NEWS RELEASE

The ongoing transformation of U.S. foreign assistance over the last twenty years is still hampered by problems and is at risk of stalling. Some of these constraints are structural, others operational. We have created significant new tools and programs, but there has been insufficient thinking or learning about how these capabilities should relate to one another—and how they can best work together to move partner countries along their paths to self-reliance and to mutually beneficial growth. Additional constraints on U.S. assistance are due to a lack of focus or neglect in our highly partisan political environment at home. Meanwhile many of our best instruments—the 2004 Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) for example—are badly under-resourced and underutilized. The United States cannot afford to persist in this way, especially not in today’s contested development marketplace.

This second GGPC report is neither a distillation of the independent research effort nor is it a consensus document. Rather, it provides GGPC’s own recommendations and potential remedies for revitalizing U.S. development assistance capabilities. Some of the proposals could be implemented unilaterally by the president or secretary of state tomorrow. Others may require organizational enhancements or restructuring; all such proposals are meant to address issues which have hampered our redevelopment of a competitive global engagement capability. Several options require bipartisan action in Congress to implement and they should be a priority consideration on our national security and competitiveness agenda.