Mission Directors Meet
FrontLines - December-January 2009-10
Gen. David Petraeus and New
York Times columnist Tom Friedman
were among the guest
speakers at the meeting of nearly
100 USAID mission directors
who came to Washington from
their posts across the globe in
early December.
“Those of us in uniform have
enormous respect for those of
you in AID and I personally am
among your biggest promoters on
Capitol Hill,” said Petraeus, who
heads the Central Command at
MacDill Air Force Base, Florida,
which is responsible for the
region from Egypt to Pakistan.
“We’re proud to be working
ever more closely with members
of AID…with the heroes from this
great organization,” he said. “All
of us have long been impressed
with what AID’s development
work adds to our collective efforts
in locations that are, again, critical
to our national security.”
Other speakers at the event
included Deputy Secretary of State
Jacob Lew and Gayle Smith, the
National Security Council’s senior
director for development issues.
The conference, held in Virginia,
included discussions of the
USAID budget, the Quadrennial
Diplomacy and Development
Review process, civilian-military
cooperation, food security, and
dealing with expanded staff.
Petraeus noted that the lack of
sustainable economic development
“is not just a social or humanitarian
issue, it is a serious security
concern as well.” He added that
the military had to “embrace a new
mindset, one that elevates the
social, economic, and political
issues that lead to insecurity.”
He noted that budgets are
tight and “you really have to go
out and market as well what AID
brings to the fight.”
Lew told the mission directors
that despite the economic crisis,
President Barack Obama is “on a
path to double foreign assistance”
and “double the number of Foreign
Service Officers in USAID.”
But he warned that aid budgets
require “showing what we’re
doing is working, it’s paying off
for the American people.”
Smith said there is a critical
need for USAID’s development
expertise at the policy-making
table. She leads the Presidential
Study Directive on Global Development
Policy, which is designed
to shape U.S. development policy,
efforts, and reach.
Friedman told the mission
directors: “I know so many of you
are involved in nation-building in
your countries—but what’s on my
mind is nation-building in America…
how we get optimal solutions
to the incredibly huge problems
facing us, from health care to financial
regulation to environmental
regulation to dealing with our deficit,
Social Security, et cetera.”
Nancy Birdsall, president and
founder of the Center for Global
Development, told the mission
directors in a luncheon address
that the “downsides of globalization”
make reformed foreign aid
more necessary.
She said “an unequal and
increasingly volatile global
economy” has led to “the food
crisis, the fuel crisis, and then
the finance crisis. And that
involves much higher risks for
developing countries.”
★
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