US President Obama ‘signs off on development policy review’
US President, Barack Obama, has authorised a government-wide review on US global development policy as part of a new White House-led Presidential Study Directive. The move ‘signals the intent to reach across [US] government agencies to think through a more coordinated and strategic approach to development policy’.
The contents of the directive are not yet available, but it will be interesting to see how the development policy review relates to the State Department’s Quadrennial Development and Diplomacy Review (QDDR) announced in July.
It is hoped that the Presidential Study Directive works to develop a foreign assistance strategy that contributes to the tasks of the QDDR and continues to make progress on the recent legislative efforts in rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act.