The American approach to global development is fractured.  Over 20 government agencies have some responsibility for promoting economic development in the poorest regions of the world.  While the State Department has a Policy Planning department to develop coherent long-term strategies and the White House publishes a periodic National Security Stratgy, there is no such unified thinking on global development.  The Center for American Progress scholars Reuben Brigety and Sabina Dewan have a two-part policy proposal: first, they claim that every American administration needs to have a National Strategy for Global Development.  Second, they suggest what that strategy should include.

Developing a National Strategy for Global Development (NSGD) would serve to 1) centralize government thinking and policy on foreign assistance; 2) develop a coherent set of principles that development administrators in varied government agencies can follow; 3) create a framework for long-term, proactive thinking on critical global challenges.

The strategy itself would state the primary principles that should guide US development programs; detail how to coordinate the bureaucracy in order to fulfill those principles; and suggest how resources should be allocated in order to reach the stated objectives.

The authors propose an NSGD that would advance national security by promoting stability abroad; human security by facilitating a healthier and more prosperous world community; and collective security by supporting jointly combating transnational problems.  

More specifically, the proposal outlines several principles that would guide the National Strategy for Development.  They include 1) promoting economic growth through trade; 2) reducing poverty by improving education and healthcare conditions for the most vulnerable individuals; 3) support the ability of foreign institutions to provide for their citizens; 4) advocate for good governance; 5) react responsibly to humanitarian crises; 6) improve environmental health; and 7) coordinate with international and foreign actors with similar developmental objectives.

The Strategy would also change the structure of the bureaucracy as it relates to development assistance.  It would first create a cabinet-level “Director of International Development” to oversee all government development projects.  In order to coordinate activity on the agency level, the plan would establish an “Interagency Policy Committee” of the National Security Council.  The Committee would bring together all agencies that administer Official Development Assistance to share information and coordinate policy.  The plan further proposes that development officers should receive more discretion in distributing aid dollars and that the government should hire more personnel to handle development projects.
 

The NSGD would be implemented under the auspices of the White House foreign policy team including the National Security Council. The NSGD would only be one part of the nation's larger foreign policy outlook (captured in the National Security Strategy). The authors' NSGD proposes a new White House position, a cabinet-level Director of International Development, to lead the implementation of the NSGD.