A Note on Aid Reform: A New Year Agenda as the Government Returns to Work

By: Larry Nowels
January 28, 2019

Happy New Year everyone, I’m excited to write you for the first time as MFAN’s interim Executive Director. After 30+ years at the Congressional Research Service and a decade consulting for various MFAN members, I’m eager to work directly on MFAN’s aid reform issues. As you may know, MFAN has been going through some changes, … Continue reading A Note on Aid Reform: A New Year Agenda as the Government Returns to Work

Budget Instability and Development Effectiveness

By: MFAN
December 13, 2018

The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network advocates for more effective and accountable U.S. foreign assistance that will deliver greater results for people in need and U.S. taxpayers. A chaotic budget environment beleaguered with cuts, delays, and rescissions does not enable effective aid nor efficient use of American taxpayer dollars. To shed light on the issues with this … Continue reading Budget Instability and Development Effectiveness

A Year in Review, A Decade of Reform

By: George Ingram, MFAN Co-Chair
December 7, 2018

Dear Colleagues, On Tuesday, Tessie and I (Les was in far-off places) had the pleasure of joining leaders from the aid community, MCC, USAID, and OPIC to honor ten dedicated members of Congress on Capitol Hill. It was a pleasure to be joined by former MFAN Co-Chair and current Honorary Co-Chair, former Representative Jim Kolbe, … Continue reading A Year in Review, A Decade of Reform

Champions of Aid Reform: A Decade of Aid Effectiveness and the Future of U.S. Assistance

By: MFAN
December 7, 2018

As MFAN celebrates 10 years of aid reforms, we thank our congressional allies, our administration partners, and the MFAN community for articulating the value of foreign assistance and advancing reforms to achieve even greater impact. On December 4, 2018 we had the pleasure of joining leaders from the aid community, MCC, USAID, and OPIC to honor … Continue reading Champions of Aid Reform: A Decade of Aid Effectiveness and the Future of U.S. Assistance

Setting the Gold Standard for Transparency: The Opportunity for the New U.S. Development Finance Agency

By: Sally Paxton, Publish What You Fund & George Ingram, The Brookings Institution
December 6, 2018

In a rare example of agreement from Capitol Hill to the White House to the development community, the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act (BUILD Act), P.L. 115-254, was signed into law on October 5, 2018. This legislation creates the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The new agency not only combines the … Continue reading Setting the Gold Standard for Transparency: The Opportunity for the New U.S. Development Finance Agency

Transparency of the Future: A High-Quality, Highly Usable U.S. Foreign Aid Dashboard

By: Aria Grabowski, Policy Advisor at Oxfam America
November 27, 2018

Transparency and access to data is an important part of aid effectiveness. Aside from providing people with the right to access information, the aim of aid transparency is threefold: to better coordinate aid, enable more accountability, and allow for in-country actors to know what is happening in their own communities, thus giving them more ownership … Continue reading Transparency of the Future: A High-Quality, Highly Usable U.S. Foreign Aid Dashboard

Implementing the BUILD Act: Four Areas for Focus

By: Stephanie Cappa via Devex
November 15, 2018

Read MFAN Deputy Director & Senior Policy Advisor Stephanie Cappa’s op-ed on implementing the BUILD Act and planning the U.S. Development Finance Corporation on Devex.    

USAID’s Proposed Transformation: Highlights & Questions

By: MFAN
November 5, 2018

The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) welcomes the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Transformation proposal to strengthen the Agency’s ability to deliver on its development and humanitarian mission. The Agency’s proposal meets four out of five of MFAN’s widely endorsed structural requirements for an effective aid agency. USAID: 1) remains an independent lead aid agency; … Continue reading USAID’s Proposed Transformation: Highlights & Questions

Major overhaul sets up U.S. aid agency to be more effective, efficient and accountable

By: George Ingram, Lester Munson, Tessie San Martin
October 9, 2018

In 2017, the Trump administration instructed all federal agencies to review their operations and propose opportunities for efficiency gains. As part of this effort, the administration published its reorganization proposal  for a number of agencies and functions. While the U.S. foreign assistance community has seen its share of unique surprises over the last 20 months, … Continue reading Major overhaul sets up U.S. aid agency to be more effective, efficient and accountable