OneWorld.net (U.S.)

WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (OneWorld) - The international aid community kept up the pressure on President-elect Barack Obama this week, sending a letter to his Transition Team suggesting measures that should be taken to make foreign assistance a top priority.

Aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. © Action Against Hunger-USAWell before the election, the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), comprised of leading U.S. development think tanks and aid agencies, developed a plan for reforming foreign aid, to be presented to a new president.

Now, acknowledging that the domestic economy must occupy center-stage, MFAN Chairman Steve Radelet, of the Center for Global Development, is urging Obama to take at least three steps in that direction as he fleshes out his staff and policy.

First, MFAN urged the president-elect to appoint a secretary of state who agrees that modernizing U.S. foreign assistance policies and practices is a "top foreign policy priority."

Second, the group reiterated its call for a foreign aid czar who holds responsibility for all major aid programs, including parallel initiatives such as the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

In an article in the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, three former administrators of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) charge that special programs such as PEPFAR and the MCC developed under the Bush administration, each under separate leadership, contributed to undermining USAID's ability to coordinate global foreign assistance programs.

Brian Atwood, Peter McPherson, and Andrew Natsios, who, together, led USAID for 16 years, also argue that the agency has become under-staffed and under-funded over the past 20 years, and responsibility for dispensing aid is spread too wide among too many agencies.

They are convinced that: "The next president should revive [USAID] by either making it autonomous or elevating it to a cabinet-level department." MFAN has also urged creation of a cabinet-level post to oversee development.

The third step suggested in this week's letter calls for a Deputy National Security and Economic Advisor who would be responsible for coordinating foreign aid and development policy, ensuring a more coherent approach. 

These three steps, says MFAN, should be taken in tandem, at the outset of the new administration, to signal that development will be a "key pillar of U.S. foreign policy."

The three former USAID administrators were among more than two-dozen leaders of the U.S. development aid community who signed the letter to Obama's Transition Team outlining the three recommendations.

The MFAN agenda got an unexpected boost recently when both President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, speaking at a late-October White House Summit on International Development, urged policymakers of both parties not to let the domestic economic crisis result in reneging on foreign aid commitments.

"During times of economic crisis, some may be tempted to turn inward -- focusing on our problems here at home, while ignoring our interests around the world. This would be a serious mistake," warned Bush.

Rice agreed, arguing: "What we cannot do -- what we must not do -- is to allow our generosity and our concern for others to fall victim to today's crisis."

Another call for sustaining development aid was heard from Rice's predecessor, General Colin Powell, who said last month on "Meet the Press" that increasing U.S. aid to developing countries helps eliminate poverty and bolster U.S. national security.

"We need to increase the amount of resources we put into our development programs to help the rest of the world. Because when you help the poorest in the world, you start to move them up an economic and social ladder, and they're not going to be moving toward violence or terrorism of the kind that we worry about," Powell stated.

A broad consensus has clearly emerged around the need for a more comprehensive approach to foreign aid and putting development on a par with democracy and defense as the three cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy.

Many in Washington, and overseas, are awaiting the response of President-elect Obama and his Transition Team to these recommendations.

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