President Obama needs to revamp foreign assistance programs and should look at the work of foundations and other institutions to do so, argue two scholars at conservative think tanks in Washington.

In The Weekly Standard, Carol Adelman of the Hudson Institute and Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute write that they examined grant makers, corporations, the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development to come up with nine principles of successful foreign aid.

They include making sure that local people have a say in aid efforts, that programs are flexible and can adapt to new problems, and that there is “a tolerance for risk and a willingness to recognize failure.”

The American aid agency must also do more to consult with foundations, charities, religious organizations, and companies, they say.

“U.S. AID must not only be aware of but also work with the vast array of new players in global development who are transforming the ways in which resources are reaching low-income regions,” they write.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pledged that the State Department, which includes the aid agency, will work more closely with nonprofit groups and philanthropists.

The authors note that President Obama has expressed an interest in improving foreign aid. However, they say he has done little so far to make it a priority. For example, he still has not nominated someone to lead the Agency for International Development.