Improving Development Coordination

A broad study was conducted on the coordination of U.S. foreign assistance and other polices affecting economic development. Some preliminary conclusions have been reached which are relevant to consideration of the administration's proposal for creation of an International Development Cooperation Administration (IDCA). The development coordination function is unquestionably essential, but without a stronger organization proposal the objective sought cannot be achieved. A major purpose of the plan is to separate the coordination function from AID to establish IDCA as an "honest broker." But, unless there is a transfer of major responsibility for U.S. participation in the multilateral banks to IDCA, it will remain essentially a bilateral aid agency. The plan promises only marginal changes in the power and influence of the development coordinator. The failure of the plan to give the development coordinator significant new authority over U.S. participation in the multilateral banks is its central weakness. One of the most promising potential features of the IDCA proposal is that, unlike the foreign assistance legislation of 1973 which created the Development Coordination Committee, it appears to rely less upon committee to achieve coordination and much more upon the IDCA Director and a knowledgeable staff. There are serious misgivings about the reorganization plan as presented by Congress. A successful effort to strengthen the role of IDCA would go far towards improving the plan.