How Sudan’s Crippling Debt Could Cause a Budget Problem for President Trump
With last week’s decision by the Trump Administration to extend the review period for permanent removal of long-standing sanctions on Sudan, the debate over the nature of future US engagement with...
View ArticleMCC Has a Corruption Problem
Of all the governance criteria MCC assesses, none is as singularly important as corruption, which, historically, has weeded out more countries for eligibility than any other individual factor. It is,...
View ArticleAttention Trump Administration: Five Important Questions for Redesigning US...
The very same week that USAID and the Department of State submitted a joint redesign plan to the Office of Management and Budget, the coauthors of four recent reform proposals packed the CGD stage for...
View ArticleA Focus on Evidence at USAID
The upcoming USAID-led Evidence Day on September 28 at the Ronald Reagan Building (part of Global Innovation Week) provides a perfect opportunity for Administrator Green to spell out his plans to...
View ArticleCongress Wants to Take a Closer Look at Multilateral Institutions
In Congress, support for aid is often bipartisan, and the seriousness and quality of thinking about aid reform is often very high. Case in point on both fronts is new legislation introduced by US...
View ArticleChina May Be Paving the Way for America’s Exit
One form of soft power is concrete enough. That is, it’s literally concrete. And by a measure of bricks and mortar, it’s clear that the United States is rapidly losing the soft power game to China. In...
View ArticleRedesign Consensus: Advancing the Conversation on Effective US Assistance
The four main recommendations of the Redesign Consensus: A Plan for US Assistance are to empower USAID as the lead independent aid agency, to create a full-fledged development finance institution, to...
View ArticleHow to Tackle the Refugee Reform Dilemma
Speculation about the future of the State Department’s Population, Refugees, and Migration bureau has swirled following the Trump administration’s moves to curtail refugee admissions, and a proposal to...
View ArticleUS Backs Away from Its Commitment to Extractive Industry Transparency
The US Department of the Interior announced last week that the United States would no longer seek to comply with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international...
View ArticleUS Aid for Domestic Revenue Mobilization: What, Where, and How Much
Domestic revenue mobilization (DRM) seems set to be a priority area for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) under Administrator Mark Green. The challenge has been in tracking US (and...
View ArticleThe Future of the Philippines and MCC
Next month, the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s board of directors will meet to select the set of countries that will be eligible for the agency’s large-scale grant programs. One of the decisions on...
View ArticleGAFSP’s Last Gasp? Don’t Count on It
Earlier this month the US Treasury’s top international official announced at a congressional hearing that he would like to see the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) “wound down.”...
View ArticleWhat to Watch for from MCC’s Upcoming Country Eligibility Round—And My...
Every December, MCC’s board of directors meets to select the set of countries eligible for MCC’s compact or threshold programs. And each year, before the board meeting, CGD’s US Development Policy...
View ArticleHow Does Development Fare in Trump’s National Security Strategy?
This week, the White House unveiled the first National Security Strategy of the Trump administration. As always, we were eager to see how the strategy considered the role of development. While there’s...
View ArticleHow Can USAID Work Itself Out of a Job? Ideas for Smart Strategic Transitions
In recent months, USAID has been working diligently to craft its approach to “strategic transitions,” framing the principles it will follow, the benchmarks that will help inform transition decisions,...
View ArticleA Step Closer to Regional Compact Authority for MCC
This week, MCC edged one step closer to securing new authorities that would better position the agency to undertake regional programming. Similar provisions were included in fully five bills in the...
View ArticleEfficiency and Effectiveness: The Legacy of MCC’s Investment in Honduras
One of the biggest questions donors grapple with is how to balance implementing specific projects with building local capacity to execute similar programming in the future. Indeed, this question is...
View ArticleWhy It’s Important to Get the United States Back to the Pledging Table at IFAD
As donors gather next week in Rome to pledge funds to the International Fund for Agriculture Development , they may be wondering where the United States is. Given the generally high marks this...
View ArticleIs the New Budget Deal Good for Foreign Aid? Maybe. Is it Good for Developing...
Foreign aid advocates might be tempted to take heart from the budget deal just struck on Capitol Hill. But the overall shift in the US fiscal position, driven primarily by last year's tax cuts and...
View ArticleThe Incredible Shrinking US Multilateralism
In 1944, the United States created a blueprint for economic statecraft that relied heavily on a new class of multilateral institutions to pursue US interests in the world. The blueprint itself is now...
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