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- USAID-State
Strategic Plan 2007-2012
- National
Security Strategy of the United States, March 2006
- Policy
Framework for Bilateral Foreign Aid, January 2006 [PDF,
440 KB]
- White Paper:
US Foreign Aid: Meeting the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century,
January 2004 [PDF, 353 KB]
- Fragile
States Strategy, January 2005 [PDF, 305 KB]
- Democracy
and Governance Strategic Framework [PDF, 343 KB]
- Mitigating
the Development Impacts of HIV/AIDS [PDF, 406 KB]
- Foreign Aid in the National
Interest [PDF, 353 KB]
- Nine Principles,
February 2005
- Business
Transformation
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Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore
Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance
Society for International Development's 2008 Annual Conference
Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington, DC
March 4, 2008
Thank you very much. It is delightful to see all of you - compliments for the extraordinary turnout for this year's annual conference. I appreciate this opportunity to meet with you again because you represent some of our nation's most respected practitioners and advocates of global development. Today I would like to share with you some of the important and exciting ways in which foreign assistance is evolving and improving to meet challenges of the world today.
First, I want to talk about efforts to restore USAID leadership - in intellectual as well as operational terms. Second, I want to reflect on a few important lessons that we have learned in the last few years. And third, the Development Leadership Initiative as a way forward.
The Administration's Legacy
I believe this year will be pivotal for America's efforts to promote human dignity and reduce global disease, hunger, and poverty. I am very proud to serve as USAID Administrator and the Director of Foreign Assistance under President Bush who has done so much for these causes. When President Bush visited Africa last month, the Los Angeles Times offered him well-deserved praise.
The Times editorial page said that the President "has arguably done more for that part of the world than any other U.S. President, though his critics seldom give him credit for it." The Times said further that his "$15 billion dollar AIDS program has provided antiretroviral treatment to more than 1.33 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, and he has committed unprecedented sums to fight malaria and other diseases on the continent." As representatives of some of the key implementing partners who carry out this vital work, I thank all of you for your work to translate the sums committed into the health results that we see in Africa today.
Among the important initiatives established under the Administration are the Millennium Challenge Corporation, PEPFAR, and the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance. In the Office of the Director of Foreign Assistance, we are working hard to design and lead a more coherent, resourceful, and effective development community. The Administration also understands the importance of, and is committed to, a stronger USAID that provides intellectual leadership within the United States government and in the broader development community.
Let me provide a few examples of USAID's recent development leadership.
USAID's Institutional Leadership (Development PCC, Nordic Plus)
For the first time, USAID is chairing the International Development Policy Coordinating Committee, which is a forum for consultation and coordination among senior policy officials representing a wide range of federal agencies involved in foreign assistance activities. As the chair of this forum, I am going to focus on a few key areas that I think will make a larger impact in the next few months. First, I will focus on enhancing the impact of United States Government assistance by forging agreements on "whole-of-government" approaches at the country level where it is especially important but also in Washington. Second, a genuine collaboration to foster private sector-led growth, something that Corey mentioned in his opening remarks, across all U.S. Government agencies, and most particularly to stimulate entrepreneurial spirit in Africa and else where. And third, strengthening our voice on the international stage on key assistance issues such as aid effectiveness and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. We will have the Millennium Development Goals addressed at the UN MDG summit in April in New York City and at the Accra Summit this coming September.
Outside of Washington, USAID is also moving forward as a leader. Once again, USAID is engaged partner with other donors, providing leadership on practical results oriented collaboration. This past October, USAID initiated a dialogue that resulted in agreement with Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, referred to as the Nordic Plus, to publicly and enthusiastically confirm our strong commitment to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. As a result, we have committed to harmonize donor efforts and we are piloting this in Ghana and Tanzania to enhance the impact of our collective aid efforts, and this is key to reach out to the NGOs and the private sector, to engage them as partners in the effort to achieve sustainable development.
The Economic Growth Strategy
Another advance in intellectual leadership is our landmark new USAID strategy for economic growth that is soon to be published. But today I will give you just a snap shot of the preview.
The USAID Economic Growth Strategy was developed through careful research and consultation to identify the lessons learned from economic development programs of the past 30 years. It builds on the core insight that economic growth derives from the efforts made within enterprises of all sizes - from the smallest farm to large corporations - to increase productivity. The incentives, risks and opportunities that these enterprises face are the essential drivers of their willingness to invest and grow, hire more employees and to reduce poverty and compete in a globalizing world. The Strategy encourages us to reduce those risks and enhance the opportunities for the people of the countries we assist to use their own resources better to address their own needs.
At the heart of our strategy is a commitment to improve the business climate for enterprises of all sizes and in all sectors to get
started, prosper, and grow. Business climate reform is essentially sound economic governance, and it includes assuring competition, clear and secure property rights, and transparency in interactions between business and government. Dr. Robert Litan and his colleagues point out in "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism." the first and foremost requirement for a successful entrepreneurial economy is that "… it must be relatively easy to form a business, without expensive and time-consuming red tape."
I am proud that USAID is the leading donor in support of these kinds of critical economic reforms. Excluding China and Saudi Arabia, we directly supported two-thirds of the reforms implemented by the world's top ten reformers last year, as reported in the World Bank's 2008 "Doing Business" report. We will continue support for such reforms.
Our economic growth strategy promotes a pro-growth and a pro-poor agenda simultaneously to lift people out of poverty, because we recognize that it is the smaller businesses and marginalized people who are most often excluded due to poor governance systems, and consequently suffer the most under regimes of corrupt and inefficient governance. Under an improved business climate, women are often the leading beneficiaries, something that is near and dear to my heart. The First Lady will be joining me Friday at USAID where we will be celebrating several of these outstanding women.
Economic growth is key to transforming the developing world. It enables countries to reduce and eventually eliminate extreme poverty. It provides the only means for countries to generate the resources they for illiteracy, poor health, and other development challenges on their own, and thus emerge from dependence on foreign aid.
More broadly, rising incomes and growth creates stability and prosperity which creates an environment for tolerance, peaceful resolution of social and economic conflicts, as well as support for democracy. Good democratic governance in turn enhances prospects for further economic expansion and our goals in these key areas are reinforcing. Economic growth, in tandem with the promotion of democracy, is an important key in achieving America's transformational development goals.
The GDC: A Convergence of Best Practices, Ideas, & Action
Today the world's efforts to create jobs, enhance health, and advance education come together in what we call the Global Development Commons.
Since USAID introduced this concept a few months ago, we have won very favorable responses for our forward leaning and intellectual leadership. I have met with a wide range of government officials at the OECD, the World Bank, and others, and have gained strong endorsements for the concept of the Commons. We are exploring ways to advance the Commons with other donor agencies and I will be meeting with DFID, our bilateral development colleagues in England, to discuss this matter further in the next few weeks.
USAID sponsored a presentation on the Commons at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and we received encouragement from private sector technology companies whose executives want to help. Universities and foundations also are eager to become part of the Commons and are offering valuable suggestions. I urge you to keep abreast of the information exchanges, knowledge sharing and news related to the Commons on the USAID web site. Please take a look at the website. There is a thoughtful keynote speech from our first Global Development Commons forum by the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James Billington.
Within the Agency, I have established, staffed, and funded a new Secretariat to focus exclusively on advancing the Commons.
This Secretariat is working closely with our Chief Information Officer to break down "information silos" as well as to create a "Smart Portal" to access all of USAID's websites. Your suggestions are most welcome at this stage, and I believe they will have a significant impact.
Recognizing the Value of Partnership
In 2001, USAID pioneered the use of public-private partnerships for development through its Global Development Alliance (GDA) mechanism. Since 2001, through the Global Development Alliances we have cultivated more than 600 public-private alliances with over 1,700 individual partners to leveraged an additional $5.8 billion from the original invest of $2.1 billion in public funds.
Through our Global Development Alliances, USAID is facilitating access to broader financing options as well as skill and knowledge development, and using its extensive knowledge of country environments to help reduce the risks of investing in some of the world's poorest countries.
For example, in 2002, USAID partnered with soap manufacturers, including Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, to promote hand washing with soap. Not only did the Alliance improve hand washing behavior among its target population of children under age five, but in doing so it reduced diarrhea among the target population and helped expand the market for soap which benefited the small-goods sellers.
In 2007, USAID and the Alliance for a Green Revolution partnered in a five-year, $61 million alliance to develop a commercial seed industry in West Africa. By establishing a network of over 800 agro-dealers, the Alliance provides affordable, timely, and reliable access to high-quality seeds and planting materials to more than 500,000 farmers in five countries. By stabilizing income from agro-business dealers and farmers across West Africa, the Alliance is creating a more inviting environment for business investment and growth.
What began as a desire by many corporate leaders to engage in philanthropy has now evolved into something that make good business sense.
Expanding our use of public-private partnerships is a top priority in today's USAID and I challenged our Mission Directors and bureaus to triple the resources that we leverage through Global Development Alliances. Our objective is not necessarily to increase the number of alliances; rather we seek to increase the strategic value of our alliances for fostering sustainable development in the developing world. And public-private partnerships not only provide more financial resources for foreign assistance and cutting-edge business practices, they deliver services more efficiently and they enhance the intellectual life and skills of USAID and private company personnel who enjoy the opportunity to work in partnership with extraordinary men and women.
With its extensive experience in public-private partnerships, USAID is now taking the next steps to be more strategically focused. We are also reaching out to a broad range of public and private sector partners in doing so. For example, we recently joined with the State Department's Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to sign a global Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Microsoft, so thank you Corey. The MOU establishes our collective commitment to work together on strategic projects around the world and optimizes public sector participation in the alliance.
Also, USAID has created a new model for cooperation with our corporate partners in development, which we call Global Frameworks. Global Frameworks articulates our intention to collaborate with a corporate partner in specific sectors and/or countries, or on specific activities around the world. These agreements help reduce the start-up effort required to create public-private alliances and they also help to link development outcomes into business agendas in a strategic manner. We currently have Global Frameworks with Cisco Systems, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Intel, Rotary International, Seaboard, and Microsoft. Through these various innovations in our use of public-private partnerships, USAID will bring together the unique skills and resources of more partners to create sustainable solutions to the challenges and opportunities of the developing world.
In the next few months, we hope to take partnership initiatives to a new level, by expanding them to our many partners in the Private Voluntary Organizations and NGO communities.
USAID Leadership In Operational Terms
In addition to the new ways USAID is excelling through intellectual leadership, we are also working smarter every day to build on the knowledge and experience we possess to insert leadership in operational terms as well. Let me offer two examples of how we do this in the area of disaster response.
First, we have made changes in the process of planning for emergency interventions that take into account - from the first conversation - how to transition seamlessly from emergency assistance to development. For major interventions, the Agency forms a Task Force that involves both DCHA and the regional Bureau representing the affected country or countries at the start of the planning cycle. This technique was used to great effect during the Tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake. We have also applied this model of planning for smaller interventions, such as the Bangladesh Cyclone, known as cyclone Sidr. DCHA and the regional bureau establishes at the outset the criteria under which the transition from emergency assistance to development begins. This ensures that the affected population will not experience a disruption in services provided during the transition, in order to continue their recovery un-interrupted.
A second area of operational improvements is "Surge Capacity." Here, the Agency is developing a whole-of-government response, to ensure that all aspects of an emergency are analyzed from the very beginning of that emergency. This enables us to address the long-term, underlying causes to the crisis at hand while simultaneously ensuring that the short-term causes are being alleviated. For example, in the Tsunami response, it was recognized that the rebels and government officials in the Aceh region of Indonesia had to work together to assist the victims of the Tsunami. Based on this effort, the two factions were able to focus on taking care of those in need and building on that working relationship to bring a lasting peace to the region. Now the Agency is developing the surge capacity to respond to all emergencies in a holistic manner to take advantage of opportunities that arise from emergency interventions.
Breaking new ground - intellectual and operational - with DoD
USAID has attained an unprecedented level of intellectual and operational cross-fertilization with the Department of Defense, so let me speak a little bit about that. The President's 2002 National Security Strategy positioned development with defense and diplomacy as one of the three pillars of our national security. Since then we have made remarkable progress in putting this doctrine into practice.
USAID now has an Office of Military Affairs in our Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, which we affectionately call DCHA. This office includes military officers representing each of the five regional Combatant Commands and the Special Operations Command.
Likewise, for the first time, USAID Senior Development Advisors have been assigned to the Pentagon, to Special Operations Command, and the European Command. Within the next few months, USAID expects to have advisors assigned to the Central Command, Southern Command, and Pacific Command. USAID personnel are also involved in staffing the newly created Africa Command. The objective of this cooperation is to strengthen planning and implementation of stabilization and development assistance to stages and regions at risk of, in, or in transition from violent conflict or civil strife. It is important to point out that this cooperation is intended to strengthen USAID's development mission and to ensure that the principles of effective development assistance are followed when that assistance is provided by the Department of Defense.
USAID has trained more than 2,000 military personnel in conflict assessment and on USAID's role in stability and reconstruction. USAID, the State Department, and military personnel serve side-by-side on the vital Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, the rationale for joint planning, joint training, and joint service has never been more compelling: preventing conflict
and prevailing against terrorists and other adversaries requires an integrated strategy employing all the elements of U.S. national power - "hard power," "soft power," and most of all, "smart power."
What we have learned
As all of you know, periods of tremendous reform - like the one we have seen in foreign assistance in recent years - must involve serious reflection if these reforms are to be useful and lasting. Incorporating lessons from the past is an essential way of assuring that we are moving forward with sure footing.
Let me share some of the important things we have learned as development professionals - and to be candid - as bureaucrats working across a complex arrangement of taxpayer funded institutions.
We have learned many lessons about stability and democracy in the past few years. Although some of our most poignant examples come from the Europe and Eurasia experience, they are applicable more broadly, and we are working to apply these lessons in our program and budget decisions. Based on experience in the Balkan region of Europe for example, a region where even after a decade, fragility and risk remain, we know that long-term engagement is essential. And we have learned the importance of using development as a tool to maintain stability and create new opportunities for people.
In democracy, we have learned that success, whether measured in free elections or in the actions of a reform minded government, is also fragile, slow to truly take root, and easily reversible if we disengage too early. Again, the response is an engagement -- over the long term -- that continues to involve civil society, NGOs, as well as better government.
Viewing these as long-term challenges, I have become convinced that our engagement does not end when a country "phases out" of US development assistance. On the contrary, it has led me to recognize that sustainable partnerships with many countries at various levels of development are a crucial element in development success.
In this vein, we are working to transform our relationships with foreign assistance "graduates" into "sustaining partnerships" that are strategic and that are in the US national interest. Countries that have "graduated" from US foreign assistance are now themselves becoming donors, asking the US to help them develop their own development agencies, and looking at the USAID as a model for that purpose. These include not only the Baltics and the Visagrad countries. As recently as last week, we hosted a delegation from Russia's newly chartered "RusAID" who were seeking our advice.
The reform process also has yielded many lessons that we have taken to heart regarding resources and budgets.
First, we have learned that we need to take advantage of the broad consensus for seeking the resources necessary for us to successfully conduct our core business. Building on this consensus, we were able to successfully obtain support within the Administration (and we hope from the Hill) to launch the largest increase we have ever gotten for USAID operating resources. I will speak about this more in just a moment.
Second, we have learned the value of building a country-based resource system. Our plans and resource requests are now better informed because of that shift in emphasis. By the same token, we have also learned that we face many longstanding institutional challenges in executing such budget and plans. We are not yet at a good balancing point between Administration priorities, Congressional priorities, and operational realities. We all need to collectively work to get to a better balance.
Third, we have also learned the value of developing STATE and AID integrated resource requests. For the first time, the Secretary of State and the President have had a real chance to develop, present and implement and integrated State and AID Foreign Assistance budget. I should point out that we have learned as well that even an integrated State/USAID budget is still a long ways from developing and implementing an integrated overall Foreign Assistance budget, but it is a start. And we realize we have that we have a lot of work to do and on that front we still have a lot to obtain this goal.
Human Resources & the DLI
I have described some promising trends and great lessons learned within USAID in particular, and in all of the U.S. foreign assistance efforts in general. But we look forward to working hand in hand with the Congress to make the Administration's request for the Development Leadership Initiative a sustained effort.
Announced in the President's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget, this request includes $92.1 million dollars to hire 300 Foreign Service officers - above attrition - in Fiscal Year 2009, a 30 percent increase in our Foreign Service workforce. This will move USAID toward a 100 percent increase in deployable staff resources over the next three years.
The Development Leadership Initiative will address critical staffing deficiencies in the stewardship and technical areas by hiring officers in the areas of program and planning; executive management; contracting; financial management; legal; health; economic growth and trade; alliance building; education; and democracy, conflict, human rights, and governance.
Conclusion
SID members are the bedrock of understanding and support for USAID and our vital work. Indeed, we are cognizant and appreciative to SID members for promoting the public understanding of how vital the Development Leadership Initiative is to the success and improvement of development. We all thank you so much for your support.
I believe, as I know you do, that foreign assistance -- above all -- must create sustainable economic progress, rather than permanent economic dependence. It is how people move up the path from poverty to prosperity.
I hope you believe, like I do, that we have a moment of opportunity - here and now. It is the time for action, collaboration and innovation….pushing the envelope…..vigorously applying our best practices and lessons learned….and improving aid effectiveness. This in no way obviates the progress of the past. But it does call for significant change. We are ALL accountable for being a part of the solution, and part of the way forward.
It is this collaborative spirit that will be required if we are to implement the Development Leadership Initiative and consolidate the advances in the quality of policy, interagency cooperation, and public-private partnership that I have described to you today.
Today, I ask you to join me to empower the next generation with the strategy and resources necessary to extend our advances against extreme poverty, hunger, disease, and oppression.
Thank you.
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