Redesign Reactions: What’s Next for the State Department and USAID?

Since the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo on government reorganization in April, MFAN has helped foster a public conversation about how a redesign can and should enhance the effectiveness, accountability, and impact of our foreign assistance.

MFAN recently re-released Guiding Principles for Effective U.S. Assistance, which assert that any reorganization of foreign assistance agencies must adhere to a set of sounds reform principles, be guided by a global development strategy, and be conducted in partnership with Congress and the development community.  The Principles have support from over 170 organizations and prominent individuals.  They also served as the guideposts for the MFAN Co-Chairs’ Discussion Draft on aid architecture which was released in July.  The architecture proposal makes the case for a fully empowered and independent development agency and establishes clear lines of authority between the State Department, a new Global Development Agency, and a new Development Finance Corporation.

In order to deepen the discussion on reorganization, MFAN launched a blog series for community stakeholders to weigh in on the MFAN Co-Chairs’ Discussion Draft as well as other structure proposals put forth by various experts.  See below for insights from thought leaders around the community.

• Redesigning U.S. National Security Institutions – J. Brian Atwood, Senior Fellow for Pubic and International Affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute and a former USAID Administrator & Andrew Natsios, Director of the Scowcroft Institute and Professor at Texas A&M University’s George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service and a former USAID Administrator.
• Redesign Should Support an Independent USAID –  Peter McPherson, President of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and former USAID Administrator.
• Getting to the nitty gritty to make the most of foreign aid – James Kunder, MFAN Executive Committee member and former Acting Deputy Administrator of USAID
• Reinventing Our Institutions for the Future of Global Development – Ann Mei Chang, former Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of USAID’s Global Development Lab & Smita Singh, Founding Director of the Global Development Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
• Empowering aid: The real disruptive play for U.S. foreign policy – Tony Pipa, Senior Fellow with The Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program and former Chief Strategy Officer at USAID
• It’s Time to Simplify and Rationalize Aid – Michael Casella, former Director of USAID’s Office of Budget and Resource Management.
• Redesign Data: Dueling Dashboards – George Ingram, Chair of Friends of Publish What You Fund and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution & Sally Paxton, U.S. Representative of Publish What You Fund.
• Redesign Consensus: Advancing the Conversation on Effective US Assistance – Cindy Huang and Jeremy Konyndyk, Senior Policy Fellows at the Center for Global Development
• Five Criteria for Redesign to Succeed in the Field – Susan Reichle is the President and Chief Operating Officer of the International Youth Foundation and a former career USAID senior foreign service officer & Patrick Fine is the Chief Executive Officer of FHI360 and former Vice President for Compact Operations at the MCC and a USAID career senior foreign service officer.

MFAN has been encouraged by the considerable alignment among the different proposals on the broad strokes of reform: the need for an independent development agency; a global development strategy; and a long overdue update to our aid institution’s systems.  The MFAN Co-Chairs authored a blog outlining these 10 emerging priorities for reform.

Congress has also shown a keen interest in playing an active role on redesign, starting with requirements in the FY2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act that the Administration engage Congress in any reorganization process.  Most recently, provisions in both House and Senate FY2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations reassert Congress’ oversight role.

MFAN looks forward to continuing to work with the Administration, Congress, and the development community to ensure that any reorganization leads to more efficient, effective, accountable, and impactful U.S. foreign assistance.

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