Congress can’t get anything done. Except on foreign aid.

Congress can’t get anything done. Except on foreign aid.

Today’s Congress is not exactly a well-oiled machine. Even picking a speaker has proven to be incredibly difficult for the House, which took as many floor votes on the matter in 2023 alone as in the previous 36 years combined.

Foreign Aid and Sustainable Development Goals

But there’s one issue in which Congress has shown a surprising facility for bipartisan, bicameral cooperation: foreign aid. Last year saw a historic deal to greatly increase funding for global health efforts, especially those targeting AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis — which together kill some 2.5 million people a year — as well as new bipartisan legislation introduced to reform the way the US Agency for International Development (USAID), America’s leading foreign aid agency, works.

Locally-Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act

2024 promises more bipartisan collaboration on the issue. This past week, Reps. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and Cory Mills (R-FL) and Sens. Christopher Coons (D-DE), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE) introduced the Locally-Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act, another measure to reform USAID. Introduced in the House on March 19, it already passed the Foreign Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote on March 20.

Increasing Funding for Local Groups

The bill is meant to push USAID to distribute more of its budget to local groups in the countries where it works. The basic case for using more local groups is simple. US aid spending currently goes largely to a small group of very large contractors that are insulated from evaluation and tend toward bloated programs. Giving the money instead to small local organizations would not only help develop civil society in developing countries, but likely achieve better outcomes at a lower cost. A recent review by development research group the Share Trust estimated that funding aid through local groups is roughly 32 percent more cost-effective than funding groups based in rich countries, largely because salaries and overhead in rich countries are significantly higher.

Reforming USAID

Local funding, however, is still the exception. The agency distributed $38.8 billion in fiscal year 2022, or about $30 billion excluding Ukraine aid. But that same year, only 10.2 percent of funds went to local partners: “organizations, firms, and individuals based in the countries in which we work.” Current administrator Samantha Power has pledged to increase that share to 25 percent by next year and 50 percent by 2030, ambitious targets that will be challenging to hit.

Provisions of the Locally-Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act

• Lets groups apply for money in languages other than English, sparing them translation costs
• Grants more flexibility in accounting systems, so groups using systems common outside the US can still apply
• Allowing late registrations on the System for Award Management, a federal government-wide platform for paying vendors
• Lets USAID missions restrict bids to local groups on projects costing up to $25 million; currently only projects under $5 million can be restricted to local groups
• Increases the share of grants allowed to be spent on administrative costs/overhead from 10 percent to 15 percent

Civil Society Backing and Challenges

The bill has considerable civil society backing from groups like Catholic Relief Services and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network and is recent enough that I was not able to find any outright opponents. Existing vendors have natural reasons to fear the legislation, but they could also scheme to work around it. Jacobs raised the prospect of large contractors hiring a token number of foreign workers, changing their names, incorporating small subsidiaries, and similar moves, to try to claim money being reserved for local groups. She concedes that USAID and Congress will have to exercise constant oversight to prevent these incumbent firms from undermining the reform.

But with the bill already through its House committee and garnering the backing of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans in both houses already, Jacobs is optimistic. “We think it has a really good shot of becoming law this year,” Jacobs said. “I know many people don’t think we can get anything done. Hopefully, this is one proof point that we can still do some big things.”

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 3.3: By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases.
• SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
• SDG 17.16: Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Indicator for SDG 3.3: Reduction in the number of deaths caused by AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other communicable diseases.
• Indicator for SDG 10.2: Increase in the social, economic, and political inclusion of marginalized groups in foreign aid programs.
• Indicator for SDG 17.16: Increase in the number of partnerships and collaborations between local organizations and foreign aid agencies.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: vox.com

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