Making international assistance work for America.
The Consensus for Development Reform (CDR) is a platform of leading conservative and private sector voices for more effective U.S. global leadership through reforming and improving our approach to global development.
CDR’s participants are a select group of conservative thought-leaders and policy experts, including former members of Congress, senior Administration officials, and private sector leaders who share a common commitment to U.S. leadership in global development and improvement of our foreign assistance’s effectiveness.
CDR Leadership
Former OPIC CEO and President
ROB MOSBACHER
Former U.S. Representative
ED ROYCE
Former U.S. Representative
TED YOHO
CDR Participants
AMBASSADOR JOHN DANILOVICH Former CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
AMBASSADOR PAULA DOBRIANSKY Former Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs
AMBASSADOR MARK DYBUL Former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and former U.S. Global HIV/AIDS Coordinator
GARY EDSON Former Executive Director of the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund and Former Deputy National Security Advisor, Deputy National Economic Advisor and Deputy Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs
SENATOR BILL FRIST, M.D. Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
GARRETT GRIGSBY Former Director of Global Affairs at Health & Human Services, Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID, and Deputy Staff Director at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
BEN LEO CEO of Fraym.io, Visiting Fellow of the Center for Global Development, and Former National Security Council and Treasury Department official
REAR ADMIRAL DONALD LOREN (USN, ret.) Former Deputy Director at the Joint Staff, former Deputy Director at the National Counterterrorism Center, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Security Integration
JIM MAZZARELLA Former White House National Security Council, Senior Director for Global Economics and Development
JIM RICHARDSON Former Director, Office of Foreign Assistance at the State Department
DAN RUNDE Director of CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development and Former Senior Official at the IFC and USAID
AMBASSADOR JOHN SIMON Former Ambassador to the African Union, Executive Vice President at OPIC, and Senior Director at the National Security Council
SENATOR JOHN SUNUNU Former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire
REAR ADMIRAL TIM ZIEMER (USN, ret.) Former U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator
Our mission
CDR is founded on the fundamental belief that America is a force for good in the world, and that our foreign policy is most successful when it supports economic opportunity, democratic accountability, and respect for human dignity.
Advancing such universal values is vital to our security and prosperity in a world full of challenges that defy military and diplomatic solutions alone, but our development dollars must be deployed more effectively and achieve greater impact. When guided by a clear strategy, held accountable for results, and focused on economic growth that enables countries to drive their own development, our aid will yield better results for those we are helping and will more faithfully serve U.S. interests.
A primary objective of CDR is to articulate a development strategy that will more clearly focus U.S. foreign assistance on the promotion of private sector-led economic growth – the only truly sustainable development strategy. CDR believes that U.S. assistance programs must focus on mobilizing private sector investment in developing countries through the promotion of rule of law and democratic institutions, reduction of barriers to growth, finance and risk mitigation tools, and investments in critical infrastructure.
CDR also believes that U.S. foreign assistance should continue to lead the global fight against suffering and disease, bringing hope and opportunity to those in greatest need. This humanitarian commitment has been the basis of American global leadership for 70 years. During President George W. Bush’s Administration, conservatives built a legacy of leadership on global development and humanitarian assistance through the creation of bold and innovative programs such as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
CDR works with policy-makers, think-tanks, advocacy groups, and committed individuals to help create a foreign assistance reform agenda that strengthens our global leadership, drives economic growth, improves accountability, and builds democratic institutions.