By Michael Igoe
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| A view of the east front of the U.S. Capitol. Photo by: Martin Falbisoner / CC BY-SA |
U.S. budget battles heat up on Capitol Hill, China’s development bank adds 13 new members, and foreign ministers convene to chart post-Islamic State group reconstruction. This week in development news.
President Donald Trump’s plan to slash the U.S. foreign assistance budget has set the stage for a budgetary showdown between the White House and Capitol Hill, which saw some of its opening arguments put forward by aid advocates and professionals this week. In a flurry of congressional hearings and meetings, foreign assistance supporters pushed back on the president’s attempt to boost U.S. military spending at the expense of development and diplomacy.
Democrats such as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Republicans such as former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley both attested to the mutually reinforcing relationship between “hard” and “soft” power, arguing that cutting U.S. development programs will harm U.S. national security. Lawmakers from both political parties pressed U.S. military leaders to describe the negative effect on U.S. defense priorities from cuts to development and diplomacy — Trump has suggested cutting the foreign affairs budget by nearly one-third. Meanwhile Bill Gates met with Trump and U.S. lawmakers to press the case for maintaining U.S. investments in health and development programs. Congressional leaders reiterated that the president’s budget request is merely a statement of White House priorities — and is not likely to become law.
Google.org — the philanthropic arm of Google — is turning its attention to education, where it will invest $50 million in the next two years. Google.org will initially invest in nonprofit organizations working in three areas: “providing access to quality learning materials; training and engaging teachers; and helping students in crisis and conflict zones,” Devex west coast correspondent Catherine Cheney reported. On Tuesday Google.org announced its first nine grantees; another round of announcements will come later this year, bringing the total number of grantees to 20. Google.org President Jacquelline Fuller said that in addition to financial investments, the tech giant’s philanthropic division brings a range of technical assistance opportunities to the organizations it partners with — such as helping to set up WiFi connectivity in refugee camps and along migration routes. The organization is looking to partner with organizations with the capacity and interest to incorporate new technology, Fuller said.
An Australian government review of funding in Gaza has turned up no evidence to support Israel’s claim that a World Vision employee channeled money to the militant group Hamas, according to Australia’s foreign affairs department. In August Israeli officials said Mohammad El Halabi, World Vision’s Gaza office project manager, diverted millions of dollars of the charity’s country budget to the Islamic militant group, a charge El Halabi denies, and which World Vision disputed, despite halting its Gaza operations during the investigation. El Halabi has accused Israeli authorities of torturing him during his custody, according to Australian media reports.
Priti Patel, the U.K. international development secretary, announced Monday that the U.K. Department for International Development would launch its first ever small charities challenge fund this summer. Speaking at the Bond conference in London, Patel said charities with an income less than 250,000 pounds will have the exclusive opportunity to apply for grants worth up 50,000 pounds in a challenge fund worth 4 million pounds over the next two years. In addition to praising DfID’s steps to improve access to funding for smaller organizations, development leaders welcomed Patel’s enthusiasm about the future of U.K. development assistance. “This was the strongest, most full throated endorsement of aid for the U.K.,” said Alex Thier, executive director of the Overseas Development Institute.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank welcomed 13 new members, the China-led development finance institution announced Thursday in a statement. The new additions — which have yet to be fully processed — would bring the total number of AIIB members to 70, and would leave the U.S. and Japan as the only G7 countries without a stake in the institution, Bloomberg reported. “The interest in joining AIIB from around the world affirms the rapid progress we have made to establish the Bank as an international institution," Jin Liqun, AIIB’s president, said in the statement. President Trump’s budget proposal includes substantial cuts in contributions to multilateral development banks, fanning the flames of speculation that U.S. leadership in development finance institutions might be waning at the same time Chinese-led institutions are on the rise.
Members of the global coalition to defeat ISIS met in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss military, humanitarian and reconstruction challenges in the effort to liberate territory in Syria and Iraq from the extremist group. The 68 foreign ministers who came at the invitation of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson issued a joint statement Wednesday, which, among other things, underscored “the need for safeguarding civilians, as well as full and immediate humanitarian access, especially for UN agencies and their partners.” They also expressed a commitment to maintain support for liberated areas. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, in Washington for the meeting, met with President Trump and said after the meeting that the president had committed to “accelerate” U.S. support for Iraq’s reconstruction. Secretary Tillerson suggested the U.S. will work to establish safe zones in Syria so refugees are able to return home, though he offered little detail as to how these would work, the Guardian reported. Wednesday’s ministers’ meeting coincided with a terrorist attack in central London, for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility.
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