Via Lowy Institute's Aid-Review blog:
The Obama administration has clear ambitions for its aid program. In September last year (2010), President Obama signed a Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, the first of its kind by a US administration. That directive described development as a core pillar of American power. It recognised development as an essential component of its national security approach and described it as a strategic, economic and moral imperative for the United States. It looked at underpinning aid policy coherence across government. Four months later in mid-December, the report of the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), commissioned by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 18 months earlier, was released.