In my nearly 15 years working at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), I have seen a range of approaches to, and emphasis on, evaluation at the Agency. Now, from my perch as Director of USAID’s Office of Learning, Evaluation and Research, I am an eager consumer of reports, such as this recent … Continue reading What USAID is Doing to Learn from Evidence
As mandated by the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016 (FATAA; P.L. 114-191), last month the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidance to foreign aid agencies regarding the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of assistance programs. While we and the community remain deeply concerned about drastic budget cuts to … Continue reading Kudos to OMB for Strong Evaluation Guidelines, What’s Next for Implementation?
On February 12th, the Trump Administration released the President’s Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request recycling much of last year’s drastic and disproportionate cuts to the State Department and USAID. The proposed cuts of 30% threaten U.S. national security, weaken our global standing, and reverse bipartisan progress that has reformed our development policies and modernized our … Continue reading MFAN Community Rejects President’s Proposed FY19 Budget Cuts for State Department and USAID
Download a formatted version of the letter here. *** January 31, 2018 Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear General McMaster: We are writing as the Co-Chairs of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), a coalition of foreign policy … Continue reading MFAN Co-Chairs Letter to General McMaster on National Security Strategy
What are those who care about the role of U.S. foreign assistance in the world to make of the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy, recently released by the White House? On one level, this important document, mandated by Congress and generally viewed as an administration’s highest order statement of defense and foreign policy, can be … Continue reading Dots Unconnected: The Trump Administration National Security Strategy and American Foreign Assistance
As we begin 2018, the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are reportedly putting the finishing touches on their proposals for a major “redesign” of our foreign affairs institutions. Hopefully, the reorganization will equip State and USAID to respond to the seismic shifts agitating the international landscape, trends that simultaneously create opportunities … Continue reading Five Criteria for Redesign to Succeed in the Field
Last week our Foreign Aid Effectiveness team at The Lugar Center (TLC), in partnership with the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), released a new report on the role of evaluation and learning in U.S. foreign assistance programs. Why did we take on this project, why now, and what’s next? First, why this project? At TLC we are … Continue reading Are We Really Learning from Evaluations?
As 2017 draws to a close, the Trump Administration is reviewing redesign proposals submitted by the State Department and USAID, Congress is completing its Fiscal Year 2018 funding negotiations and beginning the FY2019 process, and the MFAN community is actively engaging to ensure aid effectiveness priorities are reflected in both processes. Last year, with the … Continue reading Year in Review: Reform Takes Center Stage
Since the Trump Administration announced its intentions to reorganize the federal government – including the State Department and USAID – MFAN has garnered broad support from the development community to ensure that the redesign effort enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of U.S. foreign assistance. In May, MFAN put forth five Guiding Principles for Effective U.S. … Continue reading Community Rallies Behind MFAN Effectiveness Principles
December 5, 2017 (WASHINGTON) – This statement is delivered on behalf of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) by Co-Chairs George Ingram, Tessie San Martin, and Connie Veillette. Today MFAN and The Lugar Center release a new study, From Evidence to Learning: Recommendations to Improve U.S. Foreign Assistance Evaluation, examining the evaluation policies and practices of the … Continue reading New Study from MFAN and TLC Finds Evaluation Quality on the Rise, But Barriers to Use Remain
