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Op-ed: Governments key to USAID’s local capacity development efforts

The new local capacity development policy of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will very likely set the tone for how its partners and other development institutions begin to re-imagine local capacity building. At both national and subnational levels, one actor will be crucial to the success of these  efforts: the government.

Sudan’s US envoy, forced to resign, tells us ‘the situation is disastrous’

When Nureldin Mohamed Hamed Satti arrived in Washington back in July 2020, he was welcomed as Khartoum’s first ambassador to the United States in 23 years. Yet Satti’s mission proved to be short-lived. On Jan. 31, the 75-year-old former UN official was forced to resign after a military coup back home plunged Sudan into a political and humanitarian crisis.

Op-ed: Want to be a US ambassador? Pay up.

As the Biden administration approaches its first anniversary in power, it might be useful to explain one way in which Washington operates, even though it has not changed with the transition from Trump to Biden. This feature of American statecraft, which is often misunderstood, is the uniquely American tradition of selling the title of “ambassador.”

V-Dem warns of democratic backsliding in COVID’s wake

While some nations have seen a significant deterioration of freedoms during the past 18 months, the pandemic’s direct impact on the vitality of democracy itself has so far been limited, the Swedish nonprofit V-Dem says. But those who run Washington’s top global development organizations aren’t waiting to sound the alarm.