October 30, 2024 (WASHINGTON) – Today, MFAN released its white paper -- Building on a Legacy of Progress: Opportunities to Reform U.S. Foreign Assistance -- to the presidential transition teams highlighting key principles, policy priorities, and recommendations for enhancing the impact of U.S. foreign assistance. These recommendations cover early actions a new administration should consider, including targeted actions towards the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and the Department of State.
The United States faces a multitude of challenges around the world -- from increasing aggression from authoritarian regimes like China, Russia, and Iran to climate change and unprecedented levels of displacement – and U.S. foreign assistance is a key instrument for addressing these challenges. However, while important modernization measures have been implemented in recent years under both Democrat and Republican administrations, the U.S. development toolkit is limited in its ability to sufficiently address these challenges. U.S. foreign assistance must be bolder, more innovative, and better structured to achieve multiple goals simultaneously and sustainability at scale.
The reform recommendations detailed in MFAN’s white paper fall broadly into four categories:
MFAN’s recommendations also affirm USAID’s role as the lead development agency within the U.S. Government. While the degree of progress and pace of reforms at the agency have been uneven, the paper cautions against proposals to transfer USAID’s authorities and programs to other agencies.
“Few areas of public policy offer a greater opportunity for reform and advancement than foreign assistance,” said Amb. Mark A. Green, President & CEO, the Wilson Center and a former USAID Administrator. “From stronger collaboration with private enterprise to the better use of emerging technologies for more effective assistance delivery, the possibilities are limitless. MFAN's white paper lays a solid framework to guide the next Administration in this work.”
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that foreign assistance modernization is more important than ever. As global challenges intensify, MFAN’s recommendations offer a clear pathway for the transition teams and policymakers to optimize the U.S. development toolkit.” said Ritu Sharma, MFAN Co-Chair and Vice President, US Programs & Policy, CARE.
“Given the complex global landscape and fiscal and political constraints in the U.S. and other donor nations, it’s vital that we make these programs even more strategic and impactful,” said Tod Preston, MFAN’s Executive Director. “This paper lays out an overarching blueprint for how to do that, and early next year we will issue a more detailed roadmap for the new Administration and Congress that will take office in January.”
Tomorrow morning, MFAN is co-hosting an event at the Center for Global Development that will discuss the opportunities for foreign assistance reform. Former USAID Administrators Gayle Smith (2015-2017) and Mark Green (2017-2020) will keynote, followed by a panel discussion featuring former senior U.S. development agency officials.
The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN) is a bipartisan reform coalition composed of international development and foreign policy practitioners, policy advocates, and experts from the U.S. and Global South. MFAN works to strengthen the effectiveness of U.S. development and humanitarian aid in order to build more resilient societies, promote democratic approaches to development, improve the lives and opportunities of the most vulnerable populations, and maximize the sustainable impact of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
