Paul Farmer, co-founder of the nonprofit group Partners in Health, seems to be among a shrinking list of contenders to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development, Foreign Policy magazine reports on its blog.

A spokesman for Partners in Health confirmed to Foreign Policy‘s Laura Rozen that Mr. Farmer met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week.

Mr. Farmer, a medical doctor and winner of a a MacArthur Foundation “genuis” award, started Partners in Health over two decades ago. Best known for its projects in Haiti, the charity is credited with pioneering an approach to community health based on an understanding of the connections between poverty and disease.

Foreign Policy reports that the selection of Mr. Farmer could come with a reorganization of the U.S. Agency for International Development, with the goal of better integrating all non-military U.S. assistance. ...

International programs would get a boost if President Obama’s proposed budget is approved by Congress.

The 2010 budget proposal requests roughly $2.73-billion for “development assistance” provided through the U.S. Agency for International Development, compared with $2-billion the previous year.

It also calls for increases for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a government program that seeks to reduce poverty abroad, and for aid after natural disasters.

Jim McDonald, vice president for policy and programs at the nonprofit group Bread for the World, said those and other increases would result in nearly $2.6-billion in additional money for efforts to fight poverty abroad. Of the total $51.7-billion included in the budget for all non-military efforts abroad, about $20.5-billion would go toward poverty-focused development assistance, he said.

“We’re encouraged,” said Mr....

President Obama’s proposal to spend $8.6-billion next year on what he dubbed a “new, comprehensive global-health strategy” has drawn ire from some global-health charities, which say he has requested far less to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria than he had previously pledged.

In a statement released this week and in the budget proposal released today, Mr. Obama described a new approach to global health that would support President Bush’s popular President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief while also putting greater emphasis on efforts to prevent deaths of mothers and children and improving health systems in poor countries.

Mr. Obama’s budget proposal calls for $63-billion to be spent over six years, approximately $51-billion of which would be spent to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The budget calls for increases of $366-million this year for AIDS, tuberculosis, and...

Two members of the House — one Democrat and one Republican — introduced a bill last night that would revamp how the U.S. government provides assistance overseas, a change many charities have sought.

The legislation, proposed by Rep. Howard Berman, Democrat of California who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, would focus on three areas: developing a U.S. strategy for providing overseas aid, changing how the U.S. government tracks and evaluates its work, and providing more information on how aid dollars are spent.

Many charities have been critical of how the United States delivers assistance abroad, saying it is poorly coordinated among many agencies and doesn’t always take into account the needs of people in poor countries.

David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a charity that has worked with the One Campaign,...

The Senate approved today an amendment that would provide all the money to foreign aid that President Obama requested.

Charities such as the One Campaign and InterAction, an umbrella group of international charities, had lobbied for the amendment, which would restore $4-billion the Senate Budget Committee had sought to cut from Mr. Obama’s foreign-aid budget.

The Obama administration had initially proposed spending $53.8-billion on foreign assistance in 2010, an increase of roughly 8 percent over the previous year.

International charities were thrilled by the Senate’s move.

Following the vote, the One Campaign posted a blog item entitled “Victory.” International charities were also corresponding with each other on the social-networking site Twitter about the vote. “Are you dancing in your office?” someone from InterAction wrote to the charity Refugees International. The group’...

Nonprofit groups that work overseas are urging Congress against cutting support for foreign aid from President Obama’s proposed budget.

Charities are asking supporters to press members of Congress to reject moves by the Senate and House Budget Committees that would trim $4-billion and $5.3-billion, respectively, from the amount Mr. Obama had requested.

Mr. Obama sought $53.8-billion for foreign assistance in his budget proposal for 2010. Senators John Kerry, a Democrat, and Richard Lugar, a Republican, have introduced an amendment that would restore the money to the level requested by Mr. Obama.

Nonprofit leaders say the decrease would hinder efforts to help poor people abroad. “Anything less than the request level of $53.8-billion will greatly hamper President Obama’s efforts to implement programs essential for millions of children and families around the world,” said Save...

International charities may not receive as much money from President Obama’s budget as they have hoped.

In an interview with National Public Radio this morning, Kent Conrad, the Democratic senator who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said he intends to cut $4-billion in foreign assistance from Mr. Obama’s proposed budget. The president’s proposal would have increased foreign aid to more than $50-billion by 2012.

An article today in The Christian Science Monitor said the Obama administration is signaling that its pledge to increase foreign aid to $50-billion may not be met by the end of the president’s first term. “With a significantly worse economic and budgetary picture, the White House Office of Management and Budget speaks of ‘extending out’ the goal of doubling foreign aid — presumably into what administration officials envision as a second term for the president,” the...

The nonprofit leader Van Jones has been tapped by the White House to serve as an adviser on green jobs, the Obama administration announced this week.

Mr. Jones, founder of the nonprofit group Green for All and co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, was an early leader in the push for creating jobs that could promote environmental sustainability.

He will serve as special adviser for green jobs, enterprise, and innovation within the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

“Van Jones has been a strong voice for green jobs and we look forward to having him work with departments and agencies to advance the president’s agenda of creating 21st century jobs that improve energy efficiency and utilize renewable resources,” said Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House council. “Jones will also help to shape and advance the administration’s energy and climate initiatives ...

More than 40 charities have called on President Obama to develop a plan for alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and helping Iraqis who have fled their country because of violence.

The charities said, in a letter this week, that efforts by nonprofit groups to improve conditions in local Iraqi communities, supported largely by the U.S. Agency for International Development, are “among the few U.S.-sponsored development programs in Iraq that have largely accomplished their goal.”

But they said charities’ efforts in Iraq have been overshadowed by projects undertaken by the military and by for-profit companies. In order for charities to better assist Iraqis in improving their lives, the organizations suggested that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ought to lead an effort that would involve nonprofit groups, the United Nations, the Iraqi government, and its neighboring...

Groups that advocate for greater spending on international aid say they are pleased with President Obama’s budget proposal, which would increase by 9.5 percent, to $51.7-billion, the amount the U.S. government spends on foreign assistance.

“It is reassuring to see that the president understands how our investments abroad actually protect our families, jobs, and national security,” said Samuel A. Worthington, president of InterAction, an umbrella organization of international charities, in a statement. “Failing to adequately support our international development and humanitarian programs that work with the world’s poorest people to reduce global poverty and promote economic growth undermines our own national interest.”

Writing on the Center for Global Development’s blog, Sheila Herrling called the increase a “remarkable outcome given the state of the economy and the difficult...