The Hill: An American development finance playbook for a 21st century market
Tessie San Martin, president of Plan International USA and co-chair of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network

“…[The BUILD Act, which proposes the establishment of a new U.S. international development finance corporation,] is a unique opportunity to modernize the tools at our disposal to enhance the effectiveness and impact of our foreign assistance dollars. … Maintaining USAID’s strong capacity to engage with the private sector will … be essential to the international development finance corporation’s effectiveness. … The office’s unique contribution is that it can effectively work at the macroeconomic, microeconomic, and enterprise levels. … The new U.S. international development finance corporation would ultimately be a force multiplier for effective development by ‘crowding in’ more socially impactful investment leading to more inclusive and equitable economic growth. This is a win-win for the United States and its partner countries. But we need to be smart about how the entity is designed, governed, and managed so it can effectively leverage what already exists. This will ensure the United States gets the most bang for every development buck” (4/20).