| Posted August 25, 2008
Development Assistance & Foreign Aid | Health, HIV/AIDS & Infectious Diseases | Humanitarian Assistance
New Day, New Way: U.S. Foreign Assistance for the 21st Century
Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), July 15, 2008, 15p
"U.S. foreign assistance -- the rationale behind it, the amount we give, its orientation and organization -- has changed dramatically in the last decade. These changes have challenged its efficacy but have also created new opportunities to modernize U.S. foreign assistance. The importance of supporting development and reducing poverty abroad are understood now as never before to be both moral imperatives and prerequisites for sustained U.S. national security. [...] America’s foreign assistance system is badly outdated, poorly organized, and generally ill-equipped to meet today’s global challenges. This consensus document identifies the challenges and opportunities confronting U.S. foreign assistance and offers recommendations on how best to seize them."
MFAN is a network of global development experts from think tanks, humanitarian and development organizations, and advocacy groups. Fulltext H1/04-08
A Call for a Strategic U.S. Approach to the Global Food Crisis
Morrison, J. Stephen; Nesseth Tuttle, Johanna
Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2008, 14p
"In May 2008, in response to the growing global food crisis, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) launched a task force to assess the rising humanitarian, security, developmental, and market impacts of rising food costs and shortages. Its co chairs, Senators Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) and Robert P. Casey (D-PA) charged the task force with identifying, by late July 2008, a feasible but bold plan of action that the Bush administration, the presidential campaigns, Congress, and the next administration could embrace on a bipartisan basis. The result, outlined in the following report, is an argument for modernizing and doubling emergency assistance, elevating rural development and agricultural productivity to be new foreign policy priorities, revising the U.S. approach to biofuels so that fuel and food security objectives are effectively de-conflicted, acting on an urgent basis to conclude the Doha Development Round, and creating a strategic U.S. approach to global food security that interlinks approaches to relief, development, energy, and trade and that is backed by new robust organizational capacities."
J. Stephen Morrison joined CSIS in early 2000. He directs the CSIS Africa Program, the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS (begun in 2001), and most recently codirected a CSIS Task Force on nontraditional security assistance. Johanna Nesseth is vice president for strategic planning at CSIS. Fulltext H2/04-08
Rising Food Prices – An Upside?
Kharas, Homi; von Braun, Joachim
The Economist, August 8, 2008, online edition
"The Economist challenges its readers by proposing an Oxford-style debate on the global food crisis. Through a series of three statements—an opening, rebuttal, and closing—the proponent and opponent of the debate have the opportunity to argue their position and react to not only each others but also the readers’ comments and opinions."
Homi Kharas, Senior Fellow at the Wolfensohn Center for Development, supports the proposition and makes his case against the opposition, Dr. Joachim von Braun, Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute. The debate opened on July 29, 2008 and was moderated by John Parker, The Economist’s Globalization Correspondent. Fulltext H3/04-08
Surveying the Civilian Reform Landscape
Cohen, Craig; Unger, Noam
The Stanley Foundation, Center for a New American Security, July 2008, 10p
"This article examines recent efforts and calls to modernize U.S. civilian international affairs agencies. As the paper surveys recent studies and their various proposals, ranging from the elevation of effective development as an instrument of U.S. global engagement to greater investments in public diplomacy and stabilization and reconstruction, it explores the underlying smart power consensus often invoked to promote national security, foreign assistance reform and truly transformational diplomacy. This paper was written for a 2008 project of the Stanley Foundation and the Center for a New American Security called "What an Engagement Strategy Entails: Is the United States Government Equipped?"
Craig Cohen is Associate Vice President for Research and Programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Noam Unger is Senior Manager of the Foreign Aid Reform Project at The Brookings Institution. Fulltext H4/04-08
Creating Value for All: Strategies for Doing Business with the Poor
United Nations, Development Programme, Web posted July 5, 2008
This report "showcases 50 studies by researchers predominantly from developing countries. These case studies demonstrate the successful pursuit of both revenues and social impact by local and international small- and medium-sized companies, as well as multinational corporations. [...] The report highlights five strategies used successfully to overcome the most common obstacles to doing business with the poor," as well as two new tools: a strategy matrix to help find potential solutions to common constraints and heat maps that identify opportunities by depicting access to water, credit, electricity or telephone service in a specific geographical area using color codes. More inclusive business models recognize the poor not only as consumers, but also as drivers of growth. Fulltext H5/04-08
The New Colonialists
Cohen, Michael A., Figueroa Kupcu, Maria, Khanna, Parag
Foreign Policy, July/August 2008, #167, pp74-79
"Only a motley group of aid agencies, international charities, and philanthropists stands between some of the world's most dysfunctional states and collapse. But for all the good these organizations do, their largesses often erodes governments' ability to stand up on their own. The result: a vicious cycle of dependence and too many voices calling the shots."
Michael A. Cohen, Maria Figueroa Kupcu, Parag Khanna are senior research fellows at the New America Foundation. Fulltext H6/04-08
Global Crisis: New World Order
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96
This compilation of articles discusse environmental stresses, economic inequality, population booms and disappearing resources that may be the defining crises of this century "NEW World Order."
A User's Guide to the Century
Sachs, Jeffrey D.
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96, pp8-15
"The 'NEW world order' of the twenty-first century holds the promise of shared prosperity ... and also the risk of global conflict. This is the paradox of our time. The scale of human society -- in population, level of economic production and resource use, and global reach of production networks -- gives rise to enormous hopes and equally momentous challenges. Old models of statecraft and economics won’t suffice." According to Jeffrey Sachs, our world is characterized by rapid technology, extensive environmental threats and considerable inequalities of income and power which makes equalizing economic growth and also global instability and conflict possible.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Mo' Money, Mo' Problems
Altman, Daniel
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96, pp16-25
"Rising prices in commodities markets have caused alarm, protests and even violence in places as diverse as Egypt and the Philippines. Even in wealthy nations, higher prices for fuel, foods and raw materials are squeezing consumers and businesses." This article discusses the commodity markets' rising prices which were caused by higher demand from the world's emerging economies and from mature markets growth. The author explores inflation and its causes and offers solutions to fighting global inflation which include expanding the world's crops, improving farming techniques, and the subsidization of farmers by wealthy countries.
Daniel Altman is a columnist for the Herald Tribune.
Feeding Frenzy
Blas, Javier
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96, pp21-25
"The cozy notion that our food problems are over is under assault after prices, measured by the FAO's index, jumped almost 60 percent in the last year. Staples such as wheat, corn, soybeans and rice, for decades considered abundant, are today scarce and much-more expensive. Although it is unlikely that the ongoing food crisis will trigger full-scale wars, it is clear rising food prices have become a threat to global stability, shaking several poor countries' governments and disrupting international trade." This article discusses the threat of global food shortages and further food price increases and their potential to cause political turmoil.
Javier Blas is a commodities correspondent for the Financial Times.
Pandemic Pandemonium
Ruxin, Josh N.
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96, pp26-32
"The World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control, and, for that matter, the Gates Foundation and other donors, are concentrating their efforts on vaccines and, in the case of the WHO, antiviral stockpiles for a possible outbreak of avian flu. [...] throughout the developing world silent killers like heart disease and diabetes are taking hold. Had SARS hit anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, where ventilators and surgical masks are a rare commodity, death rates would have been higher than in Asia." The author believes that rich nations should strengthen the health systems for the poor because new diseases and the resurgence of old ones are likely to emerge where people are sickest or have inconsistent treatment.
Josh N. Ruxin is an assistant clinical professor of public health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. He resides in Rwanda where he directs the Access Project and the Millennium Villages Project Rwanda, and advises Rwanda Community Works.
Battle of the (Youth) Bulge
Howe, Neil; Jackson, Richard
National Interest, July/August 2008, #96, pp33-41
"While most experts conclude that the geopolitical implications of aging in the developed world will be negative, a growing school of thought says that the same trend in the developing world will be positive--so positive, in fact, that it will make up for the developed world's growing weakness. It won't matter if the developed countries can't fight a war, because demographic trends will render the rest of the world increasingly pacific." This article presents the authors' views on the relationship between youth population and global violent conflict. The authors argue that "[t]he demographic-peace thesis fails to take into account the huge variation in the timing and pace of the demographic transition, which is leaving some of the developing world's poorest and least-stable countries with large and lingering youth bulges, even as it threatens to subject some of the most successful countries to the stresses of premature aging."
Neil Howe is a senior associate and Richard Jackson is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Fulltext articles H7/04-08
Seizing the Opportunity on AIDS and Health Systems
Oomman, Nandini; Bernstein, Michael; Rosenzweig, Steven
Center for Global Development (CGD), August 4, 2008, 72p
"While a vigorous debate continues over whether donors should be devoting such large amounts of money to AIDS as they now are -- compared with their spending on other global health priorities --
it is clear that the global response to HIV/AIDS constitutes a historic marshalling of resources for health. Never has so much international aid been dedicated to global health, let alone to a specific disease. [...] This report finds that the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank’s Multi-Country AIDS Program for Africa have helped establish AIDS-specific systems and processes distinct from those of other health programs. At the same time, these AIDS-specific processes use many of the same resources as a country’s broader health system."
This is an analysis from the Center for Global Development's HIV/AIDS Monitor team. Nandini Oomman is a Senior Program Associate and Director of the HIV/AIDS Monitor at the CGD. Fulltext H8/04-08
Exploring the Links Between HIV/AIDS, Social Capital, and Development
David, Antonio C.; Li, Carmen A.
World Bank, Finance and Private Sector Development Unit, Africa Region, Policy Research Working Paper 4679, Web posted July 23, 2008, 31p
"The study quantifies the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on social capital with cross-country data. Using data from the World Values Survey, the authors estimate reduced-form regressions of prevalence, institutional quality, social distance, and economic indicators, which are the main determinants of social capital controlling for HIV. The results indicate that HIV prevalence affects social capital negatively. Moving from a country with a relatively low level of HIV prevalence, such as Estonia, to a country with a relatively high level, such as Uganda, there is a more than 11 percent point decline in social capital."
Antonio C. David is a research fellow at the International Bank for reconstruction and development (IBRD), World Bank Group. Carmen A LI works for the Research Alliance for Development (RAD). Fulltext H9/04-08
Special Report: Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, July 2008
"The United States is only one of many countries playing an important role in stem cell research. In the last decade, several European and Asian countries have become leading centers for the study of stem cells and their possible therapeutic uses. These countries, along with countries from other regions of the world, have greatly expanded the scope of stem cell research, creating an array of scientific advances and medical applications." This report examines stem cell research around the world and discusses points of view in matters of bioethics. Fulltext H10/04-08
Saving the World
Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2008, v32, #3
"Never has the humanitarian impulse been stronger. From Darfur to Myanmar, every crisis elicits global compassion and offers of assistance. But while today’s many eager helping hands are accomplishing a great deal, they must move with care, for even the most high-minded aid can sometimes do a lot of harm."
- Humanitarian Dilemmas
Zachary, G. Pascal
Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2008, v32, #3, pp44-51
The article discusses the history and evolution of humanitarian aid efforts,
focusing particularly on Sub-Saharan Africa and relates how peacekeeping
forces and humanitarian aid actually are believed to increase the civil wars and
genocide which began in Somalia and Rwanda in the 1990s. An important aspect for the author is the fact that many
situations in Africa have shown that governments and refugees realize that an
end of war means an end to humanitarian aid and benefits.
Pascal G. Zachary is a former foreign correspondent for The Wall Street
Journal and a consultant on African issues to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Call It Slavery
Miller, John R.
Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2008, v32, #3, pp44-51
This article focuses on twenty-first century slavery and discusses both local and international efforts to abolish slavery. Women and children are the largest group to be enslaved and they are generally sent outside their own countries where they are unfamiliar with the local language and customs. The author discusses his encounters with former slaves he met while working for the U.S. State Department and organized crime's role in modern slavery. Finally, the author argues that in the 21st century modern day slavery needs new champions.
John R. Miller, a public policy scholar at the Wilson Center, was the U.S. ambassador at large on modern day slavery (2004-06). He is a fellow of the Women and Public Policy Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute in Seattle.
- The New Face of Global Giving
Yeager, Holly
Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2008, v32, #3, pp57-59
"Today, with private money overtaking public funding and a host of fledgling
organizations defining their roles, a new generation is becoming convinced,
rightly or wrongly, of its ability to affect the lives of others. These groups
have reached a critical mass, prompting them to look anew at how they do
business and interact with government, multilateral organizations, and those
they serve."
This article reports on the consolidation of private international charity and
financial assistance and suggests there will be an emphasis on accountability as international
humanitarian work becomes more professional. To discuss the effectiveness of private
charitable investment, the example of the battle against
malaria in Africa is presented.
Holly Yeager is a Washington journalist and writes about polities and public policy.
She was previously a correspondent for The Financial Times. Fulltext H11/04-08
Child Soldiers: Are More Aggressive Efforts Needed to Protect Children?
Felton, John
CQ Global Researcher, July 2008, v2, #7, pp183-211
"Since the mid-1990s, the world has watched in horror as hundreds of thousands of children and young teenagers have participated in nearly 50 wars, mostly in Africa and Asia. Children as young as 5 or 6 have served in combat, and thousands of abducted young girls were forced into sexual slavery. U.N. treaties prohibit the use of child soldiers, and the Security Council "names and shames" persistent violators. But only four former guerrilla commanders have been convicted by international tribunals, and some human-rights advocates urge more aggressive prosecution of perpetrators. However, some peace negotiators say threats of prosecution can obstruct cease-fire negotiations and prolong the fighting. In the U.S., where children under 18 serve in the military in non-combat roles, Congress is considering laws to combat the use of child soldiers overseas."
John Felton is a freelance journalist who has written about international affairs and U.S. foreign policy for nearly 30 years. Order article H12/04-08
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