"Foreign Assistance at Work: Investing in People"
By Stacy Rhodes, USAID/South Africa Director
November 20, 1998--Randburg
I’m excited to be with you here at the banquet tonight. This occasion is very special, for it marks the first official gathering of the USAID Alumni Network in South Africa. This event allows me the privilege of acknowledging the hard work and achievements of you--and thousands of other South Africans who couldn't join us tonight--who have taken advantage of USAID's bursary and scholarship programs.
First, I'd like to say that our assembly here tonight is a tangible illustration of the partnership between our two countries: This is a partnership in which each partner has much to offer to the other. I see the establishment of the USAID national alumni network as a very important step--not only as a means to facilitate meetings, alliances and the common interests of the alumni themselves here in South Africa, but also as a way to strengthen the relationship between our two countries.
This alumni network is one of a growing number of binational activities. New cultural, social and educational institutions are being formed by Americans and South Africans to pursue common interests together. A good example is the recent establishment of the Fulbright Commission, chaired by Richard Fehnel, of the Ford Foundation.
The establishment of these types of organizations reflects both the current strength of our binational relationship and an increasingly close relationship between our two nations. But, I believe that the national alumni network can further strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and South Africa.
Events like this one bring together hundreds of participants who have benefited from USAID's programs, so we can better understand--and appreciate--the ultimate impact of USAID's investments in South Africa and South Africans. I am convinced that your work to build and transform your nation gives real meaning to the importance of our investment in South Africa's future through education.
You are members of a large and growing group. Since 1984, more than 4,000 Black South Africans have furthered their studies through USAID-financed scholarships and bursaries to earn Bachelors, Masters, and PhD Degrees.
Another 3,000 have completed shorter courses targeted at professional development. A further 700 students are currently enrolled, primarily in South African universities and technikons, with assistance from USAID. And we expect several hundred more bursaries will be made available to South Africans during the coming years.
The South Africa program is, in fact, one of USAID's largest scholarship programs in the world. It represents a cumulative investment of more than R300 million, to date.
Consider the sheer number of South Africans who have completed their education with USAID assistance. Look at the contributions that you are now making in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors. This clearly represents a significant contribution to the skills base of this country, and, we believe, a highly effective use of USAID's increasingly scare development resources.
We believe that investing in people is what development is all about. All of USAID's programs--whether directly in education, or in other areas--such as Democracy and Governance, Health, or Private Sector Development--focus on investing in people.
Scholarship programs are designed to create and stimulate opportunity. In a world where there are far too few opportunities, you and your fellow alumni have fully utilized the occasion. Now, you are shaping the future of your families, your communities and your country. As with most things, in the end, the crucial ingredient is NOT the funding provided by a sponsoring organization. Rather, it IS the people who convert their ambition, talent, and hard work into tangible advances for themselves, their neighbors and their nation.
As South Africa moves ever further away from its apartheid past, continued attention to human resource development is clearly required to ensure effective democracy; to eradicate poverty, and to redress a long legacy of social and legal injustice. This continued investment in education and training is particularly vital to the economic transformation process. Let us consider what is probably the biggest challenge confronting South Africa today: the need to create thousands of new jobs for a rapidly growing labor force. And where jobs exist already, the challenge is to achieve equity in employment.
The dimensions of the employment problem are truly daunting. A recent DBSA (Development Bank of South Africa) study reported that between 1984 and 1994, the South African economy added only 142,000 new formal sector jobs. During that same period more than 5 million people entered the workforce.
Close to one thousand South Africans join the labor force each day, yet in recent years, formal sector jobs are actually being lost! This trend appears to be continuing; during the last few months, it seems like new retrenchments are reported nearly every day. But there is more than just the need to create and preserve jobs--as urgent as this is. There is also a need for rapid improvements in employment equity in the workforce, particularly among mid- and senior level managers in the private sector. Perhaps the most flagrant examples are that an estimated 80 percent of all private sector managers and professionals are white males, and only about one percent of senior managers are African females. This is simply not a tenable situation, either from a social or from a hard-nosed business point of view.
The need for employment equity is frequently viewed only as a social or legal imperative. Actually, during the last 30 years in the United States, we have discovered the economic value of diversity to competitiveness and business success. This value will become increasingly important as globalization accelerates. Whether you see globalization as a positive or a negative phenomenon, it is a reality that will heavily influence the future.
Nations that learn how to make the most of their human resources--that value and tap the diversity of cultural and intellectual traditions in their society--are very likely to be the most successful countries in the future, in business and trade, as well as in other endeavors. And as in management, the labor force also needs the skills, attitudes, and knowledge necessary to succeed in a fiercely competitive global environment. These are most readily obtained through a diverse workforce.
The World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked South Africa 38th out of 46 countries in terms of competitiveness. The report cited South Africa's weakest performance in the areas of management, customer service, and worker motivation -- all areas relating to the level of skill and experience in the labor force.
Thus, it is clear that decades of systematic "under-investing" in education and training for the majority of South Africans have taken a severe toll on competitiveness and the pace of economic development here. This impediment has been compounded by the previous education system's specific tactic to discourage blacks from studying in the sciences and professions.
The problem is not only that people lack appropriate qualifications. Actually, compared to other African countries, South Africa has a fairly large pool of ostensibly "qualified" people -- nearly two million South Africans have some sort of post-matric qualification.
The problem is, in large part, the nature and quality of many of these qualifications. Simply put, the education that most South Africans have received has not prepared them appropriately or adequately for the types of jobs that are likely to be created in the future. The next generation of jobs is expected to be oriented heavily towards communication skills, mathematics, technology and the natural sciences. Yet, even the basic skills that people need to be considered "easily trainable" in a fast-paced, competitive economic environment are lacking.
Even at entry level jobs, employers know what they are looking for. In addition to basic academic skills, they want employees with good writing and communication skills; people who can think clearly, identify problems, present a well reasoned case for what should be done, and then carry through with effective solutions. These are not the skills that a system based on rote learning produces.
When we at USAID consider these issues, we are convinced that we need to continue to invest in human resource development, particularly in programs that are designed to provide these basic skills to young students, and to assure that participants will be able to compete successfully for jobs. We are now analyzing and formulating a future program for improved workforce development. The issues I've mentioned suggest a number of possible future directions.
One of these is tertiary education, an area of focus that is increasingly rare in USAID programs around the world. We intend to continue to finance university level scholarships in South Africa. But there may well be a move away from general scholarship programs to much more targeted training. The need is to focus on sectors where there is likely to be the greatest demand for educated employees.
This shift implies an increased emphasis on the natural sciences and on professional areas such as finance, economics, engineering and information technologies. We may also rely more on internships that combine hands-on experience with formal training, and on targeted executive and leadership development to address employment equity concerns. As we are currently engaged in an analysis of the probable future needs of the South African economy, we would certainly be pleased to receive your information and ideas on this subject.
Which brings me back to the role of the alumni network.
I understand that you have already identified a number of important skills-building activities that will be emphasized during your conference this week-end. This is a good use of an alumni network.
Follow-on training and professional development will help to keep you sharp to perform your jobs--or to create new ones. You can also share and generate new ideas and information, and debate key issues before the South African public today, especially those relating to human capacity development.
But in addition to the professional development objectives that are at the heart of any alumni association, I also believe that there is an important role for the national alumni network as a stakeholder in USAID's future development program.
I invite you to engage with us in helping to find solutions to the issues I've raised. Help us to identify what other questions we ought to be asking. I want to encourage you to share with us your ideas about where our future investments in human resource development should be concentrated. Help us to determine if those investments are yielding meaningful impact. After all, you all have the direct experience of participating in--and hopefully, benefiting from--our programs. So you are well positioned to share insights on what works and what doesn't.
I would like to highlight a few of the mechanisms that could be useful to facilitate this type of exchange:
Which is why this is called an annual alumni network conference, because we hope--and fully expect--that this conference will become an annual event. We would like to help ensure that the alumni network has the support that it needs to establish itself and to serve its members.
Indeed, I want to commit USAID to providing continuing support for the network over the next few years.
This support will take the form of a significant contribution to the operating budget of the alumni network to help finance follow-on professional development for members, and to contribute towards expenses of the newsletter and the holding of annual conferences.
As our funds are increasingly limited, future USAID support will have an important proviso. Like alumni and professional associations world-wide, we will expect the network to match the resources we provide through membership dues, or fees for specific activities. This will require the network leadership to determine what activities members want and are willing to contribute towards.
The resources USAID provides can enable the network to offer high quality follow-on training and professional development at an affordable price. USAID staff will work with the network executive committee to determine appropriate, cost-effective implementation mechanisms for this matching fund, and in the development of future network activities.
Our commitment to the alumni network is a vote of confidence in the important role that you can perform and, as I said earlier, in the partnership between our countries.
To close, I would like to quote your extraordinary President. President Mandela recently said to a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress:
"We are linked by nature, but proud of each other by choice."
We certainly are proud of your achievements, and of thousands of other South Africans who have participated in our scholarship and bursary programs.
When we tell the American people that their investments in South Africa are important and are having a positive impact, we are talking about you and the contributions that USAID alumni make to South Africa's development. Your accomplishments are what make our program a success, and we view the future with great optimism that there will be many more such accomplishments.
Thank you.
