Public Policy & Advocacy Briefs/Reports
This week's Weekly Update includes analysis of the House budget resolution, a notification of a Sudan resolution, a list of upcoming hearings, a list of articles of interest, and summaries of hearings on U.S. policy in Iraq, the USAID FY2013 budget request and U.S. contributions to the UN budget.
This week's update includes:An analysis of the Sudan Peace, Security, and Accountability Act of 2012 in the House;A list of upcoming hearings;Summaries of Senate hearings on Sudan and South Sudan, and on the USAID FY2013 budget request; andA list of recommended articles from this week.
G8 leaders meeting at Camp David in May must take bold steps to encourage good governance and transparency and remove impediments for economic growth which further impoverish the world’s most vulnerable populations. This policy paper, compiled by a G8/G20 Task Force consisting of more than 40 non-governmental organizations, offers recommendations on core areas from food security and maternal health to HIV/AIDS and accountability efforts. Task force members represent NGOs, think tanks and trade unions, all with the same goal of fighting poverty and making governments more accountable and transparent. The current financial crisis has affected G8 members’ commitments to developing nations. The United States should play a leading role in encouraging the G8 to take the following steps:Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition The U.S. should lead the G8 in ensuring they:1. Pledge not less than $30 billion for food security, agriculture and nutrition over the three-year period 2013-2015.2. Prioritize support for investments in agriculture and food security that benefit women small-scale farmers; employ climate resilient techniques; use sustainable approaches; integrate linkages to nutrition outcomes; and address chronic malnutrition from pregnancy to age two.3. Abide by the Rome Principles for Sustainable Global Food Security and align financing with recognized country investment plans as the default option where such plans are available.4. Ensure robust financing for multilateral mechanisms to improve sustainable agricultural productivity, rural economic development and nutrition.Maternal, Newborn and Child HealthThe U.S. needs to:1. Honour maternal, newborn and child health commitments to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.2. Strategically integrate services to maximize health outcomes and leverage financial resources.3. Invest in frontline health workers through training and support for an additional 250,000 new frontline health workers.4. Invest in nutrition for pregnant women, newborn babies and children.HIV/AIDSTo spur much-needed actions by the G8, the U.S. should:1. Reaffirm U.S. commitments to support 6 million people on HIV/AIDS treatment (including 1.5 million HIV-positive women); prevent 12 million new infections; provide care for 12 million people by the end of 2013.2. Fulfill the United States’ three-year, $4 billion pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for 2011 through 2013. U.S. leadership is needed to encourage other G8 countries to fulfill their pledges and to recruit new donors to put the Global Fund back on track.3. Assert U.S. leadership on global efforts to eliminate new pediatric HIV infection by 2015.4. Press for language in the Camp David communiqué that commits G8 members to prioritize investments that strengthen health systems and integrate HIV/AIDS into broader health and development strategies to ensure sustained progress.5. Help facilitate the development and introduction of new preventive, diagnostic, and treatment technologies.Accountability1. Direct the Accountability Working Group (AWG) to receive input from other international organizations, recipient governments and a broad spectrum of civil society to inform their reporting.2. Ensure the AWG publicly releases the terms of reference for each G8 expert group, and the names and affiliation of all experts when they are selected. Meeting schedules for such groups and a detailed agenda should be publicly available at least 20 days before each meeting.3. Direct the AWG to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all G8 commitments in order to devise performance indicators consistent with the Muskoka Accountability Report’s criteria for commitments.4. Make public the AWG annual report 30 days before the Camp David summit and release a schedule of future reports, with provisional topics, through 2015. Institute the same advance release and report schedule publication rules for all future years.
G20 leaders meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico in June must take bold steps to encourage good governance and transparency and remove impediments for economic growth which further impoverish the world’s most vulnerable populations. This policy paper, compiled by a G8/G20 Task Force consisting of more than 40 non-governmental organizations, offers recommendations on core areas from food security and climate change to anti-corruption efforts. Task force members represent NGOs, think tanks and trade unions, all with the same goal of fighting poverty and making governments more accountable and transparent. The current financial crisis has affected G20 members’ commitments to developing nations. The United States should play a leading role in encouraging the G20 to take the following steps:Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition1. Scale up investment in social protection and safety net programs to blunt shocks from food crises and prioritize investments that improve nutrition and reach small-scale producers.2. Integrate civil society partnerships with a gender analysis and resilience to climate change into food security plans.3. Abandon biofuel mandates and subsidies in order to help reduce food price volatility.4. Adopt rules that would, like the Dodd-Frank legislation, institute position limits and requirements for transparency on commodity speculation, especially those labeled “over the counter.”5. Support efforts to create a comprehensive code of conduct for food reserves to determine the viability and potential benefits of strategic buffer food reserves in countries vulnerable to food price volatility.Anti-Corruption1. Implement and enforce laws criminalizing foreign bribery and prohibiting off-book accounts by the end of 2012.2. Strengthen “no safe haven” and asset recovery policies and deny non-cooperative jurisdictions access to G20 financial systems.3. Take practical steps towards establishing transparent, accountable public financial management systems, including for budget and procurement, by the end of 2012.Climate Change1. Support limiting the increase of global average temperatures to as far as possible below 2 degrees C, and ensuring that by 2050 emissions are at least 80 percent below 1990 levels.2. Call for the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and the IMO (International Maritime Organization) to develop revenue-raising, market-based mechanisms (emissions trading systems or levies) for the international maritime and aviation sectors by the end of 2013, with revenues used for international climate finance; and supports ensuring "no net incidence" (i.e., burden) on developing countries’ economies.3. Commit G20 members to concrete steps to create and implement a global financial transaction tax that would help fund a number of global priorities, including climate change and poverty alleviation programs in the Global South.4. Agree to develop implementation action plans with clear timelines and transparent reporting on implementation of their commitments to reform fossil fuel subsidies.5. Revise the G20 criteria for selecting regional projects proposed by the High Level Panel on Infrastructure to emphasize environmental and social sustainability as threshold criteria.Financial InclusionThe U.S. should lead the G20 in ensuring that the Financial Stability Board and the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion target the following priorities in their work:1. Promote collaboration among a diverse group of stakeholders when creating national financial inclusion strategies.2. Ensure national financial inclusion targets set by policymakers include a full range of financial services and involve marginalized groups.3. Promote a focus on addressing client needs within financial inclusion policies.4. Establish comprehensive national identification documentation and credit bureaus that can provide coverage for all citizens. 5. Support and incorporate lessons from the microfinance industry’s efforts on client protection.Accountability1. Establish a permanent G20 Accountability Framework. To enhance credibility and ensure effectiveness the framework must be rigorous, transparent and inclusive.2. Publicize the terms of reference, names and affiliation of all members of Expert and Working Groups six months prior to each Summit, release meeting notices in advance, and list G20 commitments and outcomes under review.3. Require all G20 Working Groups to seek input from international organizations, governments and civil society on a regular basis.4. Ensure reporting evaluates results against consistent and specific indicators with timetables and recommendations for future action.
Summaries of five different hearings on Capitol Hill this week, an analysis of two hearings by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah on the agency's FY2013 budget priorities, a list of upcoming hearings for next week, and a selection of articles of interest.
Weekly Public Policy Update for Feb. 27-March 1. Includes a list of upcoming hearings for next week, summaries of two hearings on U.S. forieng policy priorities and two hearings on the FY2013 State, Foreign Operations budget request from this week, and a list of articles of interest.
With the completion of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, an estimated 1.5 million Iraqis remain displaced within their own country and continue to face serious challenges in restarting their lives. The overall security situation remains unstable, with several violent attacks in recent months. Most Iraqis fear they cannot return to their homes: different ethnic or religious groups or sects dominate their former neighborhoods; people who fled have lost their businesses; jobs are in short supply; and savings have evaporated. Displaced Iraqis often have limited or no access to basic governmental services and no reliable source of income. Their children face discrimination when registering for schools. Widows and other vulnerable women face discrimination and greater risk of exploitation and abuse. Internally displaced Iraqis living in squatter settlements are among the poorest and most vulnerable.Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees remain in legal limbo in the region. This uncertainty impacts refugees’ health and mental health, increasing instances of depression and anxiety, substance use, violence, and behavioral problems among children. Out of school, children risk exploitation and losing years of education. The violence in Syria places Iraqis in an even more precarious situation, making it increasingly dangerous to leave home to access services or work.
InterAction's Weekly Public Policy Update, covering Feb. 21-24, 2012. The update includes a list of upcoming hearings for next week in both the House and Senate, a summary of a hearing from last week on the situation for NGOs in Egypt, and a list of recommended articles that have come out this week.
Offers account-by-account details of proposed U.S. government FY2014 foreign assistance funding numbers as well as InterAction recommendations for funding levels.Note: last updated July 26, 2013
Offers account-by-account details of proposed U.S. government FY2014 foreign assistance funding numbers as well as InterAction recommendations for funding levels.Note: last updated July 26, 2013
