Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade
The Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) was constituted as one of the Agency’s three new technical “pillar” bureaus in August 2001. As the Bureau was organized throughout FY 2002, each Office in the new EGAT was assigned lead responsibility for technical leadership and field support in a given program area: economic growth, poverty reduction, development credit, agriculture, environment and science policy, natural resource management, energy and information technology, urban development, and women in development. Technical staff from regional bureaus were reassigned to the EGAT Bureau to encourage greater synergy among programs in different regions and to deepen the Agency’s expertise in priority areas. This structure enables EGAT to take the lead for the Agency and the Administration in meeting a broad range of development challenges and to provide coordinated support for mission programs around the world.
FY 2002 was a banner year for global debate on the issues of trade, financing for development, hunger and food security, and sustainable development. In addition, the G-8 took on a number of development concerns – education, African development, the digital divide – and special events – the U.N. General Assembly on Children, the Education for All meetings, various OECD forums – focused the attention of senior leaders in the United States on development issues. Finally, the famine in sub-Saharan Africa and the coffee crisis in Latin America underscored the devastating impacts that global forces can have on the livelihoods of poor people.
EGAT staff helped shape the agendas for each of the major conferences and meetings; coordinated USAID participation – often through an interagency process – in these events; drafted action plans for Agency implementation of the Presidential initiatives associated with many of the events; and assumed responsibility for managing and monitoring outcomes of these initiatives. To illustrate:
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, in November, 2002, set out a new trade negotiation agenda – and resulted in agreement that the developed countries would pay attention to enhancing the ability of developing countries to participate successfully in global trade. EGAT coordinated the process of assessing the USG support for what is now called “trade capacity-building” and providing this information in a readable report. This report helped persuade developing countries that the United States was focused on their trade-related issues and willing to support their efforts to increase trade. EGAT staff subsequently drafted a Trade and Investment Strategy for the Agency, developed closer relationships with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office to ensure coordination of development assistance and trade negotiation processes. Staff worked with both U.N. agencies and a number of Least Developed Countries to begin the process of boosting their export capabilities and opening up their trading systems more generally.
At the International Financing for Development Conference at Monterrey, Mexico, in March 2002 (check date), President Bush’s welcome announcement of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) reinforced the major theme of the conference: that it is domestic and foreign private capital that fuels growth and that the governance structures, business climates, and transparent financial systems in developing countries are critical to ensuring that such capital is available. USAID’s efforts in promoting good governance, favorable environments for business investments, and functioning financial systems that reach down to the poor (e.g., through microfinance) were recognized. EGAT’s mandate includes continued support for these programs worldwide.
The five-year anniversary of the World Food Summit, held in Rome in June, 2002, renewed the United States’ commitment to reducing hunger through increasing agricultural productivity,
ending famine, and improving nutrition, particularly in Africa. EGAT staff supported the interagency process to develop this commitment and are providing the technical expertise needed to realize these objectives in programs around the world.
Finally, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, September, 2002, concluded a year of debate and dialogue on issues of economic growth, agriculture, and trade by highlighting the environmental factors that must be addressed to assure sustainability of the global economic growth. EGAT participation enabled the U.S. delegation to draw on the implementation experiences of USAID in defining a proactive way forward, laid out in the Presidential Signature Initiatives on Water, Clean Energy, and Ending Hunger in Africa.
To manage these programs, EGAT is working with both its traditional partners as well as new partners in the private sector. Through EGAT contracting mechanisms, traditional service providers offer field missions and regional bureaus technical knowledge based on long experience. As part of the Global Development Alliance (GDA), new private sector partners are also bringing a new perspective and additional resources to EGAT’s development work. Specific areas for such public-private partnerships include forestry, water, coffee, basic education, and urban infrastructure development.
EGAT plays the critical role of linking Administration policies and initiatives with the field. EGAT manages a portfolio of contracts and grants to provide Missions and regional bureaus rapid access to cutting edge technical assistance. EGAT strengthens the capability of our field missions to work collaboratively with governments, entrepreneurs, investors, traders, scientists, farmers, parents and community groups. EGAT stimulates cross-sectoral thinking that sheds more light on old issues; promotes increased collaboration with other USG, international organizations, and private sector partners; and focuses on those actions that can make a difference.
In FY 2003 and FY 2004, the Bureau will program $147.4 million and $149.7 million, respectively. These funds will be used for innovative research, formation of worldwide partnerships, development and testing of project implementation concepts and tools, and direct provision of technical expertise and training. Through these activities, EGAT will provide the foundation for effective Agency assistance programs in more than 70 countries.
EGAT’s new structure and team approach will promote synergies across sectors and disciplines. New strategic frameworks are being developed to reflect this approach. During this period of transition, however, there is no longer a one-to-one relationship between Strategic Objectives (SOs) and management units (i.e., offices). Multiple offices may have joint responsibility for an individual SO. For example, the Office of Environment and Science Policy (ESP) manages activities, which support agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) strategic objectives. In addition, individual SOs receive funds from more than one funding code. As an example, Women in Development SOs are supported by education, economic growth, and trafficking resources. The Data Sheets that follow include activities that have management input by more than one office.
For a printable version of this section, that includes the charts and graphs from the Congressional Budget Justification FY 2004, please click here.(Note: This file is in pdf format.)
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