Idea of the Day: Coordinate Development Tools within the U.S. Government

November 25, 2009

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The Obama administration should conduct an interagency inventory of the development and crisis response tools spread across the federal government, coordinate these tools, and lay the groundwork for reorganization and reforms to achieve coherence. Representatives of all agencies involved in development should form an interagency policy committee within the National Security Council to coordinate all their future activities once the review is complete.

It is encouraging that the State Department has initiated a Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review to examine, among other things, whole of government approaches to development. The review must involve more than just agencies traditionally associated with development such as USAID and State, and include the Department of Defense and the Department of the Treasury, which possess many of the government’s less well-known development tools.

For more information, please see:

• Integrating Security, by Lawrence J. Korb, Sean Duggan and Laura Conley.