Highlights of Global Development Policy

photo via NY Daily News

The long-awaited Presidential Study Directive was released in the form of a new Global Development Policy. The policy was unveiled by President Obama at the U.N. General Assembly’s Millennium Development Goals Summit last week in New York. The president’s speech highlighted poverty as a threat to human dignity and presented poverty reduction as an important component of creating a more secure global environment. Both the policy and the president’s speech highlight the issue of global hunger and underscore the role of Feed the Future within the new development policy.  

Highlights of the new policy include:

• The elevation of development as a central pillar of our national security policy, equal to diplomacy and defense
• A long-term commitment to rebuilding the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the U.S. government’s lead development agency, including “robust policy, budget, planning, and evaluation capabilities” and “leadership in the formulation of country and sector development strategies”
• The institutionalization of a U.S. Global Development Strategy to be approved by the president every four years that will clarify our development goals and how to achieve them
• Ensuring that development expertise is represented in the policy- and decision-making process 
• Establishing an Interagency Policy Committee on Global Development to set priorities and coordinate policy across the executive branch 
• Creating a U.S. Global Development Council representing the private sector and civil society to provide high-level input
• Committing to a close working partnership with Congress in establishing a shared vision on global development

Listen to the president's speech to the U.N. General Assembly and find out more about USAID’s role in the new Global Development Policy.

Check out the new Global Development Policy here.