Presidential Platform
In February, IGD rolled out its Platform for a New Global Development Agenda, which includes policy recommendations for the incoming administration. IGD’s policy initiatives are centered around three key areas:

• Trade: Making Markets Work for Poor People and Poor Countries
• Foreign Aid: Prioritizing Development, Clarifying Goals and Improving Outcomes
• Economic Development: Spurring Growth through Enhanced Private Sector Engagement

IGD has been meeting with the presidential campaigns in order to make the case that the next president should elevate global development as a national priority. We have shared the IGD platform with key advisors within the campaigns and will continue the conversation between now and the election.

Learn more about the platform, policy highlights and resources

back to top

Policy Action

In 2008 IGD will focus its advocacy on three issues: the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), efforts to expand duty-free/quota free access to U.S. markets for poor countries and aid modernization. Support for the MCC budget will be the subject of our first policy action.

IGD has been a strong supporter of MCC because of its emphasis on long-term investments that support economic growth and poverty reduction, its recognition that partner governments need to design and implement their own development strategies, and its insistence on evaluating program impact and accountability. This year will be an important one for MCC: the overall budget situation is tight and Congress is eager to see MCC disburse larger amounts of its previously approved compact funds. The administration request of $2.23 billion for FY2009, down from $3 billion in FY2008, reflects the reality that Congress is likely to fund a lower amount when there are so many other competing demands within the international affairs budget.

IGD hosted a Speaker Series event in Indianapolis with MCC CEO John Danilovich to give IGD partners the opportunity to learn more about the progress MCC has made and the lessons it has learned in negotiating its first 16 compacts. IGD Board member Tim Solso and co-founder Bill Ruckelshaus placed an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star on the importance of MCC. IGD also has included support for MCC in the Platform for a New Global Development Agenda, which has been shared with the presidential campaigns.

We will be circulating a letter later this month reiterating IGD’s support for MCC and calling for full funding of the administration’s budget request.

back to top

Speaker Series
IGD Speaker Series events encourage high-level, in-depth conversations among influential business leaders and promote action on IGD’s policy initiatives. Speakers bring expertise and personal perspective about effective policies and innovative solutions to global poverty.

Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson | February 28 | Seattle

Mary Robinson began by talking about investing in women and girls as a means to developing and advancing communities and nations. She called for business leaders to recognize the importance of adolescent girls’ well-being and referenced Girls Count, a new publication funded by the Nike Foundation and written by the Center for Global Development, and its action points for investing in and advocating for girls living in poverty. She decried the low priority these topics receive at the World Economic Forum (WEF) each year and implored WEF members to focus on the subject at their next annual meeting.

Mrs. Robinson talked about her role as a member of the Elders and stressed the value of female education and health advancements to the safety and development of future generations. Closely aligned with IGD goals, the routes to poverty reduction advocated by Mrs. Robinson will require commitments from business to utilize resources and political influence to spur change.

In response to questions from attendees, Mrs. Robinson cited viable means to empowering girls faced with inequitable traditions and structures. She stressed the importance of changes perpetrated by government initiatives, but noted that there remains a multitude of ways the private sector can invest in the futures of young women. She recommended that individual businesses assist communities in acquiring necessary resources, focus on markets in developing countries, tailor products for basic survival and encourage female participation in the corporate sector through career training programs. These initiatives, she said, will address poverty while improving adolescent girls’ status by increasing their opportunities.

Former Irish president urges businesses to help girls
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 29, 2008, by Ambreen Ali

back to top

Ambassador John Danilovich, CEO, Millennium Challenge Corporation | March 14 | Indianapolis

Ambassador Danilovich described MCC as an innovative and vigorous U.S. assistance program. He confirmed the shared vision and commitment between MCC and IGD and explained how MCC is reducing poverty through sustainable growth, referencing successes in Morocco and Madagascar. MCC recognizes that economic growth is the single most important factor in poverty reduction, and that the private sector is the key driver of such growth. MCC’s effectiveness is very much tied to successfully partnering with the private sector. Ambassador Danilovich asserted MCC’s commitment to this partnership, which he said will replace poverty with prosperity and provide the poor a fruitful share in the economic lives of their communities.

Ambassador Danilovich invited members of the business community to look closely at MCC investments in partner countries and explore complementary or parallel investments of their own. In addition, he invited foundations and companies with strategic corporate social responsibility initiatives to consider building on MCC programs in countries in which they have an interest. Ambassador Danilovich welcomed continued support and input from IGD and close cooperation with the private sector as MCC works to reduce poverty.

“Private enterprise is the true engine of economic growth, and the only way countries can combat poverty is not to depend on development assistance alone but, rather, to use it to promote a growing private sector, in which the poor can fully participate.”
 – Ambassador John Danilovich

Business leaders at work to end global poverty
The Indianapolis Star, March 16, 2008, Op-ed by Tim Solso and Bill Ruckelshaus, IGD Board members

back to top

Future speakers that IGD will host as part of the series include former Congressman Jim Kolbe in Portland and Seattle (co-presented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Washington Council on International Trade), UN Foundation chairman Ted Turner in Chicago (co-presented by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs), and in Seattle, OPIC head Robert Mosbacher, Jr. with Rob Nichols, President & COO of Financial Services Forum.

Premier National Series Sponsors

Series Sponsor

Presenting Sponsors

back to top