The Foreign Policy Cable blog cited CGD president Nancy Birdsall's blog on U.S. development policy.
From the article:
""Eighteen months into the administration, the federal government remains abysmally organized to address Haiti, Pakistan and other development challenges," wrote Nancy Birdsall, the president of the Center for Global Development, on the organization's website Thursday. "When it comes to global development, I'd give President Obama and his top advisors an A for strategic vision and a big fat F for failure to get on with it."
In an open letter to Clinton, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, and National Economic Council chairman Larry Summers, Birdsall raised several issues that resonate with development advocates. She called the Millennium Challenge Corporation "pathetically underfunded," lamented that no one seems to know who's in charge of big initiatives on food security and global health, and complained that USAID still has vacancies for several senior staff positions.
Birdsall's calls for giving USAID total independence and cabinet-level status aren't likely to be final recommendations from either the White House or the State Department.
But her overall anxiety about USAID's status is widely shared in the development community. A team of top development leaders including former USAID administrator Brian Atwood wrote today to protest the cuts in the foreign aid budget that Congress is calling for.
"We are grateful for the emphasis the President has placed on development and foreign assistance -- a tradition he continues from President Bush. And we strongly support Secretary Clinton's call to make USAID ‘the premier development agency in the world,' they wrote. "But this goal will only be achieved when USAID's personnel capacity is rebuilt and its funding enhanced.""