When US troops leave Afghanistan, will US aid dollars be withdrawn as well? The Obama administration says no. But House Republicans are beginning to push back, bolstered by damning testimony from the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the watchdog tasked with overseeing US aid to Afghanistan, arguing that American aid is being wasted on a corrupt regime.
What were the most popular Rethinking US Foreign Assistance blog posts in 2012? White House development initiatives get a lot of attention. Major evaluation and learning efforts do too (think: MCC). Budget battles and the more troubling aid stories in aid get a lot of interest, too.
Take a look at our top 10 list below. We look forward to bringing you more analysis and commentary from our CGD experts in 2013. Leave a comment and tell us what you’d like to see more (or less of) in 2013.
What happens in the world is America’s business, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) argued in a major foreign policy speech at Brookings this week in what sounded a lot like a vice-presidential candidate speech (even if we’re not calling it that just yet). Roll over dog-gate! Step aside mommy-gate! There might finally be some serious comments about the U.S.
As Congress returns to DC from its summer recess, it comes back to a long “to do” list. On the foreign policy front, one pressing item is what to do with our Pakistan assistance program. And from where things stand now, it looks like the funds appropriated for Pakistan this year under the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act (aka the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Bill) may be both reduced in volume and tied to security conditions.
Representative Howard Berman released draft legislation, the Global Partnerships Act, that would rewrite the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. As noted here earlier, the FAA has not been re-authorized by Congress since 1985. Berman, previously as chai
USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) saw this coming a long way off. Sifting through their archive of food security updates, there are myriad warnings of drought and an impending food security crisis. As early as August 2010, FEWS NET predicted “below-normal rains… due to a developing La Niña event” and an
Here as a blog post is a comment I made on Connie Veillette’s clever contest for renaming of GAFSP.