Making Development Policy in the New Era: Priorities, Politics, and Structures of U.S. Policymaking on Global Poverty and Hunger

An RFF Symposium
RFF Conference Center
January 29, 2002

The events of September 11th reinvigorated debate about the importance of global poverty and hunger to U.S. national security interests and the role of U.S. development policy in addressing these problems. The political context for these issues has changed.

Resources for the Future (RFF) convenes current and past policymakers, legislators, lobbyists, academics, and the media in a symposium on January 29, 2002, for candid discussion about how development policy is made and might be made better to address global poverty and hunger. Two expert panels address questions such as:

• What are the problems in making development policy currently, and how can it be made more effectively?
• Is the U.S. government organized to tackle the problem effectively? How could governance in this area be improved?
• Are the domestic politics of development policy and programs to reduce global poverty and hunger likely to be different in the post-9/11 world?
• Is there a need for change in the priority accorded poverty and hunger reduction as a component of U.S. foreign policy and national security strategy?
• How have domestic political realities affected the U.S. effort to address poverty and hunger in the past?

The first panel focuses on identifying issues and problems-what works and what does not work-in how food security and anti-poverty policies are formulated, coordinated, and implemented in the executive branch.

The second panel focuses on the new political context for development programs and how that might affect America's international priorities and the formulation and execution of food security and anti-poverty policies. Drawing on recent examples of how U.S. development policy has worked and not worked, a senior group of participants offer insights on where policy and policymaking structures need to go in the future.

Panel I: Perspectives on How Development Policy is Made and Executed
Introduction to Panel I Thomas Freedman, Moderator Visiting Scholar, Resources for the Future
Dan Glickman former Secretary of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture
John Podesta former Chief of Staff to the President
Alan Larson Undersecretary for Economics, Business and Agricultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Emmy Simmons Advisor, Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade, U.S. Agency for International Development
Mike Taylor Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future
G. Edward Schuh Co-Chair, Food Security Advisory Committee