Since its troops swept into Afghanistan 12 years ago, the United States has dispatched hundreds of State Department employees to keep track of the massive American investment in developing the country. The days of such oversight are now ending. Nearly all U.S. diplomats are confined to Kabul because of the shrinking footprint of the American military, which once protected and transported civilian officials. That leaves diplomats here with a predicament: How do they oversee billions of dollars in projects, most of which are far from the capital, when they can’t leave Kabul?

About $1 in every $10 of Canadian aid money was reportedly unspent last fiscal year, hinting at the difficult road ahead for the government to streamline, simplify and speed up operations in the merged Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Preliminary figures recently released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer show that the former Canadian International Development Agency reportedly spent only $2.76 billion out of the $3.14 billion set aside for grants and contributions for fiscal year 2011-2012.

Thirty U.S. doctors and nurses from across the country were sworn in at the White House today as the first class of Peace Corps Global Health Service Partnership volunteers. The new volunteers will leave this weekend for one-year assignments as medical or nursing educators in Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda, where they will work alongside local faculty to train the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Citizen-led development is key for empowering individuals and creating transparency and accountability. In the case of U.S. foreign assistance, Oxfam America advocates for it to be led and designed by the people who need it most. For too long, U.S. government development efforts have worked at cross-purposes with the very people who are trying to lead lasting change in poor countries.

The problem with all these complaints and proposals is that the United States has little leverage for influencing the internal politics of another country, especially one as large and distant as Egypt. This has nothing to do with President Obama. It is a central fact of international politics today, and it applies not just to the United States but to any single nation, however powerful it may be by traditional measures.

Donors have been ramping up aid to fragile states, raising fears about funds falling into corrupt hands. A global corruption survey released this week by Transparency International measures how the public perceive corruption in their own countries. The nongovernmental organization asked 114,000 people in 107 countries which institutions do they think are most corrupt. In Afghanistan, where corruption is a huge concern among donors, 60 percent of respondents think the judiciary is the most corrupt.

The African Development Bank last week became the first multilateral lender to publish its data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative. After disclosing on July 1 data on both its public and private sector activities as well as providing precise geocoded information, AfDB joined the ranks of over 160 development organizations that seek to improve transparency on aid spending to make more effective in fighting poverty with IATI.

The pace of Burma’s political, economic, and social reforms is being matched by a boom in investment and construction... Burma’s geostrategic location between India and China and extensive natural resource wealth make it a natural crossroads for Asian trade and a focal point for broader regional integration.