Reinvigorating the American Development Toolkit

This report from the Robert M. Gates Global Policy Center (GGPC) provides a menu of recommendations for modernizing and revitalizing the U.S. development and economic growth toolkit. The Reinvigorating the American Development Toolkit Executive Summary 3 Reinvigorating the American Development Toolkit report draws heavily from two main sources. The first is the Second Gates Forum which was held in December 2023 and chaired by former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

The Forum convened leaders from across government, the private sector, and the academy to explore a central question: How might the U.S., today, reinvigorate our foreign assistance to better advance our various national interests? The second source for this GGPC report is a volume of research papers prepared in advance of the Forum by our partner, William & Mary’s Global Research Institute (GRI).

The volume— The Imperative to Reinvigorate U.S. Development Capabilities to Better Advance America’s National Interests—was directed by GRI’s Samantha Custer and AidData’s Policy Analysis Unit. That volume is highly recommended. This GGPC report is neither a consensus document reflecting the Forum discussions, nor does it summarize the far more extensive volume prepared by AidData. Instead, the report presents GGPC’s own recommendations for revitalizing U.S. development assistance.

Gates Forum 2 Report