Clinton Announces Development, Diplomacy Strategic Review
FrontLines - August 2009
By John Waggoner
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted town hall meetings at the State Department and USAID on
July 10 and 13, announcing the first of a series of strategic reviews of U.S. diplomacy and development to be held every four years.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reacts to a question from the audience during a USAID town hall meeting July 13.
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The first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) will be led by the deputy secretary of state for management and resources with the USAID administrator and State’s director of policy planning
as co-chairs. The QDDR team, consisting of senior representation
from both agencies, will engage with other Cabinet agencies, as well as non-government
experts, to craft a diplomacy and development blueprint that represents a “whole of government”
approach.
Clinton received a rousing welcome at USAID’s town hall and told employees that, over the six months since the Obama administration took office, she has worked to make development equal to diplomacy and defense in national security. She said
the administration sees “development
as one of the most powerful
tools we have for advancing global progress, peace, and
prosperity.”
USAID and the State Department reinforce each other and achieve “a multiplier effect” that “significantly increases the scope and the impact of our programs
and policies,” she said.
The QDDR is inspired by the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which served “to improve effectiveness and to establish a long-term vision,” Clinton said.
“Diplomacy and development deserve the same rigorous evaluation
and strategic thinking,” she noted. What is needed is a “new narrative” that can help diplomacy and development compete effectively
for scarce resources with the Pentagon on national security grounds.
Increased spending on diplomacy
and development has to be made convincing to Congress as well as the person losing his or her job in today’s economy, she said.
To demonstrate concrete results, USAID must restore technical
expertise that it has lost over the years and end the outsourcing of programming that could be done more cheaply and effectively in-house.
Clinton said the QDDR will provide an assessment of “where we are” and “where we want to be,” and would be part of wider reforms to establish USAID as the world’s “premiere” development agency. Clinton envisions “a new way of doing business” to keep up with the “accelerating rate of change.”
The secretary closed her remarks by thanking USAID employees for their hard work and saying that she looked forward “to continuing to work with you to build a USAID that is fully prepared
to take on the challenges of the 21st century.” She noted that “we’re going to rebuild USAID, we’re going to revitalize the mission,
and we’re going to convince not only the Congress but the American people that this is the best investment they can make.”
In response to questions from USAID employees, Clinton said that, on budget issues and coordination, “I will expect the administrator to work with Deputy Secretary [of State Jacob] Lew. We believe that it will enhance the results that [US]AID will see in terms of budget support.”
Responding to another question,
Clinton said that “we have contracted out too much of the core mission of USAID. It doesn’t mean that the contractors are bad people or doing a bad job; it just means that we’re not getting the kind of resources into the delivery of services abroad that we should. Too much of the money stays right here in Washington.”
Clinton noted: “Your senior leadership—[Acting Administrator] Alonzo [Fulgham], [Counselor] Lisa [Chiles] and others—they are at the table every day at the State Department—and you are well represented at every leadership level, every meeting that we have.”
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