Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog

Many thanks for the work of our Poets-in-Residence: Casey Dunning and Julie Walz. If you'd like to revisit last year's poem, 'Twas the Night Before the QDDR, click here. Wishing everyone happy holidays from the Rethink team – Connie, Casey, and Will.

Every Wonk

Down in Wonk-ville

Liked Reform a lot…

But the Budget

Who lived just South of Wonk-ville

Did NOT!

The Budget hated Reform! The whole Reform season!

Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

It could be that foreign aid wasn’t working quite right.

It could be, perhaps, that money was too tight.

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that the U.S. economy was two sizes too small.

But,

Whatever the reason,

Money or how aid performs,

He stood there on Shutdown Eve, hating Reforms.

“And they’re making aid requests!” he snarled with a sneer.

“Reforms are coming! They’re practically here!”

Then he growled with his riders surely forthcoming

“I MUST find a way to keep Reform from coming!”

For, soon, he knew…

This is a joint post with Owen McCarthy.

Last Thursday, December 15, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) board of directors convened for its annual meeting to select eligible countries for FY2012 MCC assistance. As a result (and largely in line with MCA Monitor predictions), the board selected Benin and El Salvador to develop second compacts, and selected Honduras and Nepal to develop threshold programs. In addition, the board reselected Georgia, Ghana, and Zambia to continue compact development and approved Cape Verde’s second compact.

Second Compacts for Benin and El Salvador

Benin and El Salvador are FY2012’s newly compact eligible countries and will now begin developing second compacts. Both countries are notable for having passed the new indicators system while failing the old system (due to only passing one indicator in the Investing in People category). Under the new system, El Salvador passes 14 indicators and Benin passes 11 indicators.

This is a joint post with Will McKitterick.

When the second edition of the Quality of Official Development Aid (QuODA) index was released, I blogged on the poor score for the United States and had suggested that signing onto IATI – the International Aid Transparency Initiative – was one easy way to improve its grade.

With the development community back from Busan, it’s time to break down what went right and wrong at last week’s meetings. The consensus seems to be that the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4) in Busan was a mixed bag – some promises, few commitments, little progress (see here for a good breakdown of the meetings from Nancy Birdsall).