USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced an additional $50 million in immediate aid for Pakistan to assist with rebuilding communities impacted by the floods.  This brings the United States’ total contribution to $200 million, in addition to considerable in-kind and technical assistance. This includes $150 million to support immediate relief efforts in Pakistan, through the Pakistan [...]

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently called on Capitol Hill to recognize “the critical role that agencies like State and AID play” and provide the resources needed in the International Affairs Budget to restore the drop in civilian personnel.  Gates cited a drop  from 16,000 employees in the Cold War to the low levels seen [...]

With U.S. contributions to relief efforts assisting Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods totaling more than $150 million, observers are noting that humanitarian aid can have a positive impact on the image of the United States abroad. Other U.S. relief missions to disasters in the Muslim world – such as the 2005 earthquake in [...]

Secretary Clinton yesterday announced the creation of the Pakistan Relief Fund , a fund through which the public can offer donations to the ongoing relief efforts in response to the devastating floods there, a method that proved successful in raising money in Haiti earlier this year. Speaking at the UN Headquarters, Secretary Clinton announced a [...]

Former-USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios made waves with his recent essay arguing that existing regulations and efficiency measurements have created enormous hurdles for USAID’s ability to be effective.  Misguided attempts at oversight are “now so intrusive that they have distorted, misdirected, and disfigured USAID’s development practice to such a degree that it is compromising U.S. national [...]

Secretary Clinton discussed the Administration’s Global Health Initiative (GHI) yesterday at the School for Advanced International Studies, calling it a “new approach” and promising greater efficiency and results. Calling attention to the successes and shortcomings of U.S. global health investments in previous years, Secretary Clinton promised a new approach in the $63 billion GHI that [...]

“Woefully underfunded” was how Secretary of Defense Robert S. Gates described our U.S. civilian agencies at a speech at the Marines’ Memorial Association on Friday. The total number of foreign service officers at the State Department — approximately 6,000 — is not enough to provide the necessary manpower to crew a single aircraft carrier, he [...]

The U.S. continues to put its best foot forward assisting the Pakistani people in the wake of devastating floods, using its unparalleled international-development infrastructure to provide relief. The U.S. has increased its assistance to $76 million to the flood-affected populations. These funds are being provided to UN agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross [...]

USAID announced renewed humanitarian commitments to respond to the devastating floods in Pakistan yesterday. Mark Ward, the Acting Director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, detailed an additional $20 million in assistance, bringing the US contribution to date to $55 million. “It’s important to note that because this disaster is so vast and we’re [...]