Interesting op-ed today in the Huffington Post concerning the new Congress and its plans for USAID. As an excerpt, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FLA), the incoming Republican chairwoman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, made it clear that cuts are coming in foreign aid budgets. She adds, “We must shift our foreign aid focus from failed strategies rooted in an archaic post-WWII approach that, in some instances, perpetuates corrupt governments, to one that reflects current realities and challenges and empowers grassroots and civil society.”
I happen to agree with her, but obviously this sentiment won’t be shared by everyone, especially as concerns the future of USAID itself. This year alone, USAID is proposing to “focus” on the following: USAID Forward (all seven points); the eight Millennium Development Goals; the President’s Global Development Policy; Feed the Future; Global Health Initiative; Global Climate Change; Science and Technology; major realignments within the Agency, the new Office of Food Security, the Open Government policy; the recently released Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and Development Innovation Ventures.
This seems like a lot. I’m not skeptical of the idea of realigning USAID, only in the feasibility of it.
