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Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog

The Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog complements CGD's Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance initiative. Both are for professionals interested in tracking US Foreign Assistance and its impact on developing countries.

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Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog

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Friend or Foe: Should the United States Cut Aid to Pakistan?

5/3/11
Nancy Birdsall

This is a joint post with Wren Elhai and Molly Kinder.

The news of Osama bin Laden’s death in a hideout in Pakistan raises fresh questions about the future of the U.S. development program in that country. That bin Laden was found in the army town of Abbottabad - the Pakistani equivalent of West Point -- has fueled suspicions that Pakistan’s leaders have been unhelpful at best and double dealing at worst. Some are asking: if Pakistan won’t help the United States, why should American taxpayers keep giving them so much foreign aid?

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Helping Pakistan Help Itself: Why America Should Open Its Markets (Not Just its Purse) to Pakistan

8/26/10
Kimberly Ann Elliott

This is a joint post with Molly Kinder.

The United States and the international community have finally begun to open their wallets and provide humanitarian aid to help Pakistan’s flood victims, but that is just the beginning. To help Pakistan rebuild and create jobs for the millions displaced, the United States could do far more by fully opening its market to Pakistani exports.

Last week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon , Secretary Clinton, and other world leaders beseeched the international community to do more to help Pakistan cope with its catastrophic floods. With donor contributions initially trickling in at anemic levels, newspaper headlines questioned why the world seemed not to care about Pakistan’s humanitarian disaster. Under pressure, donors at last responded and the relief effort seems to have finally found its legs. By early this week, donor commitments had nearly quadrupled to $800 million.

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Mangoes vs. Peanuts and More: What We Saw and Didn’t See in Hillary Clinton’s Trip to Pakistan

7/22/10
Wren Elhai

This is a joint post with Molly Kinder.

This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Pakistan was front-page news in every Pakistani newspaper (and most here in the United States as well). Clinton brought with her two main things: a long list of new aid projects worth half a billion dollars—see the box below for what was on the list—and a strong message to Pakistanis that the United States intends to stick it out for the long haul.

Before the trip, we thought this was the best chance Clinton would have to signal to the Pakistanis that the U.S. development program wasn’t the sort of fickle short-sighted engagement they’ve come to expect from the United States. (And we outlined an idea for how she should do that). The result: while Clinton’s visit fell short of being a real game-changer, it was a clear, though incremental, step forward.

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Beyond Gestures: A Trade Bill That Will Make a Real Difference in Pakistan

7/16/10
Molly Kinder

This is a joint post with Wren Elhai.

A frustrated David Ignatius chided Congress in yesterday’s Washington Post for its dithering in passing legislation that would create “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones” (ROZs) in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Ignatius calls the ROZ initiative a “modest boost for the good guys” and laments that it is caught up in a partisan food fight in the Senate. We share his frustration over the Senate’s inaction, but we are less optimistic about the bill’s potential impact. In the legislation’s current form (details below), ROZs would at best be a token gesture that would be well received in Pakistan; at worst, they risk having little (if any) economic impact and creating expectations that cannot be met. If Senators are serious about promoting U.S. national security interests through economic progress in Pakistan, they should be prepared to go to the mat for something that will actually make a difference. Expanded trade access for all Pakistani exports from all of Pakistan is the best way to ensure a meaningful economic boost to Pakistan’s “good guys.”

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