MINNEAPOLIS– After participating in a panel (PDF) on the future of U.S. foreign assistance at the University of Minnesota on Monday, Oxfam America President Raymond Offenheiser spoke to CFR.org about the next presidential administration’s approach to foreign aid. With several other think takes and non-governmental organizations, Oxfam has created the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network  to “make the argument that as a new administration comes in, it’s a critical moment for those of us who are thinking of the balance between diplomacy, defense and development,” says Offenheiser. The group is calling for major reforms and a “twenty-first century vision for how the United States engages with the world through the use of foreign assistance programs.” Offenheiser says the United States needs a new national development strategy that is aligned with national security and diplomatic interests, and an “entirely new” approach to development that is “driven from the field, not driven from the halls of Congress.” To accomplish all this, Offenheiser says the United States needs to create new legislation to replace the old foreign assistance bill. He also calls for the creation of a new government department, headed by a cabinet-level position, devoted to development so that the Defense and State Departments “don’t subsume the development agenda.” The new department would need adequate funding to incorporate the Millennium Challenge Corporation and PEPFAR, and to deal with humanitarian crises and the possible humanitarian consequences of climate change, the energy crisis and the global food crisis.

The Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, which includes representatives from the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Council on Foreign Relations, among others, has met with advisers from both the McCain and Obama campaigns to encourage them to make these reforms a priority. In separate Foreign Affairs essays, both candidates have addressed foreign aid, particularly with regard to Africa. McCain said he would establish a goal of eradicating malaria in Africa. In addition to saving lives, such a campaign would “much to add luster to America’s image in the world,” McCain wrote. Obama wrote that he would “consider” using military force to “support friends, participate in stability and reconstruction operations, or confront mass atrocities.” Neither mentioned a dramatic restructuring of U.S. development efforts on the scale Offenheiser advocates.

Offenheiser says he hopes the initiative will lead the next administration to “rethink the entire framework through which we have been doing foreign aid.”