The Hill: What Congress needs to know about the Addis Ababa conference
Diana Ohlbaum, independent consultant, co-chair of the Accountability Working Group of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (MFAN), and a principal of Turner4D

“…[T]he high-level [Third International Conference on Financing for Development] was one of major significance, with three key messages for Congress: 1. Talk is cheap, but progress has costs. … This conference was a recognition that before making commitments to achieve major development gains, the world must figure out a way to pay for them. … 2. It’s not all about aid. … What figured most prominently on the Addis agenda was the need for developing countries to raise more of their own domestic resources and invest them in the well-being of their people. … 3. Everyone has a role to play. … Developing countries agreed to ‘strengthen our domestic enabling environments, including the rule of law, and combat corruption at all levels and in all its forms.’ … [The conference’s outcome] doesn’t give Congress a pass on increasing the quantity and quality of development assistance, but it does provide reassurance that others will join us in stepping up to the plate” (7/21).