USAID: Remarks by Brady Anderson, 11/17/99

This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.

Remarks by Brady Anderson, USAID Administrator
to a USAID All-Agency Meeting
November 17, 1999

Thank you all very much. Let me say first how fortunate we are to have Hattie Babbitt as our Deputy Administrator.
I came to the agency back in June - although I wasn't confirmed until August - and I'm afraid I started off by disappointing some of you. Because June is the middle of the baseball season and there are probably more than a few Baltimore Orioles fans in the crowd, and when you heard that Brady Anderson was going to be your Administrator you probably wondered what was going on when you saw this tall old guy, not the baseball player. If you don't understand that joke, ask one of the Orioles fans.
It's a pleasure to be here and a real honor and privilege to have been President Clinton's choice to lead this great agency. I want to speak to you for a few minutes this afternoon about what my plans are for the agency and what I hope to see us all accomplish in the time we have here in Washington.
In some ways I feel like I'm a stranger in a strange land in Washington. But I'm not a stranger to USAID or to our programs. I'm not a stranger to developing countries, the people who live there and the challenges they face in their everyday lives as they seek to earn a living and raise their children.
My wife Betty and our two daughters, Helen and Heath, and I had the rare privilege to live in East Africa for eight years. We made a lot of friends out there, who we still treasure, and we learned a lot. But we are also aware that in Africa and other developing nations, mothers are dying in childbirth who shouldn't be, men and women are dying of HIV/AIDS. In fact, in the Ambassador's residence in Dar es Salaam was a young man who was our chief steward named Fideles Malobo. Fideles was a very valuable, loyal and capable employee of the U.S. government for many years and unfortunately he died of AIDS while we were there. He left a wife and three children.
When I was Ambassador to Tanzania, I worked very closely with the USAID mission. I visited our sites and projects whenever I had the chance. It was a joy to work with people like Lucretia Taylor and Bill Anderson and many others like them. So the respect that I have for you, and I do, began in East Africa and Tanzania and our mission there.
I know that most of you have worked under difficult conditions in recent years, under extreme pressure, as you have seen the USAID budget continue to be cut, the staff cut, as your work load has soared, and as morale has sunk. You have worried about the continued independence and autonomy of the agency. You may have worried about your jobs. I realize the move to the Ronald Reagan Building from the State Department was at least disruptive and probably traumatic for many of you.
I want to assure you this afternoon that I will continue to work hard to maintain the independence of the agency. I think Brian did a marvelous job of that and I believe that the independence of this agency is assured.
I also will continue to work very hard to see that there are no more cuts in personnel.
The people of this agency are worth fighting for.
To me, USAID embodies two great American values, generosity and compassion, and we make those values a concrete part of our foreign policy.
I want to ask you a question. What does it mean to be an American? What are the qualifications to be an American?
If one were to ask that question, perhaps a German friend of ours, I think you would get an ethnic response. That would be true for a lot of Europeans and people who live in other parts of the world. Quite obviously, we Americans don't give that sort of response when we're asked what is an American, what does it take to be an American.
We come from every religion, every race, every creed. You're not necessarily born here to be an American. I think that to be an American means that we believe in certain things that we all have in common. We believe in opportunity, personal freedom, and hope for the future. We believe in the dignity and worth of every person. It makes no difference if it's a man or a woman, an elderly person or a young child, a wealthy person or a poor person. It makes no difference what his or her color is. Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Jew. All that makes no difference. Every person has dignity and worth. Every person has value and every person is due respect.
I think that's important because I think our programs are undergirded by those truths that you and I all share as Americans.
President Clinton in his 1992 campaign I believe said the same thing - in more political terms - when he said that he was putting people first. That's what you and I do at USAID. We put people first.
The decisions that you make, even today or tomorrow, the policy choices that you make this week or next week, are going to have an impact on the lives of thousands of people around the world, even life and death decisions that sometimes we have to make. That's why I took this job. And I believe that's why you're here as well.
We work in this agency because we believe in its mission. We want to see people around the world achieve the kinds of lives that they can have as a human being. When I leave this agency I would like to leave it stronger than I found it, with your help, so that the agency can accomplish its very vital mission in the world.
When I accepted this job, I accepted an obligation, first to the President, also to the Congress, and in a way to the American people, that I would look closely at the agency and what it does and would try to find ways to do things better.
Do I want change? Yes, I do. Change in the fundamental mission of the agency? No.
I lived overseas for eight years and I think I have a feel for how people live and the problems they face, and some thoughts about solutions. But you all are the real experts. You've lived all around the world. You know what needs to be done and I think you know how to do it. My job is to help you create the environment, both here and overseas, in which you can better accomplish your tasks.
I will work to improve our relationship with the Congress. It's a priority for me to increase our management efficiency and to explain to the American people precisely what it is we do. Because we have stories to tell. Each of you has a story to tell. We have more stories to tell than any part of the United States government. They're stories that we should be proud of. They're stories about the lives of men and women, boys and girls, who live in places like Uganda and Guatemala, whose lives have been affected in some positive way by something that we have done. It's that story that we must tell to the American people as well as to the Congress. We must tell that story without acronyms or the jargon that we use so deftly. We should tell the story in simple, plain, everyday, middle-class English. I think we will find that those stories convince people that foreign aid is a good thing that they support.
In the last few months since I was confirmed I've been spending quite a bit of time on Capitol Hill in the able hands, literally, of Bette Cook and Suzanne Palmieri. I would be totally lost in the Halls of Congress or the Senate Office or House Office Building if Bette didn't take my hand and lead me around like the little boy that I really am and I appreciate it very much.
The relationships with Congress are obviously of critical importance. I want to say that President Clinton has been a great advocate for the agency through the whole budget battle. He vetoed one foreign assistance bill because it did not contain sufficient resources for us to do our job. And you all know the advocate the First Lady has been for our programs and she continues to be for our programs around the world. We couldn't have a better ambassador for USAID than the First Lady.
I've known the President for over thirty years. We first met here in Washington in 1967 when neither of us had any gray hair, not then. I met a young woman, Hillary Rodham, in 1973. We took the bar exam together in Little Rock. So I know them well and I say that to tell you that they made huge efforts for us and what we do because they believe in the mission of the agency in making lives better for people around the world.
I believe we're just about to have a budget and the obligation now shifts to us to fight just as hard to make the most of every one of those precious, hard-won dollars in our budget.
We have to remember that our relationship with the Congress doesn't end when they finish their appropriation bill and go home. Many of you have contact with Members of Congress and I ask you to help me in this very important part of what we do. That is to help me explain to them why we do what we do and the details of our programs.
You know, there's one thing about Congress that makes them real different from you and me. They're elected. Their names are on the ballot every two years or six years. The President's name is on the ballot every four years. The last time I looked my name wasn't on the ballot and I don't think your names are. What I mean is, they have an obligation to the people back in their district. Sometimes they don't do things the way you and I would like them to do, but this is a democracy - it's kind of a messy business. They represent the people and we need them. I encourage those of you who do have contact with the Congress, or who prepare materials for them, to give them all the information and cooperation that they ask for, all coordinated through our bureau of Legislative and Public Affairs, which does a very fine job.
Another of my priorities is to improve our management system. This didn't start with me. It started before I came. Some of you might think that management is a boring subject to talk about. Terry Brown was here this morning. He sort of fidgeted when I said management was boring. I don't want to offend anybody. Why am I talking about management? Because I think it's vitally important to the mission we have. I include the management bureau in this, but also all of you who are managers, and in some sense each of us is a manager. You manage your time. Your manage your project. You manage what you do in your day. I think it's very important that the BMW sitting outside the building - a beautiful silver BMW, gorgeous wheels, luscious leather interior, CD player, telephone - a gorgeous machine - but that machine will not run without oil. If you run it without oil it will burn up. To me, management efficiency is the oil that runs the agency - that's why it's so very important.
Another priority with me is the evolving relationship we have with the Department of State. During the recent budget negotiations on the Hill - I think a lot of you already know this but I want to repeat it publicly - Secretary Albright fought very hard for our budget. She fought hard for the State Department budget but also for ours. She said, this budget is not a foreign aid budget, it is a national security budget. I think that really resonated with some Members on the Hill. It is a national security budget. America is a big country and a global power politically, economically and militarily. We have interests all over the world and the USAID budget is a national security budget. What we do opens markets, creates stability, fights disease and drugs and terrorism overseas and promotes democracy. It certainly sounds like a national security budget to me.
Two weeks ago, Hattie Babbitt, B.A. Rudolph, Terry Brown, Tom Fox, Jim Painter and I had the opportunity to be I think the first USAID Administrator and his staff to go over to the Secretary of State's office and present our 2001 budget for her review, which is required under the new State-USAID relationship. She was marvelous, she really was. The meeting could not have gone any better. She was very receptive. She had been prepared quite well by her staff. Tom did a lot of work preparing her staff so they would understand what our request was all about. She committed to support our request for a budget including the increment that we had requested for democracy. We are all very fortunate that we have a Secretary of State who understands development and supports what we do as part of foreign policy.
Another very major concern for me is the security of all of our people both here in Washington and overseas. You know I was in Dar es Salaam for three years as Ambassador and my embassy was destroyed. I say "my" not in an ego way but in a compassionate and emotional way. I was not there, of course. But American friends of mine were there and had glass in their face and head. A wall fell down on one woman and it took months for her to recover. Tanzanian security guards who guarded my life when I was there were killed in the blast out front, as they guarded the embassy, killed by these cowardly, scum terrorists.
Now all of you who are Foreign Service officers and go overseas understand that there is a certain amount of risk that you assume. I think that's fair enough. But there should not be an unreasonable amount of risk.
I want to assure you I will continue to work with the State Department and OMB to have sufficient resources so we can improve our security and our facilities overseas, whether it involves security upgrades, equipment or relocation.
Security in the Ronald Reagan Building is not what I think it should be and I assure you that I will continue to pressure GSA to provide for all possible safeguards we can have in the building. There is no such thing as 100% security for Americans, even in our own country, but we must do a better job of providing security for our people.
If we accomplish all these priorities I've been talking about, we'll be in a much stronger position to carry out the humanitarian work that you and I came here to do in the first place.
Some people say that we're at a turning point in history. You've read all this and you've thought about it, like I have. The time before was the Cold War and now we've moved into the era of globalization. Tom Friedman, in his book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree," said the symbol of the previous period, the Cold War, was the Berlin Wall. It was a symbol of divided people and closed off people and ideas and communications. Separated. Whereas the new symbol of the era of globalization is the Internet. We're all connected, we're all online, and there's a lot of interaction, movement of people and ideas and capital all around the world.
If that's true, and I think that it probably is, then perhaps not since the era of the Marshall Plan have we at USAID had such an opportunity to affect the lives of people throughout the world. It is my job to ensure that you and I take full advantage of this historic opportunity.
Once the Congress has adjourned, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, I am going to begin looking at some of our missions overseas, because I want to go out there and I want to learn from our people there. I've already had trips to Kosovo and Turkey. You know, the Turkey trip was for the first earthquake. A lot of you may have seen the search and rescue teams from Fairfax and Dade County, marvelous men and women who are heroes, and their dogs, who came back here and appeared on camera - and I appeared in the middle of it - because they really work for us when they do this. They deserve all the publicity and praise. The search and rescue teams do a marvelous job.
But you know when I was in Turkey, and talked to our ambassador and DCM about what had happened, there was a DART team there, as there is now. They said, "Please, please, don't let Tom Dolan and the DART team leave. They are the hardest working and most committed people we've ever seen. Please let them stay another few weeks." They were so impressed with our people, and they didn't just say it, I promise you, they meant it. I think Tom is back in Turkey now for a second time.
When I was in Kosovo several months ago we visited a small town called Pec and in Pec they suffered a great tragedy when the Serb military came through and destroyed by fire most of the buildings. One evening they rounded up seventy or so men and their sons, segregated them off and put them in trucks and drove them away. Nobody has seen them since.
When I was in Pec I met the widows and mothers of those men and boys, and with tears they told me their stories. They thanked us because we had provided food and medical care. One of the women had a newborn baby with her. The day I was there I was asked to present to them from USAID some sewing machines and some inexpensive cloth, because they told our OTI people that they didn't want handouts and they really wanted to do something productive and earn a little money so they could go to the market and buy a little food for themselves.
They told me their stories with tears streaming down their faces. They just wanted to touch me because I represented all of us to them - it's a great job - they just wanted to touch me and shake my hand and hug me and kiss me in deep gratitude for the work that you do. Because of what you do every day in your office these women of Pec have hope for the future.
When we respond to a crisis, and it seems these days that one pops up almost weekly around the world - we begin to call them complex crises because that's really what they are - we must as we respond begin to lay the groundwork for longer-term development. Something that we're doing in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch and also in the aftermath of the civil conflict in Kosovo. We need to expend effort not only responding to crises but preventing them as well.
We should continue our outstanding programs in agriculture, education, health, child survival, family planning and support for women and girls. We can do nothing that is more important, in my judgment, or can have a greater impact in the world than educating young girls. We have to continue the fight against the scourge of AIDS.
We have a new challenge in the world, as I mentioned earlier, in this time of globalization, and that is an incredible opportunity to advance the cause around the world of democracy.
Why do we do that? I think we should be really clear in our minds why we do it, when we explain to other people why we do it. Do we advance democracy around the world because it's the American way of doing things? You know, a lot of people in the world think that's why we do it. A lot of people say, "Oh, you Americans, you just want us to have elections because that's the way you do it. We don't want to be like you."
Well, it's not true. That's not why we have democracy programs around the world. Because only in a democracy can every man and woman realize his or her potential. It's only in a democracy that ideas and creativity can flourish. Only in a democracy can people have freedom to speak and criticize their leaders and only in a democracy do men and women have freedom to worship God in whatever way they see fit.
It's only in a democracy that a family can be free of fear. When they go to bed at night they won't hear a knock on the door and the next thing they know the police have burst in the door and grabbed the husband and hauled him off never to be seen again. Why? Because he made some negative comment about the government. That does not happen in a democracy.
Tom Friedman in his column in the New York Times on Sunday observed that at the time we're celebrating the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism and the Cold War, within a few days of that ten-year celebration something significant happened here in Washington. The judge handed down a decision in the Microsoft case in which he found that this biggest of American corporations had violated the anti-trust laws.
Friedman says a handful of $75,000 a year lawyers from the Department of Justice brought the biggest, strongest, wealthiest guy in America, Bill Gates, to the bar of justice. Only in America, only in a democracy. Friedman ties it in with the Berlin Wall by saying, Those people, when they destroyed the Berlin Wall and fled to the West, what was it they wanted? Did they want McDonalds hamburgers and Disneyland and movies and all those things? Well, they probably did, there's nothing wrong with that, but he said what they really wanted was the rule of law, which allows for something like the Microsoft case.
Nobody in a democracy, with a rule of law, nobody is above the law. No matter how wealthy or how powerful or how connected or what family you're a member of, the rule of law prevails. You are not above it.
A lot of you know there was a "Sixty Minutes" television show on Sunday night about our justice and rule of law program in Haiti. It was critical of what's happening. I won't go into detail. But I will never apologize when USAID tries to help people implement the rule of law. The young men who were shown on that television show behind bars, who'd been there for a couple of years and didn't know what they're charged with, and probably nobody knows what their crime was, those young men needed help. And as you and I know, it's not just Haiti it's Nigeria, Indonesia, it's all around the world.
Economic reform and democratic institutions I believe are mutually reinforcing. The ability of countries to survive severe economic setbacks depends to a great extent on the strength of their political institutions. I believe we saw that in the Asian financial crisis.
There are risks in this democracy building and institution building. This is one of the most difficult things that we do and there will be setbacks for sure but we must simply persevere. We work in very difficult places. What tradition of human rights and individual equality and democracy does Haiti have? None. Or does Bosnia have? Or does Russia have? They don't have those traditions that you and I take for granted, and to establish the rule of law in those places so people can flourish is going to take a long, long time and a lot of work but I think it's worth the effort.
What do the people in those countries where we work really want from us? Well, I don't think that's any great mystery. I think they want what you and I want. I think people want a job. They want to be able to work and earn some money. They want access to health care. They want clean water and sanitation. They want to be free from fear and hunger and oppression. I think they would like to be able to choose their leaders and be able to hold their leaders accountable.
People who live in the countries where we work don't want handouts. They want a fair chance and that is what the work that you do gives them. It gives them hope for the future. You know what USAID is all about? It's about hope. It's about giving people hope.
President Clinton recently stressed the importance of foreign assistance in preserving world peace: "Of course international engagement costs money," the President said. "But the costliest peace is cheaper than the cheapest war."
The costliest peace is cheaper than the cheapest war. The President is right. We must work to prevent civil conflicts and refugee crises, and to promote peace and stability in the world.
I think the vast majority of Americans share the goals of peace and progress that drive what you and I do.
I would like to close with a quotation from John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address:
"With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God's work must truly be our own."
As you relieve the suffering of millions of men, women and children around the world, as you create opportunity and hope for them, you are doing God's work, and I am proud to be the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Thank you very much.

This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.

Last Updated on: July 12, 2001