It’s long past time to reimagine and reshape the U.S. approach to global development and build a new model fit for the 21st century. International systems largely built in the aftermath of World War II cannot keep up with the many interconnected challenges we face.
We need a new global development system for the 21st century.
While the U.S. should continue to meet humanitarian, human rights and democracy needs, the vast majority of the rest of the U.S.’s longer-term development assistance should flow through new models.
Specifically, a new approach would transform way the U.S. invests globally to make sustainable and inclusive economic growth, direct investment in local communities, and innovation, not aid, the basis of our relationship with hundreds of nations and communities around the world.
Read a one-page fact sheet about what a Global Innovation and Prosperity Act could accomplish.
Read an illustrative bill text and summary.
Read this statement from Senators Coons and Ricketts regarding their plans to introduce new legislation to "transform" U.S. development.
Prioritize sustainable economic growth
The U.S. should make investments in sustainable and inclusive economic growth and mutually-beneficial trade, not aid, the basis of our relationship with hundreds of nations around the world, seeding new industries and opportunities we cannot yet imagine. A growing body of evidence shows that investing along these lines does more to boost human and social development outcomes than one-off aid projects.
Leverage innovation to solve the world's hardest problems
The U.S. should be a natural partner for any country that wants to leverage innovation and grow strategic sectors to advance their development priorities. For example, the U.S. could regularly sponsor competitions akin to Operation Warp Speed to incentivize industry investments to solve challenges where markets won’t otherwise act and scale up proven technologies and other innovations that solve the world’s hardest problems.
Use models that promote sustainability and country and community ownership
The U.S. should change how it invests globally, too, moving rapidly away from fly-in, fly-out, project-based models that only benefits the aid industry, in favor of compacts, joint ventures, and direct investments that promote sustainability, cost sharing, and country- and community- ownership.
Pass the Fostering Innovation in Global Development Act (FIGDA)
FIGDA would bridge the "Valley of Death" for innovation in global development by providing scale-up capital to the world's most cost-effective, replicable, and scalable solutions.
Link to one-page fact sheet.
Link to bill text.
Pass the Locally-Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act
This legislation would shift U.S. foreign aid resources out of Washington, DC to local communities, recognizing those closest to the problems are closest to the solutions.
Link to one-page fact sheet.
Link to bill text.
Create a USAID Accountability for Results Act
This bill would put more sunlight on the aid industry to ensure more funding reaches its intended destination as well as create pay-for-results frameworks that enable impact investors and philanthropy to more easily co-invest with the U.S. government.
Link to one-page fact sheet.
Enact Reforms Through Must-Pass Spending Bills
As Congress passes legislation to fund the U.S. federal government, it should also use this must-pass legislation to enact other reforms to improve how the U.S. spends $60B annually.
Read our spending requests for Congress.
