USGLC

As the World Bank’s Spring Meetings get underway, members of the Bank will consider a request to provide a capital increase for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to support financing for economic growth in middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries.

There is good news in Congress this week – Republicans and Democrats have come together, once again, to strengthen the impact of American food aid around the world with the introduction of a new bill by Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Chris Coons (D-DE) and Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).

After years of military battles and airstrikes, ISIS was finally defeated in Raqqa, but it left the city – once home to more than 200,000 people – in ruins. To prevent the threat of ISIS from returning, Raqqa must rebuild, starting with basic services and new homes for residents. “That’s where we come in,” USAID Administrator Mark Green said.

American economic investment and humanitarian aid produced considerable dividends by helping to build the foundation for the economic transformation of South Korea, which has since become America’s sixth largest trading partner. U.S. exports to South Korea have tripled since 1990 to $43 billion in 2015, more in one year than all development assistance the U.S. provided to Korea since the war.

America’s investment in development and diplomacy programs play a critical role in strengthening rule of law, and supporting reforms that create an enabling environment for private sector investment. For example, USAID’s investment of $30 million to help Vietnam improve its business regulatory environment helped increase U.S. goods exports from $460 million in 2001 to over $10 billion in 2016, more than 2000 percent increase. Simply put, America’s development and diplomacy programs – funded by the International Affairs Budget – are critical to America’s economic future.

America’s leadership in institutions like World Bank and IMF is critical to influencing the agenda on global economic growth and development— which, in turn, shapes opportunities for American businesses to invest around the world. At next week’s World Bank/IMF Spring Meeting, businesses and NGOs will join finance ministers and development leaders from around the world to address today’s global challenges and opportunities. What will America’s voice be, given recent proposed budget cuts?

Empowering women and girls has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to deliver development results. Studies show that if women had the same access to economic resources as men, agricultural productivity could increase by 20 to 30 percent and help lift 100 million additional people out of poverty. Moreover, child mortality can be cut by nearly 10 percent by providing one additional year of education for women of childbearing age.

President Trump’s budget calls on the State Department and development agencies “to advance the national security interests of the United States by building a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world.” To do this with fewer resources, the U.S. will need to expand and build on nearly 2,000 public-private partnerships like Power Africa and DREAMS that America has assembled over the last decade.

In a world of abundant food, how is it possible that 45 percent of childhood deaths are still linked to malnutrition? You might be surprised to learn that part of the solution, according to Bill Gates, is chickens, which last year he called the best solution to global poverty. As Gates points out, chickens present a major opportunity to increase household incomes and nutrition through greater meat and egg production. That is why Feed the Future, America’s initiative to combat global hunger and poverty, has teamed up with scientists at the University of California at Davis to increase poultry production by breeding healthy chickens that are heat and disease resistant.

While Congress debates additional resources to combat Zika this hot and steamy summer, over 900 entrepreneurs have been competing in a “Shark Tank”-like challenge for funding for new ideas to combat the virus. From an electric force field that repels mosquitoes to a mobile app that detects whether mosquitoes are carrying the virus, 21 ideas were selected to win over $15 million in grants through USAID’s Combating Zika and Future Threats Grand Challenge.