Conor M. Savoy – författare

A key challenge in twenty-first-century geopolitics is finding ways for China and the United States to cooperate internationally and avoid conflict. Finding areas of common development interests and building trust will be difficult, but not impossible. International development as a source of cooperation may not be a priority for Beijing and Washington, but it does represent an area that requires a low level of investment and could yield beneficial gains for both countries.

The CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development convened a working group of development implementers, former and current policymakers, and other practitioners to discuss the evolving role of U.S. development under the new USAID Forward agenda and how to achieve aid effectiveness. The working group met three times to discuss local capacity building; results, accountability, and transparency; and development effectiveness. These meetings, combined with extensive interviews, led to the conclusion that the current U.S. ecosystem of international development assistance should be treated as a strategic asset that plays an important role in meeting U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives. This system, while imperfect, delivers a level of accountability and transparency for the U.S. government that is vital to continued political support for foreign assistance. Significant risks are associated with USAID’s proposed reforms, which, if fully implemented, may not achieve the results desired. This report’s recommendations are designed to help development implementers do more to meet the changing nature of how the U.S. government sees development and the broader trends in the field.

There is real promise for developing economies in the mobilization of their own domestic resources. For example, in 2010, tax revenue on the Africa continent was eight times larger than the foreign assistance received. And as aid levels from wealthy nations continue to be uncertain, countries have an impetus to finance their own development in order to deliver responsible, transparent public services—all of which require a strong tax base from the formal sector. The Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, launched in 2011 at Busan, relies heavily on this principle of domestic resource mobilization as a means of country ownership. How we leverage the expertise of donor governments in partnership with local governments in implementing this agenda is key to its success.