IRC Joins Urgent Campaign to Reform U.S. Foreign Assistance, Strengthen America’s Commitment to Development

14 Jul 2010 - The International Rescue Committee (IRC) and more than 50 relief, development and foreign policy organizations today called on President Obama to demonstrate his commitment to international development by pushing forward efforts to reform U.S. foreign assistance programs. 

The call came in an open letter to President Obama and marked the launch of a national “Reform Within Reach” campaign, sponsored by the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN).  The letter urges the president to create America’s first-ever global development strategy and to partner with Congress to overhaul the outdated, Cold War-era Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. These steps would bring U.S. foreign assistance into the 21st Century and more effectively use taxpayer dollars to help people in need, the letter said.

“The Administration has taken some steps in the right direction but it must move more aggressively to reassert U.S. leadership in combating global poverty,” said IRC president George Rupp, a member of the Foreign Assistance Network’s leadership council.

The issue is even more important with the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals Summit fast approaching in New York in September, when the eyes of the world will be on the fight against global poverty. One year ago, President Obama made a promise at the United Nations General Assembly to return to the Millennium Development Goals Summit with a concrete plan for how the U.S. will strengthen its contribution to development.   “We must hold him accountable to that pledge,” the MFAN coalition declared.

How You Can Help

Add your name to the Open Letter to President Obama and your voice to the foreign assistance reform movement.