President Obama “has made some good headway [on foreign aid] in his first term, producing the government’s first global development policy and an innovative new policy on disaster resilience, launching new efforts to combat global hunger, supporting reforms to the U.S. Agency for International Development and committing to greater aid transparency,” Jeremy Konyndyk, director of policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece, part of “The Road Forward” series. “But while [former President George W.] Bush’s major development achievements [including PEPFAR] continue to enjoy broad bipartisan support, President Obama’s achievements remain more tenuous and could be reversed in the future,” he says, adding, “As he enters his second term, the president should take several steps to cement his legacy on global development.”

Konyndyk says Obama “should work with Congress to pass major foreign aid legislation”; “rein in the military’s forays into foreign aid”; and “fix the impasse between terror financing regulations and humanitarian aid.” He concludes, “Obama now has four more years to seal his development legacy and a host of good options for doing so. None of these tasks would be easy, but all would have a huge impact on U.S. development policy and those it assists around the world” (1/17).