Clinton Backs USAID
FrontLines - February 2010
Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton delivered a
broad policy speech on the need
for support and reform in U.S.
foreign assistance on Jan. 6, a day
before swearing in new USAID
Administrator Rajiv Shah at the
Ronald Reagan Building.
Speaking at the Petersen Institute
for International Economics
in Washington, Clinton said she
has heard Americans question the
need for foreign aid “when there is
so much hardship here at home.”
She said the American people
cannot be assured of security
and prosperity “when one-third
of humankind live in conditions
that offer them little chance of
building better lives for themselves
or their children.”
And she noted that “Administrator
Shah and I are united in
our commitment” to improve
coordination between defense,
diplomacy, and development to
secure U.S. national goals.
Violent extremism will be hard
to stop until economic progress
links poor countries to modern
markets and technologies, Clinton
said. And poor countries cannot
advance towards democracy
while poverty is rampant. Unstable
countries, she added, are
unable to stop conflicts, global
criminal networks, and epidemics
that reach across borders.
“Development…is a strategic,
economic, and moral imperative—
as central to advancing
American interests and solving
global problems as diplomacy or
defense,” she said.
Development experts and
advocates have been “riven by
conflict and controversy…over
where and how to pursue development,”
Clinton said. She
called for a new approach that
would make development “a
central pillar of our foreign policy”
and would “rebuild USAID
into the world’s premier development
agency.”
And she called for a greater
emphasis on measurable results
from aid programs that have
proved difficult to monitor and
evaluate over the years, adding:
“We must share the proof of our
progress with the public.”
However, in Haiti, Yemen, and
some other situations “we will
invest in places that are strategically critical but where we are not guaranteed success,” she said.
Clinton also called for shifting decision-making power on aid programs from foreign experts to local people, calling this approach “partnership, not patronage.” She said developing nations should adopt “sound economic policies…. The American taxpayer cannot pick up the tab for those who are able but unwilling to help themselves.”
Clinton said there are early indications of success in U.S. aid programs delivered through the Millennium Challenge Corporation to countries with responsible governments.
While U.S. foreign aid would continue to respond to humanitarian needs such as emergencies and hunger, Clinton said we can “break the cycle of dependence that aid can create by helping countries build their own institutions and their own capacity to deliver essential services.”
“We hope to one day put ourselves out of the aid business, because countries will no longer need this kind of help,” she said.
She also said that the Obama administration will continue to integrate development more closely with defense and diplomacy in the field, rejecting concerns that the development role might be turned over to diplomats or defense experts.
“The experience and technical knowledge that our development experts bring to their work are irreplaceable,” she said. “Whether trained in agriculture, public health, education, or economics, our experts are the face, brains, heart, and soul of U.S. development worldwide.”
Clinton also noted a new emphasis on aiding agriculture in the developing world, using new technologies such as cell phones and the Internet to assist economic growth, and focusing on education and micro credits for women and girls.
★—B.B.
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