As a coalition of U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that work on the ground in every developing country, InterAction has long advocated greater coherence and coordination of U.S. international humanitarian and development programs [1]. With more than 25 federal agencies or departments currently administering foreign assistance, the need to address the fragmentation that undermines aid effectiveness is more important than ever. InterAction calls for development to be elevated alongside the two other pillars of U.S. foreign policy—defense and diplomacy. Not only is this “three D” approach correct, it is necessary at a time when our nation seeks stronger engagement with the world beyond its borders.
Modernizing the Cold War-era legislative and institutional structures that have guided U.S. foreign assistance for the past 50 years is long overdue, and increasingly the subject of conversations between Congress, the Obama administration and the U.S. relief and development community. InterAction’s foreign assistance reform agenda has been gaining momentum. At its core are greater resources for relief and development beyond the current 1 percent of the federal budget; creating a National Strategy for Global Development to ensure those scarce resources are put to good use; an elevated structure for coordinating the patchwork of official development assistance; and a rewrite of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
Links:
[1] http://www.interaction.org/document/principles-effective-development-assistance