August 2012

Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity

U.S. Development Strategy in Pakistan Update

August 31, 2012 Dear Colleague, In this update we share our new report on the US development approach to Pakistan which offers an updated assessment of US civilian efforts authorized under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman (KLB) legislation. For the audio inclined, Danny Cutherell and I discuss the key findings in a new CGD podcast. Also in this update, new articles by CGD’s Pakistan team on how Pakistan can help US civilian efforts succeed and what the Pakistan experience can teach the United States when it comes to the Arab Spring. With the release of our new report, CGD’s current work on Pakistan draws to a close. I have taken on a new role as an associate in the South Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Danny Cutherell will be leaving CGD at the end of August and plans to return to Pakistan. Even so, my colleagues at CGD will continue to track US development efforts in Pakistan with great interest. Alexis Sowa, who recently joined CGD as a senior policy analyst, will be assisting Nancy with this and a variety of other activities. Please feel free to contact Alexis with any comments or feedback on CGD’s Pakistan initiative. While we will no longer be sending routine updates on CGD’s work on Pakistan, we have an active program of research and analysis on overall US support for development in our Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Initiative led by Sarah Jane Staats. If you don’t already receive the Rethink Updates I invite you to subscribe. Sincerely, Milan Vaishnav, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
New Pakistan Report
In July, CGD released More Money, More Problems: A 2012 Assessment of the US Approach to Development in Pakistan, which serves as both an update to last year’s report and a review of the three years of experience under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman (KLB) legislation. A handy report card summarizes progress made by the US government on each of the ten recommendations made in our 2011 report. The authors point out that although KLB has largely failed to live up to the goals set out for it in 2009, there is still hope. They identify three fixable problems that have plagued the program since its start, and offer five recommendations to get the program back on track.
Wonkcast on "More Money, More Problems"
In a recent Global Prosperity Wonkcast, Lawrence MacDonald interviews report co-authors Milan Vaishnav and Danny Cutherell about the unprecedented increase in US civilian assistance to Pakistan under KLB and what this has meant for both Pakistan and for the US development effort there. Image: Paul Bronstein / Getty Images
How Pakistan Can Help the US in Pakistan
Although the US government needs to make substantial changes to its civilian assistance strategy in order to be successful in Pakistan, the government in Islamabad is ultimately responsible for Pakistan’s development. In a recent op-ed in Dawn, Nancy Birdsall, Milan Vaishnav and Danny Cutherell explain what the government of Pakistan can do to help improve the effectiveness of the US development program. Image: NotMicroButSoft / flickr
KLB for the Arab Spring
Even as the US government copes with the problems of doing development well in Pakistan, it is planning a massive new civilian aid effort for the Arab Spring. In this Foreign Affairs article, Nancy Birdsall, Milan Vaishnav and Danny Cutherell explain how the US can avoid repeating the mistakes in the Arab World that have dogged its efforts in Pakistan. Image: Hossam el-Hamalawy / flickr