The Future of U.S. Development Policy: Reasons for Concern and Optimism

By: Daniel Robinson

The election of Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States has created a vast spectrum of reactions around the world, including in the international development community. At this stage, it is difficult to predict the development strategies a Trump White House would utilize, which makes uncertainty the main topic of the day. There is some concern that the Trump administration could move to scrap development aid altogether, but this seems unlikely based on the general bipartisan consensus supporting aid. However, based on the track record of Trump, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and proposed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, it’s possible to make some specific predictions about the new administration’s impact on U.S. development policy.

The first area in which there is clear evidence of the president-elect’s intentions is in climate policy. Trump has expressed interest in backing out of the Paris Agreement on global climate change, which would likely have substantially negative effects. Likewise, Trump has previously tweeted claiming that global climate change is a “hoax”, which further expands the negative implications in this area. Additionally, Trump’s proposed appointment of an oil industry executive (Tillerson) for Secretary of State implies a negative outlook for environmental policy.

A second aspect of U.S. development policy that is likely to change under the Trump administration is the approach toward gender and women’s rights. Previous Republican presidents have sought to reduce funding for girls and women’s health programs through the United Nations Population Fund and other sources, and this is likely to continue under the new administration. In addition, the George W. Bush administration reinstituted a “Global Gag Rule” prohibiting development assistance to organizations providing information on abortions or abortion services, and there is evidence that Trump would follow a similar approach. Pence’s notoriously bad track record on reproductive rights during his time as the Governor of Indiana further increases the likelihood of these changes.

Despite this negative analysis of the Trump administration’s likely impact on development policy, there are still reasons for optimism. Trump’s speeches have had mixed messages regarding development with some inward focused comments countered by others about the importance of helping overseas. Additionally, his focus on promoting American business interests may lead him to support programs that could increase economic productivity globally. Finally, as noted earlier, there is a widespread bipartisan consensus that international development aid should be continued. Notably, several pieces of global development legislation have been passed with bipartisan support during the last two years on a range of development issues including food security, water, health, and electrification.

While there is certainly reason for concern going forward, the implications of the next presidential administration are mixed, and there is ultimately reason to expect the U.S.’ role as a major provider of development assistance to continue in some form even if there are changes.


About the blogger: Daniel Robinson is a dual master’s degree candidate studying development economics and international food policy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy.

Follow Harvard Law and International Development Society on Facebook and Twitter (@HarvardLIDS).

LIDS Symposium Blog Series – What does intergalactic development have to do with international development?

By: Lindsay Bailey

michael-french

The closing speaker at the LIDS Fall Symposium on Technology and Development was NASA’s chief of staff (and Harvard alumnus), Michael French. French spoke about NASA’s plan to get people to Mars by 2030 and the connection between NASA’s work and international development.

At first, the connection between NASA and international development may seem tenuous. Surely, instead of spending millions sending spacecraft to Mars we could be investing in education, infrastructure, or agriculture in developing countries? Surely space travel is pretty far down on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs? Michael outlined three main reasons why NASA and development go hand in hand:

  1. Technical Assistance– NASA provides direct technical assistance to developing countries. For example, SERVIR is a joint project between NASA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that gives developing countries the tools and the skills to use data from space in their decision making. We all know that accurate data, paired with analysis, can lead to better policy implementation. SERVIR gives developing countries access to earth science data from NASA’s satellites. The SERVIR program also provides training on how to use that data in disaster relief, water management, climate change mitigation, food security, agriculture, and land use. SERVIR is currently in over 30 countries in Africa, Hindu Kush-Himalaya, Lower Mekong, and Mesoamerica.
  2. Technology Transfer– Since it’s inception, NASA has been at the forefront of technological innovation. To work well in space, technology needs to be durable, easy to fix, and easy to use. When NASA invents something that works well in space, it’s probably going to work well even in the toughest of situations back on Earth. For example, when astronauts need to have their eyes checked they don’t have an ophthalmologist on the shuttle ready to do a check-up. NASA had to invent a reliable testing system that could be used by anyone. This same machine is now being used in the Himalayas to check people’s eyes in villages that an ophthalmologist is unlikely to visit. NASA has also developed a water purification system that is being used in India and Mexico after natural disasters. NASA has also tried to make sure this technology is available to everyone through low rates for government licenses or free IP. For more information about NASA’s technology transfer program, see their website here.
  3. Soft Power– Since NASA is perceived to be more neutral than the DOD or State Department, they are welcome where the US government is not. They are seen as trying to expand human knowledge and make the world a better place. In their history, they have had over 4,000 international agreements with 120 different countries. Most astronauts notice the lack of borders in space, and there are 17 different countries on the International Space Station conducting experiments with 82 different countries. We need this kind of global collaboration to solve some of our most pressing problems, including climate change and the refugee crisis.

LIDS would like to thank Mr. French for his time and effort in speaking at our symposium!


About the guest blogger: Lindsay Bailey is a first-year law student from Huntsville, Canada. Before coming to Harvard, she spent three years working in Northern Ghana on evidence based policy making, property taxes, monitoring and evaluation, and other governance issues. Her interests include the rule of law, transitional justice, local government, and women’s rights.

Follow Harvard Law and International Development Society on Facebook and Twitter (@HarvardLIDS).

LIDS Symposium Blog Series – Fred Fedynyshyn of BitPesa opens the Symposium by sharing his experience in fintech and development

By: Michael Maruca

img_0613

Fred Fedynyshyn opened the LIDS Fall Symposium on Technology and Development last Friday, October 21. Fedynyshyn is Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at BitPesa, a payment transfer service that wields mobile money and bitcoin technology to facilitate cross-border payments into and out of Africa. Drawing a historical line from the development of the plow to credit innovations in fintech, Fedynyshyn spoke of how technology is the best way to drive human development.

According to Fedynyshyn, lawyers entering the international development space need to master three things: 1) engaging with government; 2) harnessing the power of the private sector; and 3) understanding the nature of regulation.

Development is inherently political, and most lawyers in the field will operate in heavily regulated industries. Therefore, cultivating a relationship with governments is key, as is understanding their concerns and priorities. In addition to cooperating with low-income country governments, the development lawyer should engage with those countries that set the rules governing activity in their industry.

Fedynyshyn described some of the advantages the private sector has over traditional development agencies. While USAID and development banks are good at long term thinking, identifying priority areas, creating a forum for access to regulators, and providing of credibility and legitimacy, it is the private sector that drives development forward. The private sector tends towards efficiency, may be more willing to take risks, is customer focused, and capable of quick pivots.

However, while the private sector provides an energizing force for technology in development, Fedynyshyn emphasized the need to wield regulation intelligently, a theme that continued throughout the symposium. Smart regulation engages all relevant stakeholders, addresses antitrust issues, internalizes externalities, and takes the long view, since development happens over decades, not quarters. Fedynyshyn spoke of how lawyers in development should take an outcome-focused approach to drafting regulation. They should avoid hyperbole and think calmly about the costs and the benefits as well. This can be a difficult analysis to do, particularly with scarce data. Furthermore, lawmakers in developed countries might be writing the rules for the rest of the world without really understanding how the law can or cannot be implemented on the ground. This disconnect might also occur within low-income countries, as the urban elites are unaware of the difficulties in implementation of laws in rural communities.

Over the course of his keynote speech, Fedynyshyn advised that aspiring international development lawyers in the private sector should be intellectually, emotionally, and financially prepared for the regulatory practice necessary to succeed. Fedynyshyn closed the opening speech on an optimistic note, highlighting some of the themes that tied the other panels together: smart regulation, creating innovation, and the role of ethical concerns in technological development.


About the guest blogger: Mike Maruca is a DC native who came to HLS via Yale and the Peace Corps. He briefly worked as a policy analyst at the OECD Development Centre and plans on practicing in the international development field. He is interested in energy, health, education, and social enterprise in Africa.

Follow Harvard Law and International Development Society on Facebook and Twitter (@HarvardLIDS).

Apply to be on the 2016-17 LIDS Executive Board

Are you interested in international development? Would you like to direct and expand international opportunities at HLS? Do you enjoy networking and making new friends among people who share your interests? Join the 2016-17 LIDS Executive Board! Applications (including descriptions of the various Board positions) are available here and are due by Sunday, April 3. Please reach out to Liz Loftus (eloftus@jd16.law.harvard.edu) or Sam Datlof (sdatlof@gmail.com) with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

On the International Women’s Day Event at Harvard Law School

By: Molly Doggett

The International Women’s Day event organized by Harvard Law and International Development Society and the Harvard Women’s Law Association featured three bright and diverse women, each with her own story of not only “leaning in” to her career, but staying in. The event began with a brief video address by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who acknowledged the accomplishments of women and our strides in women’s rights, and encouraged the audience to continue down this path towards equality. After the video address, each of the three speakers shared her story and encouraged the audience, comprised mostly of law students, professors, and other honorees, to “stay in” for ourselves and for the next generation as well. As a member of Harvard Law School’s first class of students evenly split between men and women, I am grateful to the three speakers, and all other strong women like them, for “staying in” and making it possible for me, my classmates, and my friends to be where we are today.

Panel speakers Mindy Roseman and Katherine Ashley shared their career and life experiences as successful women in the legal field. Mindy Roseman recounted her journey from a child who hated wearing dresses (as she was often forcefully encouraged to do), to the Academic Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard, and now Yale Law School’s Director of International Programs and Director of the Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women’s Rights. That journey included many years of hard work and dedication to the areas of reproductive and sexual rights and women’s rights. Katherine Ashley joined the panel as the first person at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to make partner on a part-time schedule, a feat that took her 17 years to accomplish. Katherine recounted her choice to start a family and to pursue a part-time schedule at the firm in order to maintain a dedicated presence to both her family and her work at the firm. Katherine “stayed in” for 17 years before being made partner – an accolade that most people on the partner track receive in half that time. Both Mindy Roseman and Katherine Ashley impressed the rapt audience with their patience, dedication, grace, and strength in pursuance of their chosen career paths.

The International Women’s Day event also reminded me that mere generations ago, there was an active struggle for women to be accepted into their chosen fields, and once over that hurdle, to be taken seriously. Keynote speaker Roxanne Conlin, one of the first women to be named United States Attorney, recalled her time in law school as one of three women in her class. She remembered how law firms would call the school and ask for the names of the top three students, to which the school would reply, “but, the top three students are women,” and the firm would answer, “ok then, give me the next three names.” She recalled being called on in class for every single case that dealt in some way with sex, adding that this meant that she was called on a lot because “a lot of cases dealt with sex.” She remembered attending class while pregnant during her second year of law school and not being called on – or even acknowledged – at all during the last month of her pregnancy, sensing that her professors were afraid that if they called on her, “the stress would cause the baby to come out right then!” Mrs. Conlin also recounted an episode of blatant sexual harassment that she experienced at one of her first jobs after law school, in which her supervisor said he heard rumors of sexual promiscuity in the office and asked “when his turn was.” Mrs. Conlin said she reacted to this event in the way that “women of the time did” – by asking herself what she was doing wrong. She asked herself what she had done to invite this from her superior – was she dressing “too provocatively,” had she said something to lead him on? Today, she dismissed these thoughts as ridiculous, but acknowledged how at the time she experienced feelings of personal doubt. Mrs. Conlin left this job shortly thereafter, but pushed ahead in her career, eventually becoming one of the first women to be named United States Attorney. President Jimmy Carter appointed her at the United State Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa in 1977, a job that she said she truly loved. Mrs. Conlin today works in the private practice at her own firm, where she says she continues to fight discrimination on behalf of her clients and people everywhere.

Each of the speakers at the International Women’s Day event shared a powerful self-narrative of patiently but actively pursuing her personal and career goals. Each echoed the advice of the others, noting that women should not only “lean in” to their careers but should also “stay in.” The three speakers had made it to where they were because they had stayed in – they had not backed down in the face of blatant adversity or an uphill battle, but had continued pushing on for themselves and for women like them. Perhaps the best advice of the day came from Roxanne Conlin, who said that “when a man steeples his fingers at you, that’s a power move,” and pausing to demonstrate, advised with a grin: “you should always steeple back.”

 

LIDS Student Writing Contest: Should developing countries give their courts the power of judicial review?

LIDS is hosting a student writing contest for our blog, LIDs Live. The contest asks students to respond to the following question: Should developing countries give their courts the power of judicial review? Interested students should submit an answer to this question of between 1000 and 1200 words. We will select the top two answers–the best pro-judicial review post and the best anti-judicial review post–and publish both on our blog. Then, we will allow our readers to select one winner between the final two. The person who gets the most votes will win a dinner with HLS Professor Mark Tushnet.

Submit your posts by Wednesday March 2 at 11:59 pm to mperloff@jd17.law.harvard.edu.