For two decades, a bipartisan effort in both Congress and the Executive Branch to strengthen the accountability and effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance has led to significant progress in the areas of transparency, monitoring and evaluation, evidence-based programming, learning, and partnerships with local organizations.
What has been accomplished and what remains to done? Two new MFAN factsheets (one published jointly with the Center for Global Development, an MFAN member) explain important successes to date and detail ways in which policymakers and U.S. development agencies can continue to strengthen and build on aid effectiveness reforms.
The first factsheet, Why Aid Effectiveness Matters, summarizes bipartisan-led initiatives that resulted in important advances and increased the impact of U.S. aid. The enactment of the Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act (FAATA) in 2016, which requires all agencies implementing foreign assistance to publish timely and comprehensible data on a quarterly basis, and the creation of PEPFAR, the MCC, and the DFC summarize key items that remain on policymakers’ “to-do” list.
The second factsheet (co-authored with CGD) -- Ensuring U.S. Foreign Aid is Accountable: Recent Progress and Next Steps – delves more into what more USG agencies (especially USAID, DFC, and the State Department should do to (1) make aid transparent, (2) track its progress and measure its impact, and (3) prioritize and incentivize learning and evidence-based decision-making.
Particularly at a time when the demands on U.S. foreign assistance are high, it is vital that the principles of effective foreign assistance guide U.S. development policy and drive the system change needed to deliver better development results.
Learn more here.
