WASHINGTON – The U.S. Agency for International Development should be the central agency for providing foreign aid, leaving it independent of the State Department, a panel of experts said Tuesday.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March that requested relevant federal departments and agencies to submit plans by September to make foreign aid distribution more efficient and more cost-effective.
National security experts from half a dozen think tanks, including the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, the Lugar Center and the Atlantic Council, combined their research to create a list of recommendations on foreign assistance streamlining.
The combined report said because of links between USAID and State Department, policymakers have often assigned duties of developing programs to State Department when it’s role really should focus more on diplomacy
“I think it’s the belief of all of us up here that development is its own distinct discipline,” said Connie Veillette, a fellow at the Lugar Center and co-chair of Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network.
She said USAID needs more resources to carry foreign assistance programs.
The think tanks recommended that the head of USAID have a seat on the National Security Council, be a Cabinet member and have the top role in all U.S. development and humanitarian aid.
Conor Savoy, a CSIS project leader in U.S. leadership in development, said that instead of moving USAID into the State Department, the Trump administration should consolidate all government foreign aid efforts at USAID.
Veillette said that without the combined approach, ,the other aid programs could develop similar programs to solve aid problems.