Brookings: Topics - Agency for International Development

President Obama's Agenda Needs Greater Focus on Global Development

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Although the Obama administration faces serious challenges at home and abroad, Homi Kharas, Johannes Linn and Noam Unger call for greater attention to the world's poor. The experts provide recommendations on how the Obama administration can begin to improve America's critical role in global development.

Strengthening America's Global Development Partnerships

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As the Obama administration and Congress work to reform an outdated foreign assistance system, they have an opportunity to adapt official U.S. efforts to more effectively and efficiently support global development in partnership with businesses and civil society. Jane Nelson and Noam Unger recommend ways the U.S. government can better position itself within the 21st century global development ecosystem.

Civil-Military Relations, Fostering Development, and Expanding Civilian Capacity

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Critical stabilization and reconstruction missions abroad must not only be viewed through the lenses of short-term goals or military operations, but as a key step in supporting sustainable economic development. In a workshop report, Noam Unger and Frederick Barton explore ways to rebalance American statecraft by strengthening civilian stabilization and development capacity within the U.S. government.

Memo to the President: Redefine America's Global Development Cooperation

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

America cannot afford to retreat from the fight against global poverty in a world where remote challenges can rapidly metastasize into global threats. Instead the United States must demonstrate renewed leadership and showcase its national spirit by investing wisely through more effective global development cooperation.

Redefine America's Global Development Cooperation

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Event Information:

December 10, 2008, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM

The fight against global poverty has become a fight for global security. But after an awkward entrance into the 21st century, America must redefine its role in the world, including its relations with developing countries. Colin Bradford offered a public memo to the president-elect with recommendations how to modernize U.S. aid efforts and address the global development challenges of the new century effectively and with accountability.

Top 10 Global Economic Challenges Facing America's 44th President

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As President-Elect Obama prepares to lead the United States, what are the top global economic challenges facing the new president and his advisors and how should the new administration address them? A new report by Brookings global economic and development experts ranks the top 10 issues and details specific ideas for how to tackle the toughest challenges.

Accounting for Health Spending in Developing Countries

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Data on health system financing and spending, together with information on the disease prevalence and cost-effectiveness of interventions, constitute essential input into health policy and is particularly critical in developing countries. Brookings Nonresident Fellow Amanda Glassman, along with fellow health specialists Dorota A. Raciborska and Patricia Hernández, offers a history of health spending measurement, describes alternative sources of data, and recommends improving international collaboration and advocacy with the private sector for the way forward.

The 9/11 Development Imperative

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

On the seventh anniversary of September 11, Lael Brainard and Noam Unger examine how the global development agenda has changed and how the U.S. can take critical steps to lead on efforts to reduce global poverty.

Balancing Climate Change and Global Development

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

For years, global poverty eradication and climate change mitigation have been two prominent but separate struggles yet in order to solve both challenges, policymakers will need to consider linked issues across both fields and understand how solutions for one might affect the other. In a new paper for the 2008 Brookings Blum Roundtable, Lael Brainard and Nigel Purvis examine the issues facing climate change and global development and offer recommendations for how to address the urgency of both policy imperatives.

Reinvesting in Agriculture to Reduce Poverty

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As part of an Oxford-style debate hosted by The Economist, Homi Kharas provides further reasoning that there is “an upside for humanity in the rise of food prices.” Higher prices provide incentives for increased food production and opportunities for raised incomes among the poor, and international donor support for the developing world has been accelerated due to this global crisis.

Global Development 2.0 : Can Philanthropists, the Public, and the Poor Make Poverty History?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

An unprecedented explosion of development players heralds a new era of global action on poverty. Global Development 2.0 celebrates this transformative trend within international aid and offers lessons to ensure that this wave of generosity yields lasting and widespread improvements to the lives and prospects of the world’s poorest.

Measuring the Cost of Aid Volatility

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Aid volatility, caused by various reasons including shifts in the donor’s economic and political landscape, can negatively affect development growth. Homi Kharas measures the cost of aid volatility using a financial metric, which if used by policymakers, can create a better system of aid flows and effective development. At times, recipient countries can incur negative income shocks, and Kharas calculates that in recent years about 16 billion USD in development assistance has been lost to aid volatility.

U.S. Foreign Assistance: Reform to Lead in the 21st Century

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Lael Brainard and Noam Unger discuss how the global food crisis showcases America’s limited current capability to respond effectively to global development challenges, and argue that the U.S. must modernize its foreign aid system in order to effectively offer solutions to poverty and lead internationally.

U.S. Foreign Assistance: Advancing National Security, Interests, and Values

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As the world faces security threats from impoverished states, the global community searches for solutions to poverty. Lael Brainard offers Congress recommendations for modernizing the U.S. aid infrastructure.

Brookings Blum Roundtable 2007: Making Poverty History?

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The entry of passionate, media-savvy advocates, “megaphilanthropists,” social entrepreneurs and super-foundations has heightened awareness of the struggles facing the world’s poorest. Outpourings of financial resources, on-the-ground assistance, and a commitment to finding creative solutions to disease, hunger, and education hold out hopes for a new era in the quest for global development. The fourth annual Brookings Blum Roundtable, convened in August 2007, evaluated both the immense potential of these new players and the challenges they face in achieving sustained and effective solutions to poverty and fundamental insecurity.

Trends and Issues in Development Aid

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

By examining the trends in aid flows and the changing aid architecture, Homi Kharas, Brookings Visiting Fellow at the Wolfensohn Center for Development, discusses the shortfalls in the dissemination of billions of dollars in development assistance.

Executive Recommendations by the Brookings-CSIS Task Force for Transforming Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

With hard power assets stretched thin and confronting unprecedented global challenges of transnational threats, poverty, and pandemics, America must reform its weak aid infrastructure to leverage its soft power more effectively. Lael Brainard discusses how reform requires integrating the national security perspective of foreign assistance as a “soft power” tool intended to achieve diplomatic and strategic ends with that of a “development tool” allocated according to policy effectiveness and human needs.

Interagency Dialogue: The Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Interview with Carlos Pascual, Joint Force Quarterly (Summer 2006)

Security by Other Means : Foreign Assistance, Global Poverty, and American Leadership

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Drawing on expertise from the full range of agencies whose policies affect foreign aid, Security by Other Means examines foreign assistance across four categories reflecting the interests that aid furthers: security, economic, humanitarian, and polit