August

01-03
2018

Past Event

Invigorating US leadership in global development

  • Wednesday, August 1, 2018 - Friday, August 3, 2018

    7:40 am - 11:20 am MDT


Aspen, Colorado

After a long period of broad support for U.S. economic assistance overseas, the geopolitical landscape is shifting. For two years in a row, President Donald Trump proposed a 30 percent cut to the International Affairs Budget, which a bipartisan coalition in Congress resisted. In a world beset by many crises and urgent development needs, questions of how aid is deployed and how it complements other sources of finance in achieving development impact are crucial.

The fifteenth Brookings Blum Roundtable will explore challenges to, and opportunities for, U.S. foreign assistance and global leadership. With U.S. government resources for global development now secured, the next steps on redesigning the State Department and USAID are looming, with legislation to create a new development finance agency well advanced.

Other reform options being considered by Congress and the Administration are how the U.S. can best reduce fragility, how it can best use and support multilateral institutions, and how it can compete or collaborate with China on promoting global development. In each of the sessions, participants will share ideas on specific opportunities for U.S. leadership in the development arena.

The agenda topics deal with live policy issues on which participants are engaged. Thus, the discussions could have a direct impact on policy.

Agenda

  • August 1
    • SESSION I: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR US FOREIGN ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

      9:00 am - 10:30 am

      In 2015, sustainable development goals were endorsed by 193 countries. The UN’s Agenda 2030 provides an agenda for all countries to address the needs of their nation. It is also the context for the development objectives of foreign assistance. There are significant gaps in implementation of the SDGs that, in turn, provide opportunities for the U.S. to assert a leadership role. What are these opportunities, and how will U.S. leadership manifest itself? How can private philanthropy, state and local government, the business community, and the scientific and academic establishment contribute?

      Moderator

      Anne-Marie Slaughter President and CEO - New America

      Panelist

      Carolyn Miles Chief Executive Officer - Save the Children
      Steven Kull
      Steven Kull Senior Research Fellow and Director, Program for Public Consultation, School of Public Policy - University of Maryland
    • SESSION II: RESOURCES AND REDESIGN

      10:50 am - 12:20 pm

      For the second year, the Congress has rejected the administration’s proposed 30% cut in international affairs spending.The initial joint State-AID redesign effort was stymied by considerable tension over the process and resulted in each agency going its separate way, with State working on minor administrative change and USAID announcing consequential organizational restructuring while continuing to work on a package of administrative and policy changes. Congress has insisted that it be consulted on any proposed restructuring of State and AID. How will the congressional/executive disconnect on the budget be fixed? What and how significant are the ramifications of the redesign efforts? How will comity be restored between the two agencies?

      Moderator

      Liz Schrayer President and Chief Executive Officer - U.S. Global Leadership Coalition

      Panelist

      Robert Blair
      Robert Blair Associate Director, National Security Programs - Office of Management and Budget
      Susan Fine, USAID
      Susan Fine Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator - U.S. Agency for International Development
      Sam Worthington, Interaction
      Sam Worthington CEO - Interaction
      Raj Kumar, Devex
      Raj Kumar Founding President and Editor-in-Chief - Devex
    • SESSION III: DEVELOPMENT FINANCE

      9:00 am - 10:30 am

      Development finance has moved to the center of the development agenda. OPIC has evolved in short order from barely able to gain more than a yearly lifeline from the Congress and directly in the crosshairs of the new Administration to becoming a bipartisan/bibranch favorite. The bipartisan BUILD Act, which would restructure OPIC into a more powerful, better resourced U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), has passed the House and been reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The administration’s FY19 budget request endorses the concept and proposes increased funding. The development community succeeded during committee markup in strengthening the development mandate and structure of the IDFC. How can the new IDFC best be focused and structured? Is it relevant for low income countries and for middle income countries? Will the new IDFC be able to compete/collaborate with its European and Chinese counterparts? What is the role of development finance compared to grant assistance? How can a close working relationship be built between USAID and the IDFC?

      Panelist

      Rob Mosbacher
      Robert A. Mosbacher, Jr. Former President and CEO - Overseas Private Investment Corporation
      Elizabeth Littlefield, OPIC
      Elizabeth Littlefield President and CEO - Overseas Private Investment Corporation
      Alix Zwane Chief Executive Officer - Global Innovation Fund
      Matthias Berninger, Mars
      Matthias Berninger Vice President for Public Affairs - Mars, Incorporated
    • SESSION IV: APPROACHES TO FRAGILITY

      10:50 am - 12:20 pm

      Global development has been a success—global poverty has been halved in a generation, infant death rates have plummeted, and millions more girls are in school. But it also has been a failure—a rise in the number of internal conflicts, internationalization of conflicts, and, by 2050, 80 percent of the world’s extreme poverty will be localized in a few regions. There are at least 31 severely off-track countries. Recognizing these issues, a number of recommendations have been made, or are being considered—David Cameron’s Commission on Fragility, Growth, and Development; work streams at the U.S. Institute of Peace and Brookings; a World Bank/UN report on Pathways for Peace; and an administration report, Stabilization Assistance Review. What are the underlying sources of fragility? How do we move away from hundreds of stove-piped, isolated projects to a more comprehensive approach. How do we balance the need to comprehensively integrate security, economic, political, and social solutions while recognizing the ability of fragile countries to take only modest actions? Where are the incentives for donors to collaborate around a common plan? What can we learn from these to inform a new U.S. approach to fragility that is being considered in legislative deliberations in the House and Senate?

      Moderator

      Nancy Lindborg President and CEO - The David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Former President - United States Institute of Peace

      Panelist

      Neal Keny-Guyer Chief Executive Officer - Mercy Corps
      Michelle Nunn President and CEO - CARE USA
      Wade Warren
      Wade Warren Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning (PPL) - USAID
    • SESSION V: MULTILATERAL INSTITUTIONS AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

      9:00 am - 10:30 am

      Since the end of World War II, the United States has been a driver of multilateral organizations, and international collaboration has been a core foreign policy strategy. However, U.S. leadership is being undermined by budget cuts and policy pronouncements and challenged by active engagement at the multilateral level by China. The multilateral structure is under stress. Legislation has been introduced to establish an interagency process for reviewing U.S. participation in international organizations. Brookings Global is undertaking its own review. An Eminent Persons group has been commissioned by the G20 to develop recommendations to improve global governance of multilateral development banks. What is the U.S. interest in the international system and multilateral approaches? Is the system outmoded and in need of reframing? How can the U.S. maintain leadership in a system that serves the U.S. and the global interest?

      Moderator

      Mary Robinson Chair - The Elders, President - Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, Former President of Ireland

      Panelist

      Hans Peter Lankes Visiting Professor - London School of Economics and Political Science
      Yukon Huang, Carnegie
      Yukon Huang Senior Associate, Asia Program - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
    • SESSION VI: US LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

      10:50 am - 12:20 pm

      The global landscape, and the ability of the U.S. to respond, is rapidly changing. Loans and guarantees from public financial institutions have emerged as significant instruments, alongside grant aid. Other countries, including Europe and China, are using this as a major component of their external development finance, often at a scale that dwarfs aid. Multilateral institutions are looking to leverage their resources by borrowing more on private capital markets and blending their finance. At the same time, more recipient countries are focused on trade and investment, not just aid. Where does U.S. development policy fit in these changing dynamics? How should U.S. development policy respond, and where can it lead? Is China a competitor or partner, and in what areas? Will Europe exert a more concerted leadership role? Is fragility the new challenge, and how can the U.S. adapt?

      Moderator

      Elizabeth Cousens
      Amb. Elizabeth Cousens President and CEO - UN Foundation

      Panelist

      John Podesta Founder and Director - The Center for American Progress
      Justin Yifu Lin
      Justin Yifu Lin Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, The World Bank
      Scott Ratzan
      Scott Ratzan Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government - Harvard Kennedy School
      Sundaa Bridget-Jones, Rockefeller
      Sundaa Bridgett-Jones Senior Associate Director - The Rockefeller Foundation