RESULTS.org > Take Action > Global Monthly Action Archive > July 2008: Tell the candidates: include poverty-focused foreign aid reform in your campaign platform

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July 2008: Tell the candidates: include poverty-focused foreign aid reform in your campaign platform

I strongly believe that America’s foreign assistance program is not in need of some minor changes, but, rather, it needs to be reinvented and retooled in order to respond to the significant challenges our country and the world faces in the twenty-first century.

— Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Chair of House Committee on Foreign Affairs

In 2000, the U.S. joined every country in the world and pledged our commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a compact between the global North and South to realize a set of poverty reduction targets by 2015. The goals include halving severe poverty, expanding education for all children, empowering women, fighting major killer diseases, reducing maternal and child deaths, and protecting the environment. More than halfway to the 2015 deadline, too many poor countries are not on track to achieve these critical targets, and many rich countries have still not fulfilled their part of the bargain by putting in place the aid, trade, and debt policies necessary to help poor countries.

Unfortunately, eight years later, the U.S. still does not have a plan to achieve the MDGs, and U.S. foreign development assistance is too often not aligned with our commitment. U.S. foreign assistance is carried out by too many agencies with too many competing goals, making it less effective than it could be and weakening our ability to achieve the MDGs. U.S. foreign aid is currently executed by at least 12 departments, 25 agencies, and almost 60 government offices.[1]

January 2009 will bring a new U.S. president, new representatives and senators, and hopefully a new era in U.S. foreign assistance. This election season, you have the power to inform leaders about our global commitments to the poor and assist them in forming their poverty alleviation platforms. By scheduling meetings to discuss policy agendas, asking questions at town hall meetings, and urging local media to write about candidates’ global poverty promises, you can assure they create a poverty alleviation platform. Please take a first step by writing to candidates and asking them to publicly pledge their commitment to achieving the MDGs and poverty-focused foreign aid reform.

Take Action! Write a Letter to Candidates

Introduce yourself as a RESULTS volunteer and a constituent. If writing to an incumbent, acknowledge any actions that he/she has taken to support our work or other action on poverty. For challengers, thank him/her for any acknowledgment of our issues or other actions they have taken to help the poor, either domestically or globally.

Sample Letter

Dear ____________:

As a voter this fall, I am concerned we’re not fulfilling our promise to help the world’s poor. We pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, but we still do not have a plan of action. Our foreign aid program and policies are too often ineffective and inconsistent with our global promises, and fail to focus on real outcomes.

I am disappointed to learn that our critical aid is ineffectively spent (Insert one to two examples from the section below titled, “Examples of a Broken System”).

However, I am heartened to learn that so many of our leaders acknowledge these problems and are increasingly committed to restructuring our foreign assistance. As one of our leaders, will you include in your campaign platform a commitment to achieving foreign assistance reform that achieves the Millennium Development Goals and delivers real results for the poor? Will you publicize this commitment on your campaign website, include it in your policy platform paper, and make this commitment known when you speak? (Insert one to two examples from the section below, entitled, “Candidates Should Make a Commitment to Achieving the MDGs”)

I look forward to hearing back from you and to discussing how you will publicly commit to ensuring that U.S. foreign assistance for development is reformed to help achieve the MDGs.

Include your name and address. Fax or hand-deliver your letters to the local campaign office. (Regular mail is delayed for security screenings). For info on races, visit http://capwiz.com/results/e4/.

Why Is Foreign Aid Reform Needed? Why Are the Elections Important?

Unlike other U.S. foreign aid investments, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, U.S. foreign aid programs managed by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) often lack bold, measurable outcomes and are not guided by a coherent global development strategy. Restrictions on how U.S. assistance can be spent and failure to invest in cost-effective, local capacity-building programs undermine U.S. leverage and impact. Inadequate tracking and evaluation limit opportunities to build on success and learn from failure. And the amount and allocation of aid dollars does not reflect a clear priority to fight poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Substantively reforming U.S. foreign assistance programs will require the political commitment of a new presidential administration and bipartisan support in Congress. There is growing evidence that key leaders in Congress consider foreign aid reform to be a top legislative priority. Increased support is needed to ensure that the foreign aid cards are not just reshuffled, but that the reform process results in a fundamental transformation of foreign assistance so that it prioritizes helping the poorest people in the poorest countries by delivering measurable outcomes in health, education and economic opportunity in the lives of the poorest — those living on less than a dollar a day.

Examples of a Broken System

  • A 2007 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on U.S. education assistance administered by USAID points out that quality outcomes for education (i.e., if kids are learning) are not measured.[2]
  • A separate 2007 GAO report found that USAID supported a wide range of child and maternal health activities in 40 countries, but was unable to determine how much of its funding actually supported these activities.
  • Law requires USAID to deliver food aid by shipping U.S. commodities on U.S. ships instead of allowing for regional or local purchase of food; in some cases, USAID paid $87.95 a ton despite a rate as low as $21.95 on foreign ships.[3] A study found that this shipping requirement may add an additional 50–75 percent to delivery costs. [4]
  • USAID can’t purchase food overseas, which lowers costs and delivery time. U.S.-purchased food is on average 50 percent more expensive than locally purchased food and 33 percent more expensive than regionally purchased food.[5]

Candidates Should Make a Commitment to Achieving the MDGs

To ensure that our foreign assistance supports the U.S. commitment to reach the Millennium Development Goals and alleviate global poverty, elected officials and candidates should publicly commit to working to ensure that U.S. foreign aid is reformed and that there is a plan to effectively achieve the MDGs. This commitment should include:

  • Education for All: Commit to scaling up funding to help all children receive a quality education and ensure that U.S. assistance for education has measurable and accountable results.
  • Global Health: Commit to fully fund the Lantos-Hyde Global HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria Act of 2008, which will provide $50 billion* to fight these three diseases of poverty.
  • Microfinance: Ensure that USAID fully complies with the Microenterprise Results and Accountability Act of 2004, which directs that 50 percent of overall U.S. microenterprise funding benefit of very poor clients.
  • Ending poverty: Commit to reforming U.S. development assistance so it has a single, overarching goal: ending poverty and achieving the MDGs.
  • Effective spending for maximum results: Commit to creating aid programs and policies that are coordinated to achieve the greatest impact, including ending aid that is tied to the purchase of U.S. goods and services.
  • Demand results for the poor: Commit to reforming U.S. foreign assistance programs so that administering agencies are held accountable for achieving measurable improvements in the lives of those most in need.

Want more great ideas and tips on how to engage with the candidates? Download the RESULTS 2008 election packet (Word).

[1] http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/briefing_papers/smart-development/smart-development-may2008.pdf.

[2] United States, Government Accountability Office (GAO). Foreign Assistance: Enhanced Coordination and Better Methods to Assess the Results of U.S. International Assistance for Basic Education. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-523.

[3] http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/briefing_papers/smart-development/smart-development-may2008.pdf.

[4] The United States: Development Assistance Committee (DAC) Peer Review 2006, OECD.

[5] The Development Effectiveness of Food Aid: Does Tying Matter? OECD, 2005.

* As of press time, the Senate will pass its version (which currently contains $50 billion) in mid-July.