Where they stand: Democrats and Republicans on global development

In just under 90 days, Americans will head to the polls to elect a new president. While the contest thus far has been one of the most unpredictable in recent memory, Democrat Hillary Clinton currently holds a sizable lead over Republican Donald Trump in the opinion polls.

The winner of November’s election will succeed Barack Obama after his eight years in office and inherit what most analysts consider to be an impressive, if mixed, development legacy. Feed the Future, USAID Forward and Power Africa are widely viewed as game-changing development initiatives of the Obama administration, even as its efforts to streamline the U.S. global health regime and reform the way the U.S. delivers food aid seem to have fallen short.

How might either a Clinton or Trump administration take the ball forward on global development? Devex examined the official Democratic and Republican party platforms to find out. As might be expected, our analysis of the platforms reveals glaring differences in official party positions on the direction of the U.S. global development agenda (see graphic at the end of this article).