Global AIDS Alliance Welcomes Call for Foreign Aid Overhaul
In the House of Representatives, the Foreign Affairs Committee heard from top experts who called for a Cabinet-level Department of Global Development to replace the current fragmented and wasteful system in which assistance is spread across 20 federal agencies without effective coordination.
Last week prominent religious leaders in Pennsylvania sent a letter to the candidates for US President urging an end to such chaos and the establishment of a Department of Global Development.
The Global AIDS Alliance strongly supports the call for reform and the creation of such a department. "Our experience on HIV/AIDS has shown that, while effective aid can save millions of lives, the overall system of foreign aid is not well-coordinated and often the response to problems like AIDS is not holistic," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance.
"You wouldn't set up 20 different checking accounts to pay your household bills, but that's what we are doing in foreign aid; the time has come to put someone in charge of making foreign assistance work," said Zeitz. "We and our colleagues at a broad range of organizations, including many religious groups, are calling on the US to establish such an agency to streamline the bureaucracy and establish clear principles of accountability."
Members of Congress today also issued a clear call that reform is needed. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee stated: "It is painfully obvious to Congress, the Administration, foreign aid experts, and NGOs alike, that our foreign assistance program is fragmented and broken and in critical need of overhaul."
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who is the ranking member on the House Committee, stated: "A lack of coordination and blurred lines of authority among US government agencies has undermined the effectiveness of US foreign assistance programs."
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will consider proposals for reform at three more hearings during the coming months in preparation for rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act next year.
The Global AIDS Alliance hopes that Congress will follow the recommendation made at the hearing today, and in the minority report to the HELP Commission, to create a new Department of Global Development.
GAA and RESULTS have issued a set of five principles that this reform process must observe to be fully successful. These principles are online at http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/index.php/922.