Morning Briefing

The U.S. "ranks among the lowest in terms of the quality and effectiveness of its aid," according to a new Center for Global Development (CGD)/Brookings Institution report, Foreign Policy's "The Cable" blog writes. The report examined "30 separate, measurable indicators and evaluated them in terms of four dimensions: maximizing efficiency (how smartly the money is distributed), fostering institutions (whether the money is helping host governments), reducing the burden on recipient countries (how much the host countries need to do to get the money), and transparency and learning (how much we know about how the aid is being spent)."