by Debie Waggoner
I had the privilege of attending the U.S. Global Leadership Conference last week here in Washington, DC. The take-away: Anyone involved in international development and diplomacy should be paying attention to the Foreign Assistance budget talks. The International Affairs Budget is only 1.4% of the entire federal budget. Even if your organization is not a recipient of federal funds for D and D work, a reduction in these already small-in-comparison budgets could impact some folks at the local level, and most definitely our future status in the world.
U.S. involvement in development and diplomacy abroad helps the American economy at home.
If I heard it once, I heard it all day: the U.S. government and the American people must realize how much the development and diplomacy work going on each and every day impacts not only our foreign perception and foreign policies, but there are loads of examples of how this work directly affects us at the local level. There are currently three trade deals stuck in Congress: South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. These need to be pushed through as they would have a positive effect on the U.S. economy and would undoubtedly create jobs.
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, gave her remarks in the morning. She stated, "Everyone needs to take stock of what we can do to help the economy. Foreign Policy be must a force for an economic rebound. Economic strength equates to leadership in the world...I've traveled over 600,000 miles as Secretary and my conclusion is that we as Americans need to Up Our Game."
She went on to mention that her office is hiring more economists and other experts in an effort to boost exports, develop fair trade practices, protect intellectual property rights (particularly in China), support innovation, and of course, support for foreign assistance and development.
Other took the stage through the day to make the case for development and diplomacy and how it ties into the economy. One old, but good example is that the Marshall Plan infused $110 Billion (in today's dollars) into Europe in the 1940s-50s. Our return on investment is that we now export $114 Billion a year to Europe. We should be preparing the grounds of Africa, South East Asia, and the Middle East for the same type of ROI. Can we expect similar results? We won't know if we don't try.
For more information about the conference: www.usglc.org
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