JUNE 2005
In this section:
Rice, Natsios Urge Mission Directors to Transform
World Through USAID
Facing Drought, Ethiopia Fights Back
$907 Million for Tsunami Recovery
Memorial to Fallen USAID Staff Is Dedicated in D.C.
Rice, Natsios Urge Mission Directors to Transform World
Through USAID
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Mission directors from tsunami-hit countries, in Washington
for the world wide conference of mission directors May
17–20, brief a congressional panel on USAID’s
relief and reconstruction activities. From left, George
Deikun (India); Carol Becker (Sri Lanka); Mark Ward
(deputy assistant administrator for Asia and the Near
East); Bill Frej (Indonesia); Tim Beans (Thailand);
and Dotty Rayburn (Legislative and Public Affairs).
USAID
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ROSSLYN, VA—Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
told Agency mission directors May 18 that USAID “is the
epitome of what I call transformativediplomacy…our job
is to be a partner with young democracies and close the gap
between capability and expectation.”
At the third global conference of mission directors in the
Agency’s halfcentury, Rice said: “We have a chance
to do what people did at the end of World War II.” She
compared support for democracy then with current USAID backing
for democratic revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Iraq,
and Afghanistan today.
“I am very proud of what you do,” she said at the
Key Bridge Marriott Hotel conference, “that you go to
hard and dangerous places, that you lost colleagues. They
did not die in vain.”
Mission directors convened here May 17–20 to chart the
direction of the Agency in its activities around the world.
Administrator Andrew S. Natsios said that 115 USAID contractors
and grantees
have died in Iraq and Afghanistan—more than U.S. military
combat losses in Afghanistan.
Natsios also told the mission directors to prepare to make
major changes in the way they carry out billions of dollars
of foreign aid programs each year, calling for a return to
the use of Agency experts to design and manage the programs
rather than hiring contractors.
He called for spending more aid money overseas—to prime
the pump of local economies and train local officials to carry
on development—rather than spending so much on U.S.-based
contractors and NGOs.
And he called for a return to the construction of visible,
physical projects, such as an airport and dam in Afghanistan
that he found still functioning after decades of warfare.
“We should not ignore the importance of building things,”
Natsios said.
He noted that USAID funds now go mainly to technical assistance
by U.S. experts, and the Agency has cut back on scholarships,
infrastructure, and commodities.
“We need to put some of those tools back in the kit,”
he said.
Natsios also said that USAID could carry out development
assistance more efficiently if less of its budget was “earmarked”
by Congress to be spent on projects in specific sectors.
He called on the more than 80 mission directors to draw up
new budget plans for 2007 as if there were no earmarks, so
that he could assess how funds should be used to help aid
effectiveness.
Natsios also said that the Agency should try to spend more
funds locally in poor countries by using local contractors
when possible.
Several speakers, including Natsios, recalled that in the
past USAID staffers were more directly involved in carrying
out
aid programs, but in recent years contractors carry out the
work, interact with local
government officials, and even write the project proposals.
However, Natsios said, to be sure U.S. funds did not go to
corrupt foreign rulers, USAID would continue to not give funds
directly to foreign governments for budget support—a
path increasingly taken by European and multilateral donors
lacking the ability to carry out their own development programs.
The chief of the Bush administration’s new foreign aid
program—the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)—told
mission directors, “we could not have done our job in
our first, startup year without you.”
MCA CEO Paul Applegarth said, “We want to preserve and
expand AID funding—you do things we cannot do that are
essential to the fight against poverty.”
He said the MCA is allocating $180 million to USAID to help
several “threshold countries” become eligible for
MCA assistance and 7 percent of that will go for the Agency’s
administrative costs.
“In all cases, our teams will rely on your teams”
to provide knowledge of the countries and local officials,
he said.
Rep. Jim Kolbe, Arizona Republican and chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, told the mission directors
that foreign aid was never very popular in Congress but “since
2001, we do not get so many questions on why we spend money
overseas.”
However, Congress still needs “full and complete information
on inputs and outcomes…we need to know with full candor…what
works,” he added.
Conference participants also heard a report on tsunami relief
efforts from Indonesia Mission Director Bill Frej, who said
the high visibility of USAID’s new logo and slogan “from
the American people” had “made an extraordinary
difference—it changed minds.”
“The Achinese saw the U.S. brand, and without that we
could have been just one of 550 NGOs. It was an extraordinary
foreign policy achievement.”
The mission directors were told that the Agency is preparing
its first U.S. National Development Strategy, which is to
be sent to the National Security Council in August.
The last mission directors’ conference was held in October
2003.
Facing Drought, Ethiopia Fights Back
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“We’ve got a very small [USAID] mission here,
but they’re taking care of an awful lot of work…
[They] are risking lives and going through some very
difficult circumstances to try to make sure that millions
of people get the food, basic care that they need…”
DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE ROBERT ZOELLICK
Khartoum, Sudan, April 14.
AP/World Wide Photos |
A major drought has raised the threat of a food shortage
in the Horn of Africa, where Ethiopia—already deeply
engaged in efforts to improve agriculture—is working
with USAID and others to deliver food and prevent famine.
The need to deal with the current rain shortage comes as
the country’s 74 million people continue to work on improving
roads, crops, livestock, markets, trade, and other ways to
produce enough food and income for its people.
With 83 ethnic groups, Ethiopia—an area almost twice
the size of Texas—is the second most populous country
in Africa and one of the poorest in the world.
Unique among African countries, Ethiopia was ruled by an
ancient monarchy that maintained its freedom from colonial
rule. Emperor Haile Selassie ruled from 1930 until his overthrow
in 1974, and the Communist Derg regime took over until 1991.
It was deposed by the current government, which is moving
towards democracy.
Ethiopia “represents an emergency situation —while
it is one of the poorest countries in the world, it also faces
the challenge of recurrent drought,” said USAID Mission
Director Bill Hammink.
As early as June, 10 to12 million people in Ethiopia and
another 5 million in neighboring nations will face food shortages.
USAID has mobilized additional staff, food and nonfood assistance,
and disaster assistance relief personnel to assist with emergency
needs.
In 2002–03, a severe drought left 13.2 million people
hungry. The United States led the food aid effort with 1 million
metric
tons of food and other assistance totaling $550 million.
The persistence of drought has led the Ethiopian government
and donors like USAID to think of new ways of addressing
the problem. Agency Administrator Andrew S. Natsios noted
that Ethiopia receives $500 million in aid relief and only
$5 million in agricultural-development resources and asked
the mission to come up with a new way of doing business.
Two years ago, USAID/Ethiopia began drafting a famine prevention
strategy that would shift from relief to development aid.
“Our new strategy links relief and development much more
than in the past, with a focus on building the capacity to
manage through shocks,” Hammink said. “The strategy
seeks to address both developmental and structural causes
of famine vulnerability.”
One year after the strategy is in place, Ethiopia still receives
food aid. But the mission has increased funding for local
health, education, agriculture, and livestock projects.
“Our new programs are focusing on the causes of humanitarian
crisis, such as the chronic nature of food insecurity, and
working to get a rural growth dynamic going to get out of
the poverty spiral,” Hammink
said.
FrontLines Acting Deputy Managing Editor Kristina Stefanova
was recently in Ethiopia, researching and writing this series
of articles.
$907 Million for Tsunami Recovery
President Bush signed a supplemental budget bill May 11 providing
$907 million for USAID’s and other’s tsunami reconstruction
plans that range from road building to health clinic construction.
The funding was approved as the Agency published Tsunami
Relief, a recounting of the natural disaster and U.S. government
efforts to provide food, shelter, healthcare, and other assistance
to survivors.
It has been nearly six months since the magnitude 9 earthquake
struck off Sumatra, setting off a tsunami that pounded parts
of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, the Maldives, and
Somalia. More than 200,000 people died, and about 100,000
are missing and presumed dead.
The $907 million includes funding to reimburse USAID and
the Department of Defense for relief efforts they already
expended. The remainder will be for tsunami reconstruction,
most of which will be administered by USAID.
As of April 28, individuals, corporations, and foundations
in the United States had donated or pledged $1.2 billion in
cash and $177.2 million in inkind support for tsunami relief,
according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University,
which has tracked tsunami donations since January.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush—named
by the current president George W. Bush to lead private fundraising
efforts in the United States—said during a visit to USAID
headquarters May 12 that they raised between $10 million and
$12 million.
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Left: Administrator Andrew Natsios is flanked by George
H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton when the former presidents
thanked USAID workers for their help with tsunami relief
during a visit to Agency’s headquarters May 12.
At right, President Bush meets Marian Spivey-Estrada,
a member of USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response
Team, who was shot earlier this year while on an aid
mission in Darfur, Sudan.
USAID |
Administrator Andrew S. Natsios added that the international
relief community has “more money than we ever had in
an emergency, thanks to their leadership internationally and
domestically in this massive fundraising effort.”
The former presidents, who toured the tsunami-ravaged areas
together in February, also thanked USAID staffers.
“I’ve been very impressed with the aid workers
that we encountered—the great spirit of these people
lifting up the lives of…people who had nothing, absolutely
nothing,” Bush said.
Clinton, who called USAID his favorite government agency,
encouraged staffers to continue their efforts.
“We really need your help because this is the toughest
part of this relief effort,” he said. “Right now
is the worst time. Everybody was so great in the beginning,
working together, saving lives. I thought there would be mass
outbreaks of cholera and dysentery, which did not occur. I
was convinced we’d have major public health problems,
which didn’t happen. And it’s an enormous tribute
to all of you.
“But now that the ‘new’ has worn off and
it’s not on the news every night, there are hundreds
of thousands of people going to bed every night wondering
if the rest of us have forgotten about them.”
The money coming to USAID will pay for emergency relief
efforts after the Dec 2004 tsunami and a smaller March 5 earthquake,
also off Sumatra. This includes construction of houses for
some of the 1.1 million people displaced in Indonesia, Sri
Lanka, and India; and restoration of fisheries, farms, and
other businesses. USAID is providing grants, vouchers, and
credit, and is continuing with its cash-for-work programs.
Agency funding will also be used to rebuild roads, schools,
clinics, bridges, and public utilities in devastated areas;
provide disaster preparedness education; and expand the international
warning system that allows governments to alert citizens in
advance of tsunamis and other disasters.
Tsunami Relief, available on line and in print, gives a
timeline of the tsunami and the Agency’s response to
date. It also includes a pictorial history and individual
stories of loss and survival from some of the hardest hit
regions, including Banda Aceh in Indonesia. Go to www.usaid.gov
to read or download the 26-page book.
Memorial to Fallen USAID Staff Is Dedicated in D.C.
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Virginia Foley, widow of Laurence Foley, stands before
memorial to USAID fallen at May 17 dedication ceremony
at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.
USAID |
The names of 69 USAID employees who died in the line of duty
over the past half century were inscribed on individual plaques
and unveiled at a new memorial in the Agency lobby at the
Ronald Reagan Building May 17, in a moving ceremony.
The families of the fallen as well as dozens of USAID employees
packed the lobby as a military color guard stood to attention
and the national anthem was sung by staffer Sylvia Lankford.
Virginia Foley, the widow of the most recent Agency official
to die in the line of duty, attached the final plaque bearing
his name: Laurence N. Foley, killed in 2002 by terrorists
in Amman, Jordan.
“Each one was doing what they wanted to do in the best
way they knew how…to make the world a better place to
live in,” she said of the fallen.
Employees and visitors entering headquarters will see the
names on the memorial each day so that “their sacrifice
will not be forgotten,” said Administrator Andrew S.
Natsios.
The names of the fallen were read aloud; many died during
the Vietnam War.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John O’Keefe, whose
brother served with USAID in the Vietnam War, said: “I
want to reach out to the families and say ‘thank you.’”
After the wreaths were placed, the color guard retreated,
the anthem sung, and speeches ended, Assistant Administrator
for Legislative and Public Affairs Ed Fox said: “We owe
it to our fallen colleagues and to their loved ones that their
work—our work—is carried on.”
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