One month and four interagency meetings into the Presidential Study Directive (PSD-7) to review and provide strategic direction on U.S. global development policy, what do we know about what's going on?
- The What -- what is the substance, objectives, priorities and trade-offs of U.S. development policy?
- The Means and Tools -- what do we need to make U.S. development policy more effective?
- The How -- how to organize the U.S. government to achieve the stated objectives, both in terms of structural and non-structural (better coordination, sharing of information, comparative advantage vis-à-vis other actors, etc.)?
And we all know that this is an incredibly difficult task in need of objective, bold thinking. So, who better than you guys, who follow this and care deeply about enhancing U.S. leadership on global development?
Put yourselves in the shoes of the interagency members grappling with a couple of big questions and take a crack at providing some direction:
- How would you describe the global development policy agenda over the past decade? What should be the agenda for USG leadership in global development policy looking ahead ten years?
- Moving forward, what should be the objectives and priorities of USG development policy? What trade-offs need to be considered as we seek to focus our objectives and priorities? What should be the division of labor between the U.S., other donors, multilateral institutions, and the philanthropic and private sectors?
The White House just started its public outreach on the PSD and genuinely wants input. What do we want them to hear?