Who we're counting on in 2024
There's just one year left for the Biden-Harris Administration to keep its promises to reform the U.S. approach to global development. Here are nine actors who can make a difference.
Dear Unlock Aid community,
Next year will be the Biden-Harris Administration’s last opportunity to keep its promises to reform the U.S. approach to global development.
2023 was an extraordinarily hard year for many countries and communities around the world, punctuated by a number of humanitarian crises, public health catastrophes, and food insecurity. Climate change has only compounded the severity and complexity of addressing these emergencies, the effects of which become more pronounced with each year. 2023 was the warmest on record of the past 174 years.
All of these escalating and interconnected challenges make it clear that we need a new approach to global development. This starts with shifting resources out of the Washington, DC Beltway directly to the front-line organizations that are best positioned to help their communities build resilient systems and respond to the conditions of our rapidly changing planet.
With the clock ticking, it’s more important now than ever that the biggest actors in global development make this coming year a high-water mark for reform.
Here are nine players that have significant power and influence in the U.S. global development system who we’ll be watching in 2024:
USAID Administrator Samantha Power – When Administrator Power took office, she promised to make USAID more responsive to global needs, including to shift resources out of the Washington, DC Beltway to communities around the world, partner more with the private sector, and and drive “Progress, Not Programs.” USAID spent the last three years changing its policies to reflect this vision. Now we need to see much more rapid implementation in 2024.
Contracting Officers – Contracting officers can reshape the way the United States partners with countries and communities around the world. Often, the question of whether USAID can partner with local communities and social innovators boils down to in-the-weeds contracting decisions, for example, whether to pay against milestones and results (less red tape) versus reimburse for costs (lots of red tape), or; whether to ask for short concept notes to begin the proposal process (less red tape) versus requiring full-fledged RFP responses (lots of red tape). We’ll be looking for champions inside of USAID who will use innovative contracting tools to break down barriers to entry, diversify USAID’s partner base, and deliver results.
Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) – These lawmakers have spearheaded major reforms in the past to re-architect the U.S. approach to global development. In 2024, we’re counting on these lawmakers and others like them to leave a lasting legacy by championing long-overdue, major structural reforms that make global development agencies more results oriented, innovative, and sustainable, and that position the United States as a more reliable partner for countries around the world.
The CEOs of USAID’s Biggest Contractors – USAID’s biggest contractors win the vast majority of every foreign aid dollar the agency spends. Most of them are located in or near Washington, DC. In 2024, we’ll be looking to see which of these company CEOs will commit to adopting more equitable business practices for the communities they’re paid to support. For example, which CEO will commit to transfer the ownership and management of every large project they manage to community-level leaders and organizations? Which CEO will commit to start subcontracting the majority of the funding they win to the frontline organizations actually doing the implementation work, rather than keeping the vast majority of the money for themselves? Which CEO will commit to publicly reporting the funding promises they make to local organizations and other subrecipients to win large government awards, alongside the actual disbursements they make once an award is underway?
The White House - Earlier this year, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan wrote about the need to create a new “value proposition” for countries around the world that want to work with the United States. This starts with retooling the United States’ outdated global development infrastructure, a relic of the Cold War and Second World War. In 2024, we’ll be counting on the White House to articulate an even more ambitious vision for global development that rapidly transitions our model away from a paternalistic, charity-driven version that currently depends on international consultants to implement short-term projects to one that promotes sustainable economic growth and true partnership with countries, communities, and people around the world in ways that enable them to shape their own destinies.
Big media - Too often, big media portrays global development as charity, or as something that is only defined by humanitarian crisis. Instead, in 2024, we’d like to see more media reporting on the ways that innovators around the world are transforming their economies and building healthier societies. Bloomberg does this with its New Economy Catalysts reporting, where journalists don’t position global development as something that happens “over there.” Instead, they report on the companies, people, and organizations that are transforming global economies, no matter where they’re from. For example, in their 2023 edition, Bloomberg featured Brazil-based Panplas for its work in curbing water pollution from industrial lubricants, India-based Karya for connecting rural communities with digital employment opportunities, Kenya-based Pezesha for its technology that helps entrepreneurs raise venture capital, and US-based AOA Dx for deploying technology that helps women and doctors more quickly detect ovarian cancer.
Ambassador Meg Whitman and other U.S. ambassadors - Many U.S. ambassadors, especially those like Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman who started their careers in the private sector, understand we must unleash local markets and the private sector to promote development. Next year, U.S. ambassadors should challenge their embassies to think about the private sector as more than just a potential co-funder for development projects, and instead as a force that can transform economies in a more long-lasting, sustainable way than short-term development projects ever could.
The U.S. Congress - Let’s face it, Congress is a mess. And with an election year in 2024, Congress is likely to feel even more broken next year. So you may be surprised to learn that we think there’s a bipartisan opening to reform U.S. global development systems, especially if the questions focus on the who, what, and how of funding global priorities (and not just how much). In 2024, we’ll be looking for a bipartisan coalition to pass legislation like the Fostering Innovation in Global Development Act and other bills that reshape the future of U.S. global development.
Philanthropy - Philanthropy has historically been an active funder for global issues, but relatively quiet when it comes to advocacy. In 2024, we’ll be looking for the biggest philanthropists to more aggressively push the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress to retool the U.S. approach to global development, beginning by shifting resources to local communities and scaling the most effective solutions in global development. As we’ve explained before, “global development is awash in philanthropic and private dollars that fund innovators at the $100,000 or $250,000 levels, [but] there are virtually no funders that systematically provide social enterprises with larger levels of funding to scale their impact.” Global development agencies can be that payor at scale, but they’re unlikely to make that shift without more outside pressure.
We appraised 2023 as a very “middle” year – we saw some positive changes, but we were overall disappointed by the scale and pace of change championed by the Biden-Harris Administration. The last few months have been especially hard. We will be counting on those with outsized power and influence to “leave it all on the field” to reshape the future of U.S. global development.
Here’s to a renewed commitment for urgent change in the New Year.
To Progress,
Unlock Aid