This story got my attention this morning while I was looking for the topic for today’s column in the newspaper. It provides an interesting insight into the things going on behind the scenes in Williamsburg.
Let me provide a little background on this topic. Our national political figures are constantly arguing over how much aid the United States should provide to other countries of the world. One point of view is that the US government should focus on meeting the country’s domestic needs. Another point of view is that by aiding other countries, the US IS helping meet the country’s domestic needs. In a world where the global influences on any nation’s policies are inescapable and uncontrollable, focusing just on domestic needs is shortsighted and inefficient.
I’m not going to solve this problem today. But the William and Mary program that is the focus of this article is focused on one important part of the story: any decision about the effectiveness of foreign aid has to be based on good data. This is the focus of the featured project of the college’s Global Research Institute. Its AidData lab is a global database that tracks grants and loans made to developing countries. According to the article, the data collected and analyzed by AidData helps to evaluate the effectiveness of foreign aid. The database is available at no cost to anyone in the world.
The individual featured in the article – Mike Tierney – is the director of the Global Research Institute. (side note: he is married to Jen Tierney, the chair of the local Democratic Party Committee). In the story, Mike recounts how this program came into existence 20 years ago.
In 2012, the United States Agency for International Development selected William & Mary to lead a five-year award of $25 million to increase global aid transparency through the creation of the AidData Center for Development Policy. The center was mandated to create “geospatial data and tools to enable the global development community to target, monitor, and evaluate foreign aid more effectively.” This was the largest single research award in W&M history; the program has now generated $37 million in research funding.
As we watch world events, it is obvious that the economic and political problems of the “Global South” are impacting the “Global North” in profound ways. Poverty and instability in the Global South are increasing migrant pressures on the Global North, and human rights issues relating to famine, chronic poverty, climate change, and political violence are forcing the Global North to pay more attention to the Global South. Wealthy nations are faced with growing global inequality and are trying to find ways to alleviate the suffering across the globe.
No matter where you fall on the policy options facing the nations of the world, it is undeniable that a nation’s decisions should be based on the facts about the costs and benefits of economic aid. This W&M program is an important element in the decisions nations are making as they face the world as it is today.
I’d like to add a comment to this. I walk past the building that houses the Global Research Institute several times a week while I am taking a walk. The Green Leafe Café – where the group met in 2003 to sketch out what would ultimately become this program – is across the street from the football stadium. It used to be called The Colonial and was a place where students could purchase the weak 3.2 beer that 18-year-olds were allowed to buy in the 1960s. Tim and I didn’t eat our meals there often, but we went to it regularly enough that we knew what it was all about.
My point is that important work is going on constantly at the major research university that sits at the heart of our community. Because William and Mary focuses on undergraduate education – it has few graduate programs and only two components that emphasize advanced degrees (its law school and business school) – undergraduate students are offered opportunities that are often sucked up by higher-level students at other universities. So the kids I see playing frisbee or kicking a soccer ball around in the Sunken Garden are being given the chance to participate in important programs like this one while they are still in the formative years of their education. Exposure to this type of learning through research is invaluable for the decisions they make about the future course of their lives.
Nice.
Yep, another great piece and one of the many reasons I love living here--W&M has added so much to my life. It's a terrific institution with wonderful people teaching and thinking about tomorrow's world.