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Before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations
March 27, 2003
Mr. Chairman, Congresswoman Lowey, and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today on this important topic.
Given that military action has commenced, it has become increasingly critical to ensure that USAID and the USG as a whole are positioned to provide timely humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq and be prepared to mobilize significant development resources and technical assistance. If we do not undertake a robust reconstruction program now to ensure stable democratic governance, a private market economy which creates new jobs and hope for the future of the Iraqi people, we may well find ourselves facing regional instability a decade from now.
USAID will be addressing decades of neglect under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Such development challenges not only include neglected infrastructure, critical to the delivery of essential services, but challenges in education, health and governance, among others. Prior to the 1990s, Iraq had one of the best education systems in the Arab world, achieving universal primary school enrollment and significantly reducing women's illiteracy. Statistics indicate that primary school net enrollment is now 76.3 percent, and secondary school enrollment is at 33 percent.
Almost one-third of all children in the south and central regions of Iraq suffer from malnutrition. Low exclusive breastfeeding rates, high prevalence of anemia among women, and a high incidence of low birth weight contribute to Iraq's high child mortality rate of 131 deaths among children under 5 years per 1,000 live births. This rate has more than doubled from the 1980s, with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections accounting for 70 percent of child deaths.
Iraq's highly centralized administration has resulted in a disempowered citizenry and quite limited opportunities for local initiatives. Access to locally controlled public services, such as clean water, sanitation, basic health services and basic education, and the level and quality of these services are substantially less than are suggested by gross indicators of Iraqi economic development.
Supplemental Request
This supplemental request is critical to ensuring that USAID can meet the humanitarian relief and reconstruction needs of the Iraqi people. Deputy Secretary Armitage has spoken to the broader efforts of the Administration; I will focus my remarks on USAID's humanitarian and reconstruction preparations specifically.
USAID will be most active in activities budgeted under the "Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Account." While none of us know the full extent of the tasks ahead, we are confident that the $2.44 billion request will enable us, in collaboration with the State and Treasury Departments, to achieve major results in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction. This flexible new account is precisely what we need to help us respond quickly to the most urgent needs and priorities of the Iraqi people. It's important, as the President recognized, that we not pigeon-hole funds into rigid sub-accounts that would constrain our flexibility and responsiveness or, worse yet, undermine the results we must achieve.
USAID is spending $307 million of its existing FYO3 appropriation in support of our planning efforts. This includes approximately $112 million for food distribution costs; $80 million in emergency relief; $110 million in reconstruction activities; $4 million in transition initiatives; and $1 million in operating expenses. In addition to these funds, we are providing $200 million to purchase food for immediate use in case the Oil-for-Food supplies are unavailable.
While I'm pleased that the Supplemental Request provides for reimbursement these expenses and replenish the various accounts we manage, these pre-positioning costs have displaced our regular programs, thus further highlighting the time-sensitive nature of this request.
USAID Preparedness
USAID currently has over 200 staff working on humanitarian and reconstruction contingency planning for Iraq. We have assembled the largest Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), without a search and rescue team, ever in U.S. history and a team of reconstruction and development experts under the leadership of some of our most experienced career officers.
Emergency supplies and commodities have been stockpiled and pre-positioned, grants have been given to international and nongovernmental organizations to mobilize staff and supplies, and contracting mechanisms are being put into place to begin reconstruction activities as soon as security conditions permit.
Throughout all our planning, USAID has coordinated, as feasible, with other USG agencies and departments, nongovernmental and international organizations, and other donor nations. We fully expect that our allies and international organizations will be involved in relief and reconstruction efforts. We neither foresee nor want this to be a U.S.-only effort. Along with the State Department, we have already been in discussions with other governments that have expressed a willingness to assist, and I myself have encouraged my counterparts in other key donor nations to prepare for the provision of humanitarian relief and reconstruction assistance as we have in USAID and to contribute to UN and other international organizations' appeals for preparedness funds. Among others, the UK has pledged $22 million, Japan has pledged $12.5 million, and the EU has pledged EUR21 million, with a further EUR79 million being identified, for humanitarian relief.
Several principles serve as the foundation for our planning efforts:
- Return Iraq to the control of the Iraqi people as soon as possible.
- Minimize adverse consequences to civilian populations and to civilian infrastructure.
- Discourage civilian population movements which will only make families more vulnerable during and after military action.
- Create conditions immediately after the cessation of hostilities for people to return to their homes.
- Begin reconstruction operations simultaneously with humanitarian relief efforts in order to maximize improvements to Iraqi lives.
- Enlist the support and assistance of the Iraqi civilian population in making decisions about the direction of reconstruction efforts at the community level.
- Minimize intercommunal reprisals given the history of atrocities of the Baathist state system over the past 35 years.
- Move as rapidly as possible towards the time when the Iraqi people will be able to govern themselves freely.
- Create conditions for private sector economic growth which will produce jobs, strengthen the agricultural sector and provide hope for the future.
Humanitarian Assistance
USAID is fully prepared to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people - to save lives, alleviate decades of suffering, and mitigate the impact of emergency situations. USAID has used the five months during which the debate took place over political and military action to disarm Iraq to develop elaborate contingency planning efforts. Thus, we are in a strong position to meet the needs of vulnerable populations and others. Working in close coordination with the Department of State and other U.S. agencies, we have planned for a possible humanitarian emergency by:
- Assembling and training the largest ever U.S. humanitarian rapid response team;
- Pre-positioning stockpiles of emergency supplies and commodities; and
- Communicating and coordinating with U.S. and international humanitarian organizations.
Rapid Response
USAID has recruited and trained the largest Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in U.S. history, outside of an urban search and rescue response. It will be headquartered in Kuwait City and have three mobile field offices. The DART is comprised of more than 60 humanitarian response experts from USAID; the Department of State's Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration; and the Department of Health and Human Services' Public Health Service. To date, more than 45 DART members are already in the region and prepared to undertake assessments in safe areas. In addition to technical experts in areas such as health, food, water, and shelter, the DART has statutory grant making authority and includes administrative offices in logistics, transportation, and procurement, enabling the team to function as a turnkey response mechanism for rapid assessment, humanitarian relief operations, and program funding in the field. The team recently participated in a security assessment of Umm Qasr in preparation for a humanitarian assessment and response.
The DART will coordinate its activities with the U.S. military, operate under the U.S. military security umbrella, and enter areas under its protection as they are secured, but it will not be under military command. Rather, it will report through normal USAID channels to Bear McConnell, Director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, and through him to me.
Commodities
Supplies also include wool blankets; rolls of plastic sheeting for emergency shelter, personal hygiene kits; World Health Organization emergency health kits; and water jugs, bladders, containers and treatment units.
Coordination
USAID's leadership has met for several months with a wide range of U.S.-based non-governmental and international organizations planning for a humanitarian response in Iraq. In the region, the DART will continue to serve as a central point of contact, information exchange and humanitarian assistance coordination among nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), U.N. agencies, international organizations (IOs), and the U.S. military. USAID has funded a significant emergency coordination effort for NGOs preparing to assist in Iraq called the Joint NGO Emergency Preparedness Initiative (JNEPI), offering support to their assessment, logistics, stockpiling, and staffing needs.
Areas of Greatest Need
USAID's areas of expertise and responsibility for humanitarian assistance include health and medicines, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter and supplies, internally displaced persons, and humanitarian assistance infrastructure (logistics and coordination).
Health and medicines. Through technical assessments, pre-positioned supplies, and the ability for immediate response, USAID will ensure the essential healthcare needs of the Iraqi people are met. Our goals include assessing local health infrastructure, including facilities, medicine availability, and immunization rates; preventing excess morbidity and mortality by focusing on preventative and primary healthcare; expediting funding for UN agencies, IOs and NGOs; and assisting in the establishment of a national Health Information System platform.
Water and sanitation. A successful emergency response requires adequate levels of potable water, and sanitary waste disposal and wastewater removal systems. Other goals include overall damage assessment of water and sanitation facilities that reach all major population centers; immediate assessment and response to provide adequate supplies of potable water; and extensive coordination with, and expedited funding to, water and sanitation experts and organizations.
Food and nutrition. The UN estimates that 60 percent of the Iraqi people rely solely on food rations from the Oil for Food Program for their food supply, and that households have an average of one month of food stocks. USAID will ensure the nutritional needs of the population are met through food availability and distribution; work with international organizations to maintain the countrywide ration system on an emergency basis and support internally displaced persons; and ensure that populations such as the Turkmen and Marsh Arabs which have been excluded from the ration system are added to the eligibility lists and that rations are provided on a equitable basis
Shelter and supplies. The emergency response will include meeting the emergency shelter needs of vulnerable populations, particularly the internally displaced and refugees, through the provision of pre-positioned plastic sheeting and tents; and expediting funding to the UN and NGOs to meet basic shelter needs for these populations.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) and Refugees. Minimizing displacement will be a top priority of the USG's humanitarian response strategy. Meeting basic humanitarian needs and limiting sickness and death will be the primary focus for newly displaced populations. This will include ensuring access to healthcare, clean water, food and shelter; expediting funding to the UN, IOs and NGOs to establish and manage displaced population camps; and creating conditions that enable the voluntary return of IDPs and refugees to places of origin as rapidly as possible.
Humanitarian assistance infrastructure. Emergency interventions and high-impact projects will be used to facilitate humanitarian access and program implementation. This will include monitoring the physical transportation infrastructure to ensure access to populations in need; contracting transportation to move and distribute supplies; and communicating with vulnerable populations regarding the availability and location of assistance.
Post-conflict Reconstruction Assistance
USAID took the unprecedented step of beginning to plan for reconstruction and development assistance to Iraq at the same time as we began our humanitarian planning. As a result, USAID is prepared to begin reconstruction assistance as soon as security conditions permit, nearly simultaneously with our humanitarian assistance. I am proud of the work our staff has done to ensure a seamless and coordinated effort between our humanitarian and reconstruction programs. Our reconstruction planning has similarly been coordinated with the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Defense and many other U.S. agencies.
Specifically, USAID is prepared to mobilize significant development resources and technical assistance to help the Iraqi people realize a prosperous and just Iraq. To this end, we have assembled a team of reconstruction and development experts; identifying potential needs in key sectors and putting contracts in place to begin work immediately; and coordinating planning and efforts with U.S. and international organizations.
Reconstruction Team
USAID has created a reconstruction team to design and oversee reconstruction and development programs, similar to other USAID missions. Mr. Lew Lucke, former USAID mission director to Bolivia, Jordan, and Haiti, is responsible for the management of activities assigned to USAID under reconstruction.
The USAID reconstruction team consists of a core Mission team that presently has 25 members. This number is likely to rise as our plans are fully implemented. This core team will supervise approximately 15 institutional contractors that would be responsible for the implementation of our program. We expect that the contract staff would include large numbers of additional U.S. citizen personnel, third-country nationals and locally-hired Iraqis. These numbers do not include employees of NGOs or other grantees with whom we also expect to partner.
This mission structure reports to Wendy Chamberlin, Assistant Administrator for the Asia and Near East Bureau, and through her to me. Its activities are closely coordinated with the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
Procurement
Our team has worked hard to identify likely needs for reconstruction in key sectors. Much will depend on Saddam Hussein and how destructive he chooses to be against his own citizens and infrastructure during the course of military conflict. Moreover, Iraq is not a typical developing country. It has a well-developed infrastructure and level of social services, although much of it has been degraded over decades of neglect under Saddam Hussein's regime. We have taken significant steps already to put contracts in place in key sectors so that work may begin as soon as security permits.
By early April, USAID plans to have awarded eight contracts to address public health, primary and secondary education, local governance support, capital construction, seaport and airport administration, and theater logistical and personnel support. Further procurement actions will be taken subject to the supplemental appropriation.
Coordination
As with our humanitarian planning, USAID's leadership has been meeting with U.S. and international organizations expert in reconstruction and development assistance in the sectors for which we will be responsible. In addition to working with institutional contractors, USAID will work through partnerships with NGOs, international organizations, and U.S. universities. Reconstruction efforts will also include contacts and partnerships between Iraqi and U.S. educational institutions.
Areas of Greatest Need
USAID's areas of expertise and responsibility for post-conflict reconstruction include restoring critical infrastructure, improving health services and public education, expanding economic opportunities, and improving the efficiency and accountability of government.
Restoring Critical Infrastructure: Reconstruction assistance will rehabilitate critical infrastructure to help maintain stability, ensure the delivery of essential services, and facilitate economic recovery. Iraq's roads and ports will be rehabilitated to meet the needs of citizens and facilitate transportation of humanitarian assistance, as well as commercial imports and exports. Potable water and sanitation services will be reestablished to prevent disease. Assistance also will restore the power supply to health and educational facilities, water supply facilities, and infrastructure that contribute to the local economy and employment generation.
Supporting Health Services and Public Education: Assistance will restore basic healthcare services to vulnerable populations and focus on strengthening the national education system. Programming will include the delivery of essential drugs, equipment, and supplies to health facilities, and will assist in health and disease assessment. Health assistance also will supply health information and education to the public, build the management capacity of Iraqi counterparts, and promote fair and open access to health services. Education assistance will increase access to primary and secondary public education for Iraqi children, promote retention of students in the classroom, strengthen school administration, and develop re-entry programs for out-of-school youth.
Expanding Economic Opportunity: Reconstruction assistance will promote a competitive private sector, generate employment opportunities, and improve agricultural productivity. Activities will include extending credit to small and micro-enterprise businesses; developing local, regional and international business networks; and providing workforce development and training. Agricultural assistance will supply agricultural inputs for the spring and winter planting season, address livestock and poultry diseases and farmers will be trained to use modern agricultural technologies to enhance profitability and competitiveness.
Improving Efficiency and Accountability of Government: Reconstruction assistance will foster social and political stability by helping meet citizens' basic needs within their communities. Programming will provide Iraqis with the opportunity to participate in public decision-making. Technical assistance will strengthen the capacities of local administrations to manage and deliver services such as potable water, education, and healthcare. Programming will be structured to support the development of local and national nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations. Technical assistance will also support the preparation and implementation of an appropriate legal framework for decentralized government.
Transitional Assistance
In coordination and conjunction with our humanitarian and reconstruction planning, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives is preparing a robust and targeted transitional assistance program to assist in mitigating acts of reprisal and revenge, to support high visibility projects that demonstrate positive change, and to provide balanced and accurate information to the Iraqi people.
Mitigating Acts of Reprisal and Revenge
Experiences from the Gulf War and other conflicts suggest that the potential for serious acts of reprisal and revenge by populations against which Saddam Hussein and the Baathist Party have committed terrible atrocities over the past thirty five years is very real. USAID has worked through the inter-agency process to develop a strategy to mitigate against serious human rights abuses occurring in the days and weeks following the liberation of Iraq. Civil Affairs officers and DART team members have been trained in specific operational steps that can be taken to minimize the possibility of widespread abuses and atrocities occurring. Key among these are restoring stability and normalcy to communities as quickly as possible by getting youth and young men off the streets and back into schools or jobs, publicizing judicial procedures for people with grievances stemming from crimes committed during Saddam's reign, and ensuring an adequate security environment to keep tensions in check.
High Visibility Projects
Working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), USAID has developed a strategy to work with communities to identify immediate needs and respond directly with programs and funding to meet these needs.Media Activities
In order to ensure accurate and balanced information regarding the situation on the ground is received by the Iraqi people, USAID will work with media outlets outside Iraq with the capacity to broadcast directly to the Iraqi people, such as Radio Sawa. Vital information concerning the provision of humanitarian assistance, the continuation of the food ration system, and the need for tolerance and restraint to prevent reprisals are being developed. In addition, USAID is developing a strategy for the legal and regulatory reforms that will be necessary to open up Iraqi media to independent reporting.
Conclusion
I am personally very pleased with both the structure and the content of the President's Supplemental Appropriations request. USAID, of course, will be most active in activities budgeted under the "Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Account." While none of us know the full extent of our tasks ahead, we're confident that the $2.44 billion request will enable us, in collaboration with the State and Treasury Departments, to achieve major results in humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.
This "flexible new account" is precisely what we need to help us respond quickly to the most urgent needs and priorities of the Iraqi people. It's important, as the President recognized, that we not pigeon-hole funds into rigid sub-accounts that would constrain our flexibility and responsiveness or, worse yet, undermine the results we must achieve.
We're also pleased with requests under the "International Assistance Account," notably to those countries where USAID has bilateral programs such as Jordan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Philippines, and Columbia. Several of them are front-line states in the Global War on Terrorism. There is no question that this additional assistance, in many cases, will help us accelerate both our development and overall national security goals.
In sum, Mr. Chairman, USAID is doing everything possible to prepare for the humanitarian and reconstruction needs of the people of Iraq. The President and Secretary Powell are committed to minimizing the disruption in services and humanitarian consequences for the people of Iraq, but even more will depend on the actions of Saddam Hussein to avoid harming his people.
For more information on USAID's humanitarian relief efforts in Iraq, please visit www.usaid.gov/iraq/.
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