White House releases long-planned global development strategy

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration released a new global development strategy this week which aims to “codify” the approach the White House has taken over the last four years. Biden took office in January 2021. With just over six weeks until a U.S. election that will decide who succeeds Biden as president, experts told Devex the strategy is less an action plan than an appeal for continuity, while one senior official called it an “opportunity missed.” In 20 pages, the Biden administration breaks down its approach to development into five pillars: sustainable economic growth and infrastructure; health, food security, and human capital; decarbonizing the economy and climate resilience; democracy, human rights, and governance; and humanitarian assistance. To achieve these five objectives, the strategy calls for a number of approaches — from pushing inclusive partnerships to expand locally led solutions to leveraging private sector tools, expertise, and financing to engaging in multilateral fora to push collective action. It also points to some of the Biden administration's key development accomplishments, such as the recently-launched Nairobi-Washington Vision to help countries in debt distress, and contributions to historic replenishments of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Over the past few years, the administration has released other strategies — such as the 2023 Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security — but this is the only one that focuses on global development more broadly. The release of the strategy marks the first update in nearly 15 years, after a whole-of-government approach to development was first outlined under former President Barack Obama in 2010. “Investing in development and building a stronger global system that is integral to the security and the prosperity of the American people, this strategy will be absolutely essential in guiding these efforts,” said Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, at the strategy’s launch event Wednesday night. Power added that the strategy includes some of the Biden administration’s answers to big questions about the future of global development, which are also “at the heart of the changes that we have been trying to make at USAID over the last several years.” Tom Hart, president and CEO of the NGO network InterAction, told Devex the document is “a reflection of the Administration's success in advancing US development priorities,” which also highlights “development as a crucial national security tool.” “Given its timing, it's less an action plan and more a hope for continued and expanded efforts by the next Administration, recognizing development as a long-term objective,” Hart said. The Biden administration initially had a more ambitious plan to update the U.S. government’s strategic approach to development, but it fell victim to “micromanagement” by the White House National Security Council, according to a senior USAID official, who spoke to Devex anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the press. “I think there was a clear opportunity missed here,” the senior official added, noting that the pillars outlined in the document have been in place since the beginning of Biden’s administration, while a strategy could have better tied them together. “If you had that out earlier, I think you really could have used it to elevate these ideas and make it seem less like they are a ‘pet rock’ issue of someone who’s working for the administrator,” the senior official said. Others are encouraged by the strategy. Liz Schrayer, the president of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, told Devex that anytime an administration elevates global development as a “strategic, economic and moral imperative,” that’s a good thing. “At a moment of converging threats from America’s rivals on the global stage, I’m hopeful that whoever occupies the White House come next year will continue to prioritize development as a central pillar to our national security,” said Schrayer in an emailed statement.