This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Administrator J. Brian Atwood
Opening Session: U.S.-European Commission Assistance Consultations
Brussels, Belgium, October 23, 1997
U.S. Agency for International Development
Thank you Ambassador Weaver, And thank you
Commissioner Bonino. I am pleased to take part in the third
annual United States/European Commission Assistance
Consultations. We have made important progress since we started
these consultations in September 1995. I'd like to spend a little
time today reviewing the state of our collaboration and
highlighting the challenges ahead. Before I start, I would like to
extend warm thanks to John Cloutier who is moving on to become
USAID's Deputy Director in Peru. I would also like to welcome
Laurie Mailloux as our new USAID rep in Brussels. I hope you
will develop the same strong working relationship with her as you
did with John.
While there are many areas in which the United States and
the European Union may not always be in agreement -- whether it
be trade, intellectual property or defense -- we have developed a
remarkable consensus on development issues. The 21st Century
report reflected our common goals and a shared emphasis on
results.
I had the good fortune to attend the last meeting of the U.S.-E.U. summit at the Hague, and my only regret was that the
excellent collaborative work we have done in the area of foreign
assistance did not receive as much attention as it undoubtedly
deserves. We would like to work with you in gaining greater
visibility for the good work we are doing.
President Clinton has been quite clear in expressing his
confidence in the U.S.-E.C. consultation process. Whether or not
we always agree is secondary to the fact that this process is a very
constructive vehicle for addressing a range of vital international
issues. Indeed, we have come a long way since the EC and
USAID agreed on September 25, 1995, to enhance our partnership
in foreign assistance. That agreement constituted a key
component of the New Transatlantic Agenda signed three months
later by President Clinton and European Union leaders at the
Madrid Summit.
Our initial partnership focused heavily on humanitarian
crises, particularly in Africa. During the first year, we expanded
coordination in development assistance in Africa and economic
assistance in Central Europe and the New Independent States.
Following our second annual high level consultations in
Washington in September 1996, we agreed to work together in
Central America, the Caribbean and Bolivia, and we identified
collaborative opportunities in Asia and the Near East. As a result,
our assistance coordination relationship is now truly worldwide.
Clearly, there is a lot more we can do. We must build on
this momentum and redouble our efforts to produce concrete and
enduring results to strengthen our foreign assistance programs. As
we all are personally aware, collaboration of this sort is labor
intensive and is not cost-free. However, as this relationship
continues to mature, it is becoming increasingly clear that the
benefits exceed the costs.
I am very encouraged by the reports I received from Mark
Schneider, USAID's Assistant Administrator for Latin America,
who chaired the mid-course reviews held in June. As Mark
pointed out, there's a growing mutual recognition of the value of
our collaboration, and of its tremendous untapped potential. We
have reached a new level of frankness and openness in discussing
policy and operational issues which I hope we will build upon in
these meetings. The mid-course review in June of this year also
identified target areas where we can expand our collaboration.
We decided to develop new areas of collaboration on global
issues of utmost concern to our publics. We will discuss food
security, infectious diseases and the environment, as well as
collaborative assistance efforts in post-conflict settings.
Global issues are finally receiving the attention they deserve.
This provides an opportunity for USAID and the EC to
communicate our message. These discussions are particularly
timely.
I know I'm preaching to the choir when I tell this group that
we live in a world where trends toward globalization and
increased interdependence are powerful and accelerating.
International cooperation is no longer a choice we make out of the
goodness of our heart. It is a necessity. The diverse fields of
health, trade, crime, environmental protection and job creation all
require an international reach. In all of these areas, the benefits
of fruitful cooperation are obvious, while the failure to work
together is increasingly costly and immediate.
For example, in areas like the use of microenetrprise we are
seeing tremendous advances. President Clinton and the First Lady
have hailed the success of these programs not only in combatting
poverty in the developing world, but also in sparking economic
revitalization in our own cities and rural areas. I hope in future
consultations we can build upon this enthusiasm and breadth of
experience.
One key current area for international cooperation is on the
climate change agenda. As many of you know, climate change
will have tremendous ramifications for agriculture and food
security, not to mention human health. Coping with climate
change is not just a scientific issue, but one that involves politics,
policy, economics, finance and social concerns. In democracies
such as ours, wrestling with these issues becomes particularly
complex. Reaching global agreement on these issues will be a
major challenge.
What can be done?
The issue is being made more difficult as a result of a
disinformation campaign being waged by a few industries who
oppose our setting meaningful targets to reduce carbon emissions.
However, only the introduction of clean technology and
appropriate energy-sector policies will allow developing nations to
grow while limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Through USAID,
we are now introducing these techniques and technologies --
energy efficient power plants, renewable energy, reduced
subsidies for energy, better methods to collect tariffs for electricity
use.
The key to success in Kyoto is to engage in international
cooperation and collaboration. Part of America's leadership
means arriving in Kyoto with a strong commitment to reduce our
own greenhouse gas emissions. The other part is fulfilling
President Clinton's $1 billion commitment to help developing
countries reduce emissions. USAID is developing an action plan
that builds on partnerships between U.S. and developing nation
utilities; technical assistance to state electricity boards;
demonstration energy efficiency technology; and renewable energy
projects to introduce solar, wind and hydroelectric systems.
The Clinton Administration shares the objectives of U.S.
Senator Byrd's recent resolution that passed in the U.S. Senate 95-0, urging us to include the developing countries to join a
worldwide treaty on climate change. But we will not achieve that
objective by demanding compliance from poor countries while we
duck responsibility. We are going to have to show that we mean
business in reducing emissions and we are going to have to
continue to serve our own interests by cooperating with
developing nations as they seek both economic growth and
containing greenhouse gases.
I also believe we are continuing to do important work
together in addressing the issue of food security. The World Food
Summit was a major success in increasing awareness of the
serious problem of food insecurity. However, the Summit was
only a means toward an end -- there are still over 800 million
chronically undernourished. Nowhere is the problem worse than
in Africa where one in every three people is undernourished and
where the situation may worsen unless a vastly more effective
effort is mounted. The nations that signed the Food Summit
Communique committed themselves to reducing by half the
number of undernourished in the world by the year 2015.
The U.S. government -- in a unique effort combining all of
the major departments with interests in food security -- is
focussing on the elimination of hunger both in the United States
and the world. We think that we know some of the key elements
for success. Those countries that have demonstrated the most
progress in achieving food security are those that have seriously
pursued sound economic policies, while focusing government
investments in health and education.
The United States intends to share our expertise with selected
countries wishing to review and change their national policies to
improve food security. Those countries that have demonstrated
the most progress in achieving food security have also invested in
agricultural research. Technology, as our own farmers know, has
been a driving force for change.
It is estimated that technologies developed by the system of
the international agricultural research institutes we helped set up
25 years ago have been responsible for feeding an additional one
billion people in this growing world. The United States wants to
enhance U.S. government support for research and technology
development in agriculture because it will help us meet the food
security problem abroad and it will help our farmers at home as
well.
We will pursue the food security agenda through the use of
agricultural programs, development assistance and food aid. We
will employ an integrated approach to sustainable development,
with a strong emphasis on those countries that show a good-faith
willingness to adopt necessary policy reforms. And we intend to
continue support for international efforts to respond to and prevent
the humanitarian crises that create emergency food aid needs.
You may also be interested to know that USAID is elevating
agricultural development as a major goal to be pursued in tandem
with our economic growth objective. The Agency will refocus on
the links between agriculture, economic growth and food security.
We have formally reworked our strategic plan with this in new
emphasis and sent it to Congress. One of the things we will do
as part of this new goal is to encourage more rapid and enhanced
agricultural development and food security.
This year we will be seeing one of the first real tests of our
food security strategy: El Nino. El Nino will put to the test our
efforts to more fully develop our capacity to respond to cyclical
but dramatic weather events. We all remember the El Niño-induced southern Africa drought in the early 90s. Hopefully we
can do an even better job responding this time around, and El
Nino is clearly an issue that will demand a global response. I am
optimistic that we can make some real progress on El Nino during
our discussions over the next two days.
Another important global challenge we face is infectious
disease. The capacity of all nations to recognize, prevent, and
respond to the threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious
diseases is the critical foundation for a global response. Epidemic
control and response is critical to the protection of human health.
However, these actions must complement and not detract from the
primary need for prevention, preparedness and continued
improvement of the public health infrastructure.
It is my hope that we can reach an agreement to undertake
actions to strengthen ongoing collaborations and develop new joint
initiatives in health with a focus on reducing the threat of
infectious diseases. We would expect that emphasizing the
common interest in strengthening local and national capacities to
prevent and respond to disease threats would be the focus rather
than specific diseases.
Our joint activities with the EC have focused on sub-regional
integrated disease preparedness and control programs in sub-Saharan Africa. I think we can build on this productive work and
expand epidemic preparedness and response activities in other
subregions of Africa, follow up areas of mutual interest identified
for the New Independent States and Eastern Europe, and define
further areas of interest for joint activities in Latin America and
Asia.
Finally, let me mention the issue of post-conflict
reconstruction. During the past several years, the international
community has grappled with developing appropriate responses to
nations experiencing simultaneous political and economic
transitions. Secretary Albright will be addressing just this topic in
several days at a conference USAID is hosting on transition issues
in Washington. Much has been written under the rubric of
transitions and much operational experience has been gained.
Indeed, the topic has become mainstream thinking in development
circles, although we have yet to translate our thinking into
effective action on a consistent and coordinated basis.
The term transition is used in several different contexts as
part of these discussions. Most of the countries where
development agencies operate are experiencing some form of
political and economic transition. The countries of Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union are undergoing rapid political
and economic transitions, although of a qualitatively different type
than the countries of Latin America, Africa and parts Asia. There
is a third group of countries enduring rapid transitions -- those
that have recently emerged from a conflict situation.
We acknowledge that, at times, USAID and the EC have
different strategic interests, agendas and approaches that inform
our respective responses to specific post-conflict situations. We
are convinced, however, that we can work much more
collaboratively in many of these post-conflict situations. We hope
that this consultation will allow for the development of a course
of action for moving U.S.-E.C. cooperation forward while
simultaneously providing assistance to current crisis situations.
In closing, let me just say that there continues to be an
unprecedented consensus in the international community about the
need to promote development and some of the best ways to
advance this agenda. We have all dealt with some belt-tightening,
but we have all done a better job working together. I look
forward to building upon this strong base of cooperation. Thanks.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 18, 2001
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