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- 10/21/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at the White House Development Summit
- 10/08/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, USAID Administrator and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance at The President's Freedom Agenda
- 10/01/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the Ceremony Marking the Full Operational Capacity of Africa Command (AFRICOM)
- 09/25/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at 2008 Millennium Development Goal Malaria Summit, New York - "U.S. Leadership in the Fight Against Malaria"
- 09/22/08: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the White House Symposium on Advancing Global Literacy - "U.S. Commitment to Advancing Global Literacy"
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Remarks by Henrietta Fore
Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and Administrator, USAID
Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion
The President's Freedom Agenda
Main State, Room 1105
October 8, 2008
I am pleased to be here, and I want to thank you for all your hard work on the advisory committee. You indeed represent America's collective brain trust on best practices for promoting democracy.
On July 24, I had the honor of welcoming President George W. Bush to USAID's headquarters. In his address to a gathering of leading democracy and governance stakeholders at the Ronald Reagan Building, the President discussed progress on The Freedom Agenda to end tyranny, and honored dissidents in "captive nations" for their work fighting for freedom and democracy around the world. Many of you were in attendance and I appreciated your thoughtful discussion in the luncheon afterward.
The United States has always stood for the promotion of liberty and freedom abroad. It always has been a bipartisan effort, deeply embedded in our foreign policy. With this in mind, the Secretary and I appreciate your thoughtful recommendations on how to make our democracy promotion efforts even more effective, both for this Administration and the next. Earlier you heard the specifics of the progress the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have made in carrying out the ADVANCE Democracy Act.
As we continue to pursue the objectives outlined in the new National Security Presidential Directive 58 (NSPD-58), "Institutionalizing the Freedom Agenda," we have sought to align resources in keeping with the priorities identified by the interagency, especially as we develop, oversee and implement targeted strategies to support the goals of that agenda.
A key objective of both the ADVANCE Act and the NSPD-58 is to ensure that the U.S. Government is devoting sufficient resources to promote liberty and freedom around the world. USAID has already demonstrated what is possible when its democracy and governance budget is sustained and strategically invested. A recent academic research project found that USAID's assistance had a positive and significant impact on democratic development. The study concluded that, in any given year, $10 million dollars of USAID democracy and governance funding produces about a five-fold increase in the amount of democratic change over what the average country could otherwise be expected to achieve.
It also found that a given amount of USAID DG investment shows more impact on democracy levels when the overall investment pattern is consistent over time, rather than changing considerably from one year to the next.
While sponsored by our Office of Democracy and Governance (DG), the project was conducted by leading scholars at Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. To ensure its independence from USAID, it was guided by an outside panel of experts and its results were published in prestigious peer-reviewed scholarly journals. The research findings have been hailed as "the most comprehensive and rigorous study to date on the effects of aid on democratic governance." We are already starting to use their findings to guide our future democracy programs. (I highly recommend this study to gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn't work in democracy programs. We have provided summaries to you as well as the website link to the entire study.)
As we continue to advance the priorities of this Administration, and seek to make recommendations for the next Administration at USAID, we are pursuing four steps forward:
First, we are seeking sustained investment in high priority countries. The objective of our renewed focus - to be directly informed by the presidential directive on institutionalizing the Freedom Agenda - is threefold:
- One, to support democracy activists in closed societies;
- Two, to accelerate the expansion of individual liberty and political competition in countries now living under authoritarian systems; and
- Three, to empower key democratic institutions, and encourage accountable government capacity in new or fragile democracies; including those in crisis and those rebuilding societies.
Second, we are committed to the development and strengthening of democracy around the globe. Moreover, we are backing up our words with resources. In FY 2008, USAID and the State Department provided nearly $1.4 billion dollars for democracy programs (not including supplemental appropriations).
To provide context, as the number one bilateral donor working in this area, USAID is now dedicating twice the level of resources to democracy and governance as was the case prior to September 11, 2001. These funds support a broad spectrum of programs, including: electoral processes, rule of law, human rights, civil society, media freedoms, labor unions and economic reform. The President requested over $1.7 billion dollars for these programs for FY 2009 (not including supplemental appropriations).
In addition to seeking more resources, we also recognize the fluidity of the needs in this area. It is in this context that we seek to ensure that we have the most useful mix of flexible resources - through USAID and the Department of State - that allow us to react to unforeseen needs and opportunities.
Third, beyond our requests for increased funding for our democracy programs, we are addressing our personnel requirements to support these programs through the Development Leadership Initiative (DLI) at USAID. While the Agency's democracy budget has been rising over the past decade, the number of democracy officers in our missions has not been increasing at the same pace, leaving missions with an inordinate workload.
In recent months, the Development Leadership Initiative was launched to double the number of USAID foreign service officers over the next three years. In FY 2008, we hired 29 new officers specializing in crisis, stabilization, and democracy. Our workforce planning has projected the need for an additional 54 such officers in FY 2009 to meet DLI targets.
Placing more democracy officers in our field missions will enable us to "get out of our bunker embassies" as you recommended this past spring. We will have more trained staff who can go out and "be constantly on the street: in universities, with women's movements, environmentalists, democracy dissidents, workers and their unions, businessmen, and outside the capital city."
Finally, we are pursuing a Democracy Readiness Initiative. This effort will expand and deepen the capabilities of all USAID personnel working on democracy and governance: not only USAID foreign service officers, but also USAID foreign service nationals, civil service personnel and personal services contractors. USAID is investing in the development of competency models across each bureau to improve the recruitment, hiring, and career development of USAID employees, as well as strategic organizational planning. The competency models will further develop the current cadre of over 400 American and international staff managing programs in over 80 countries, as well as those who are expected to join USAID's ranks in the coming years.
Overall, the use of competencies for our democracy and governance specialists will ensure that they deepen their skills for their current and future work, which USAID has pioneered. We will continue to work closely with the State Department and the Foreign Service Institute to assure excellence in training.
Taken together, these four initiatives will enhance the capacity of USAID. Likewise, by working together with the Department of State, we will undertake and manage a more robust and targeted global democratic development program. After the Secretary's remarks in a few minutes, I look forward to hearing the recommendations you may have for the Secretary and me. I welcome any questions you may have now.
Thank you.
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