Call for a New Department of Global Development
Poverty and lack of access to basic health and education services are key drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) is committed to increasing both the level of US foreign assistance and its effectiveness.
According to a recent Oxfam report, US foreign assistance is currently implemented by at least 12 departments, 25 agencies, and nearly 60 government offices. At the same time, the capacity of the US Agency for International Development has been progressively undermined over the last four decades.
In an effort to advance a more effective response to global poverty, GAA is playing a lead role in urging the presidential candidates and other US policymakers to support the creation of a new Cabinet-level Department of Global Development, which has been proposed by the HELP Commission Minority Report and endorsed by a number of foreign policy experts. Click here to join a Yahoo listserv for activists working to create a new US Department of Global Development.
GAA fact sheet on the proposed Department of Global Development.
GAA/RESULTS fact sheet on principles for American leadership on global development.
GAA endorsement of the HELP Commission Minority Report.
GAA's 501(c)(4) affiliate, the Global AIDS Alliance Fund, has also published a paper that calls for transforming America's development assistance system. Click here to read the GAA Fund paper.
There is broad recognition within the public policy community that US programs for economic and technical assistance to developing countries are fractured and uncoordinated. Moreover, the increasing subordination of USAID and US foreign assistance to the State Department prevents an effective focus on poverty elimination and the long-term development of poor countries.
A new independent, Cabinet-level Department of Global Development would centralize the foreign assistance and poverty-focused activities now scattered throughout the US government, and help ensure that development aid is prioritized at the highest levels of government. Perhaps most important, Cabinet-level status would facilitate more effective and efficient distribution of scarce development dollars, as well as the implementation of development strategies with clear performance outcomes linked to country-driven approaches.
Ultimately, an independent Department of Global Development would strengthen America's capacity to respond to the serious global challenges posed by extreme poverty, disease, and lack of education, as well as by humanitarian emergencies, instability, and other development challenges.
Click here for a November 2007 report from the Republican staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommending reform in setting priorities and improved coordination of US foreign assistance, including greater focus on fighting endemic poverty.
GAA's efforts to promote a Department of Global Development are being advanced in partnership with prominent civil-society organizations and think tanks, including RESULTS, Oxfam, Interaction, and the Center for American Progress. In addition, GAA is playing a lead role in reaching out to faith-based organizations and other groups working on the nexus of HIV/AIDS and poverty, as well as key grassroots and grasstops advocates. Click the following links to download a series of high-profile reports on the need to reform US foreign assistance:
Smart Development: Why US Foreign Aid Demands Major Reform (Oxfam)
US Foreign Assistance: Reinventing Aid for the 21st Century (Brookings Institution)
Modernizing Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century: An Agenda for the Next US President (Center for Global Development)
Real Aid: An Agenda for Making Aid Work (ActionAid)
Click below to read a recent letter from prominent Pennsylvania religious leaders to the current Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, urging the creation of a new Department of Global Development to elevate the importance of the US response to global poverty and better coordinate US programs:
Letter to Senator Hillary ClintonLetter to Senator John McCain
Letter to Senator Barack Obama