As mandated by the bipartisan Foreign Aid Transparency and Accountability Act of 2016 (FATAA; P.L. 114-191), last month the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidance to foreign aid agencies regarding the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of assistance programs.... Read More

 For decades, the Food for Peace program has been a pillar of America’s worldwide efforts to prevent hunger and starvation and bring stability to the developing world. Supported by the productivity and hard work of America’s farmers--and the generosity of the American people--Food for Peace has helped more than four billion people in 150 countries.... Read More

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson boasted to “60 Minutes” last weekend that, as the globe-trotting chief of oil giant ExxonMobil, he had an 18-year-relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He said, “It was always about what could I do to be successful on behalf of my shareholders, how Russia could succeed.” Nothing, of course, about America’s national security goals.... Read More

Why biotechnology skepticism isn’t just ignorant- it’s irresponsible.... Read More

            For the past few years, oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron have been playing a double game with regard to corporate responsibility, transparency, and fighting corruption in the notoriously graft-prone international oil business.... Read More

What are those who care about the role of U.S. foreign assistance in the world to make of the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy, recently released by the White House?... Read More

The American presidency continues to accumulate power- a significant shift that should concern both Democrats and Republicans.... Read More

Last week our Foreign Aid Effectiveness team at The Lugar Center (TLC), in partnership with the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), released a new report on the role of evaluation and learning in U.S. foreign assistance programs. Why did we take on this project, why now, and what’s next?... Read More

American leadership and credibility in fighting global corruption took another blow last week with the Trump administration’s announcement that the U.S. will pull out immediately as a reporting country from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global anti-corruption project.... Read More

Amidst the general approbation that accompanied Ambassador Mark Green’s arrival at USAID to serve as Administrator, there appears to be one dark cloud on the horizon. Some in the development community are deeply concerned about Administrator Green’s endorsement of “strategic transitions,” in which USAID works its way out of a job and, in one form or another, ends U.S. foreign aid to the transitioning country.... Read More