Winning Hearts and Minds in Pakistan, One Humanitarian Relief Worker at a Time
10/18/10
Author’s photo of the earthquake-affected region of Kashmir, November 2005
This post also appeared in the Guardian's Development Network blog.
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Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Blog
Pakistan Aid Facts
8/26/10
This is a joint post with Molly Kinder.
As Pakistan struggles to cope with the worst flooding in the country’s history, international donors have contributed upwards of $800 million to humanitarian relief efforts. (See here for the UK’s Guardian newspaper’s ongoing tracking of individual donor pledges to Pakistan’s floods.) The full cost of rebuilding Pakistan’s flooded regions is still being calculated, and will no doubt be staggering. The Asian Development Bank has already pledged $2 billion to the recovery and reconstruction efforts and the World Bank another $900 million. Most other international donors have yet to announce their contributions to the mammoth rebuilding effort that is to come.
As background, this post lays out how much the United States and other international bilateral and multilateral donors were already giving to Pakistan, before the floods. These aid figures were compiled earlier this year, and do not take into consideration any reprogramming or redirection of funds towards flood relief and recovery. As donors adjust their assistance plans, we will continue to track the numbers, and will update our “Aid to Pakistan by the Numbers” page. Check back for more! You’ll find raw data for all of the charts in this post here.
A Long-Term Fix for Pakistan’s Energy Woes
5/28/10
This is a joint post with Wren Elhai.
It is little wonder the Obama Administration has prioritized Pakistan’s energy sector in its $1.5 billion aid program this year. Pakistan is gripped by a very serious energy crisis. Daily black-outs in major Pakistan cities sometimes exceed 12 hours. Businesses are suffering, jobs have disappeared, and quality of life has plummeted. Frustrated Pakistanis are taking to the streets, and the political turmoil threatens to further destabilize the country and weaken the (already fragile) central government. Pakistani citizens and policymakers have turned to the United States for help. The United States sees an opportunity both to improve its public image, shore up a friendly government, and remove a key bottleneck to economic growth. Ultimately, fixing the Pakistani energy sector would go a long way towards stabilizing a critical state and benefiting U.S. national security interests.
However, the ever-present danger in jumping into a crisis situation with wallet in hand is that the desire to make progress quickly can overshadow the need to fix the longer-term problems that caused this crisis and, if not dealt with, will cause others in the future.
Smart Development Through Local Leadership: MCC's Approach to Country Ownership
2/21/09
A standing room only event hosted Wednesday by Oxfam America explored a new working paper and issue brief from the MCC, outlining their approach to country ownership. Although often touted as the ideal for international development aid, “country ownership” is often not well defined, nor do guidelines exist for best practice. The MCC has settled on the following definition:
MCC and ERRs: Turning a Triple on Transparency into a Home Run
5/13/08
This is a joint blog posting by Sheila Herrling and Amy Crone.
Mongolia Compact to Tackle Some Interesting and Innovative Projects
9/28/07
Earlier this month (Sept. 12), the MCC Board of Directors approved a compact with Mongolia. The compact, coming in at $285 million, is the fourth largest compact per capita since Mongolia--while territorially quite large--is the least densely populated country in the world.
Senate Good to Foreign Aid; Not So Good to Millennium Challenge Account
9/10/07
On September 6, the Senate, by a margin of 81 to 12, approved a $34.2 billion FY08 State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations bil. While the Senate and House bill provide the same overall funding level -- $3 billion above the FY07 CR level and 2 percent or $700 million less than the Administration's request -- there are specific acccount funding and policy differences that need to be negotiated by a conference committee.
A Window of Opportunity in the Kyrgyz Republic?
8/21/07
*This is a joint posting by Sarah Rose and Sheila Herrling
Initially opposed to the selection of the Kyrgyz Republic as a Threshold eligible country in FY2006, the timing now appears right for the $16 million Threshold program the Board approved for the Central Asian republic on August 9.
The Kyrgyz Republic, when it was selected as Threshold eligible in FY2006, had failed every Ruling Justly indicator for three years in a row (with passable performance on Investing in People and Economic Freedom). At that rate, designing a targeted Threshold program to actually get the Kyrgyz Republic over the hurdle to eligibility would have been difficult, considering the range of interventions necessary to address all the indicators in question; thus it should never have been selected.