Building Capacity through Security Force Assistance

Extract from Congressional Research Report linked here.

Historically, the U.S. military’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) have had primary responsibility for training, advising, and assisting foreign military forces.

Today, although this mission has not been completely relegated to conventional forces, the National Security Strategies of the current and previous administrations direct the U.S. military services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines) to organize, train, and equip themselves to carry out these activities on a larger scale with conventional (non-SOF) forces. This responsibility in its broad sense of building the capacity of partner states has been termed “security force assistance” (SFA).

Each of the military services has undertaken to organize, train, and equip themselves for SFA. However, while SOF have units specifically dedicated to a long-term role in SFA, the conventional forces services do not. Each of the services does have Security Cooperation and Security Assistance organizations that are dedicated to SFA activities, although they do not have SFA in their titles. The services also standardize training for deploying forces to support combatant commanders in their SFA mission. This effort to “train the trainers,” although an object of consistent inquiry in congressional hearings, has been endorsed in testimony by combatant commanders.

The training, organizing, and equipping of U.S. forces to conduct SFA competes for scarce fiscal and personnel resources among the services. Some critics of SFA attest that committing to this capability within the services detracts from their ability to conduct traditional combat roles. Others suggest that building the security capacity of weak and failed states is a misguided effort.

This report provides the following elements:

• An overview of the SFA rationale, focused primarily on Department of Defense support for and relations with foreign security forces.

• Description of the possible employment of U.S. conventional forces and platforms in support of the SFA mission (see “SFA in Current and Previous National Security

Strategies”).

• Exploration of current operations in Afghanistan and Iraq (see “SFA Linkage to Iraq and Afghanistan Strategies”).

• Resident training capability in U.S. forces as a tool for geographic combatant

commanders.

• Issues Congress may consider (“Do Legislative Authorities Restrict Conducting SFA?”) The report summarizes congressional reaction to SFA proposals.

The U.S.- UK Partnership for Global Development

The White House

May 25, 2011

Joint Fact Sheet: The U.S.-UK Partnership for Global Development Excerpt - Full text here

Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama reaffirm our commitment to changing the lives of the 1.2 billion poor people in the world today. Recent success and new technologies provide hope and opportunities to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Combating poverty, mitigating disasters and preventing conflict is morally right and is firmly in line with our respective national interests and fundamental values. The President and Prime Minister are pleased to announce our collective interventions to achieve the best results for the world’s poorest people—advance economic growth, prevent conflict in fragile states, improve global health particularly for girls and women, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Economic Growth

The private sector is the key to stimulating sustainable economic growth, which helps countries pull themselves out of poverty. We will help create the right environment for business, markets and investments in education, skills and innovation, in addition to building capable and accountable institutions and governments. 

Together, we will tackle corruption and bribery that prevent resources from reaching the people they are intended to help. We will renew our efforts to stimulate trade and regional integration – especially in Africa, where the potential is immense.

... Over the next five years, we will: help 18 million vulnerable women, children and family members escape the grip of hunger and poverty; prevent stunting and child mortality in 17 million undernourished children; generate $2.8 billion agricultural GDP through research and development activities; and leverage $70 million in private investment to improve market opportunities and links with smallholders.

Conflict and Fragility

Fragile states pose a significant, yet distinct, development challenge. As a group, fragile states have not achieved a single Millennium Development Goal, and most remain heavily dependent on foreign assistance... We will strengthen local economies, make job creation a priority and ensure that women are involved in every level of the decision-making process. .... We will continue to work together to improve international responses and to encourage other donors to bear their share of responsibility. In all of our programs, we will measure the results we achieve so that we base our investment and policy decisions on solid evidence.

Aid Effectiveness – Accountability, Transparency and Results

The United States and the United Kingdom believe the quantity of our aid must be seen as equal in importance to its quality and we must be open, transparent and accountable in how we are spending our taxpayers’ money. Together, we have put in place mechanisms such as the UK Aid Transparency Guarantee and the U.S. Foreign Assistance Dashboard so the public – both at home and abroad – are able to access clear, comparable information about our aid programs. In so doing, we will help individuals understand the results being achieved, provide developing countries a stronger voice, and encourage other donors to follow our lead. We will ensure that the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in November 2011 transforms the way bilateral aid is delivered around the world and we will continue to work together to strengthen multilateral organizations.

Global Health

Twenty first century technology and innovation can help us achieve our development goals. We will continue to work together, not least at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) Replenishment Conference in June, and to ensure the GAVI Alliance has the resources it needs to do its job. The introduction of new and underused vaccines could result in another 250 million children being immunized and prevent four million childhood deaths by 2015. We will also work to increase the level of care given to pregnant women and newborn babies by supporting the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women and Children. Our alliance with Australia and the Gates Foundation should help 100 million more women meet their need for modern family planning by 2015.

Girls and Women

Women disproportionately bear the burden of poverty as they own only 10 percent of the world’s property and represent two-thirds of the developing world’s illiterate. But we know that investing in girls and women has transformative impacts on growth and poverty reduction. It is also cost-effective as women tend to invest returns in their families and communities. Over the next five years, our investments alone will: save the lives of at least 50,000 women in pregnancy and childbirth; get more than five million girls into primary and secondary school; help 18 million women to access financial services and; do more to prevent violence towards women in at least 15 countries.

Climate Change

Without urgent global action, climate change could reverse our hard-won gains and increase the risk of insecurity and fragility in many parts of the world. The United States and the United Kingdom therefore continue to seek to hold the increase in temperature below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We also continue to work towards implementing the key agreements reached in Cancun... Our support for the REDD+ partnership will increase the incomes of the 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest people who depend on forests for their livelihoods

AidData Financial Analysis Tool

About AidData

AidData is a collaborative initiative to provide products and services that promote the dissemination, analysis, and understanding of development finance information. 

At the core of the AidData program is the AidData web portal, which is a gateway to nearly 1 million records of development finance activities from donors around the world. Complementing the work of the OECD, whose Creditor Reporting System (CRS) is the official source of statistics for all OECD member countries, the AidData portal aims to provide access to development finance activities from a wide range of donors in an accessible format. In addition to providing access to these data, the team works on other projects that make it easier to access and analyze aid information, such as geocoding.

The AidData Vision

The AidData team is committed to providing access to the largest number of development finance activities possible, but we have plenty of additional work to do. Better data will help increase aid targeting and coordination, and it will enable better measurement and evaluation of aid effectiveness. 

AidData has developed a publicly-accessible interface that will enable researchers, field workers, and policy makers interested in development finance to access detailed project level data in order to increase transparency, accountability, and effectiveness.

Access the website here.

Mapping for Results

At the end of April, during the World Bank annual meetings the World Bank launched their new Mapping for Results platform. The initiative visualizes the location of World Bank projects to better monitor project and impact on people; to enhance transparency and social accountability; and to enable citizens and other stakeholders to provide direct feedback. 

All 79 IDA countries, the lowest income nations, are included with the geographic locations of projects, financing, and sector identification such as water, transportation, governance, etc. There are also indicator data including maternal health, infant mortality, malnutrition, poverty, and population. The tool is meant to openly share and visualize the operations of World Bank financed activities down to as local a level as possible and compare these with actual need and monitor the effects over time.

Country managements, Project leads, Academics, Governments, other Multi-national Organizations, and most importantly citizens and communities can for the first time actively investigate and understand where the World Bank is working in order to provide feedback and guidance.

The Mapping for Results Platform (link here) provides detailed information about our work to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development around the world. This pilot website aims to visualize the location of our projects and to provide access to information about indicators, sectors, funding and results.

Prior to the Spring Meetings 2011, Mapping for Results has identified more than 1250 active Bank financed activities working in 16,520 locations. These activities are a subset of more than 2,500 active financed Bank activities with a volume of more than $160 billion.

Conclusion of ISPI IDEAS Committee

Dear IDEAS Colleagues,

During the final meeting of the 2010-2011 ISPI Board of Directors in mid April, the decision was taken to conclude the work of several committees within ISPI. One of these is our IDEAS group. As I understand it, the board decided that with limited staff resources and the more narrow sector focus of our team, that it would probably be more in the interests of the Society for us to consider re-grouping as either a "special interest group (SIG)" or perhaps a virtual chapter like the Armed Forces.

I appreciate greatly all the energy and efforts that you have put forth as individuals during the past year since our charter was established last April. Although we did not accomplish all that we hoped, we were successful to define an international development research agenda that should continue independently. Although we only began to open some doors within USAID and other donor agencies, we were greatly successful to strengthen the awareness within ISPI membership of both the opportunities and challenges of working in this arena.

If there is an interest in transforming this group into another working form, I will certainly be involved. However, at this time, it will be necessary for someone else to take on the leadership responsibilities.

Once again, I appreciate the volunteer support that you all have provided me during this time, and look forward to continued collaboration in the years moving forward. I encourage each of you to consider other volunteer contributions to the Society as a means to further your development and build a professional network.

--

M. Mari Novak C.P.T.

Partner

KNO Worldwide

www.kno.cz/en

U.S. Foreign Assistance Dashboard

At the end of 2010, the U.S. government launched a website that helps examine, search, and track U.S. foreign aid investments across countries and sectors.

The “Foreign Assistance Dashboard" (click here) allows various development stakeholders explore and visualize data on U.S. foreign aid programs. The website allows for comparison of investments across aid-recipient nations, sectors, U.S. aid initiatives and year of investments. The Dashboard has already posted the OCO funding request of the State Department and USAID for fiscal 2012, as well as the U.S. government’s total OCO costs.

In an effort to provide more transparency, the online aid tool has been updated, and it now features explanations for overseas contingency operations.

According to State officials, future versions of the website will cover budget, financial and program data from all U.S. government agencies implementing foreign assistance. The dashboard currently includes the budget and appropriations data of the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Aid-related investments of the Department of Defense, Peace Corps, Millennium Challenge Corp., Department of Agriculture, Department of Treasury, Department of Labor and Export-Import Bank of the U.S. are eyed to be included in the new platform.

The State Department is welcoming feedback from the aid community on the new website. Comments can be submitted via the “Contact Us” section.

1st Quarter Update

This is an update on committee progress prior to the ISPI conference next month.  It has been a relatively quiet since the new year, but there has been movement in several areas:

Research -  This effort is off to a good start with Jessica Morse (an intern through George Washington University under the direction of Ryan Watkins) having created a reporting template.  She has started analysis of publicly available reports.  Ryan has indicated that another grant has been submitted for two more interns.  If successful, this will allow for another graduate student to analyze reports and one to work on constructing a search-able online database.

Journal Issue -  It has been suggested that the IDEAS committee work with the Performance Improvement Journal editor to organize an issue focused directly on international development successes and challenges.   If approved, this would likely include 6 – 8 articles drawn from both committee members and other interested authors.  Lead time is close to a year on this (publication next Spring).  To move forward we need to have a “guest editor” to manage the process and also insure that we have interested authors to write up the paper.  PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST TO TAKE ON THE ROLE OF EDITOR FOR THIS or would like to submit a paper.

Orlando Conference Meeting -  For those of you coming to the ISPI conference in Orlando, I think it will be useful to find a time to meet during the event.  Make I ask you to please RSVP back to me if you will be at the conference – if no RSVP I will assume you will not be there.  Meanwhile, I will take a look at the schedule and try to find a time/place for an hour meeting.  

Chairperson Transition -  After 2 years leading the task force and committee start-up, I am handing the Chair over to Jim Ellsworth (with Board approval) to take on the 2011-2012 cycle.  Jim is looking for a deputy to help move things forward.  Please contact us if you have a potential interest in this role that could lead to the Chair position in the future.

In summary, I request three actions in response to this update:

 

*  Please indicate whether you would have an interest either to be an editor or contribute an article for a PIJ special issue.

 

*  Please contact Jim or me if you would like to move into the role of the Deputy Chair.

 

*  Please RSVP to me if you are attending the Orlando conference.

All the best to everyone.  Thanks for the wonderful support the past year as we have gotten this off the ground.  Mari