Good Governance is the Key to Effective Development Assistance

Effective assistance to social and economic development requires good governance, stressed experts from Freedom House, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation at a September 17 event. The conversation was informed by the findings of Freedom House’s latest report, Countries at the Crossroads 2012, which gives a holistic overview of governance and accountability measures in 35 countries around the world. This year’s report found that a lack of institutional reform is hindering democratic progress in the Middle East. Brian Atwood from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development addressed the importance of context in development assistance in his keynote remarks, acknowledging the importance of local actors and the fact that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to development. Morton Halperin, senior advisor to the Open Society Foundations, moderated the panel discussion, which included insight from Vanessa Tucker, director for analysis at Freedom House, Alicia Phillips Mandaville, the managing director of development policy from the MCC, and David Yang from USAID.

To read the report, click here.
To see photos from the event, click here.
To read the press release, click here.