where she oversaw Devex’s newsletters, website, and editorial production team. Prior to joining Devex in 2015, Anne was the managing editor at the Center for American Progress. She has previously held positions at CNN, the U.S. Department of State, and Cambridge Associates. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and Asian studies from George Washington University, including a semester abroad at Peking University in Beijing.