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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by Assistant Administrator Don Pressley
to The E&E Bureau’s Implementing Partners Conference
February 3, 2000
Well, let me add my welcome to that of the Administrator. It’s nice to be here, and it’s nice to see all of you again.
In addition to all the implementing partners that are the very reason for this conference, I would also like to welcome our friends from Capitol Hill, the Department of States, and other USAID bureaus.
You know, I have to tell you that I’ve been involved with USAID almost 30 years now and every year I am more and more impressed with the caliber of people that I get to work with.
The Administrator is right - from Albania to Uzbekistan to Washington, DC, I think we work with some of the best and the brightest around.
And we are so lucky that even in years when the foreign aid budget has been cut, this one fact hasn’t changed.
In our region, what with the wars and financial crises and fallen and resurrected governments of the past few years, you have all maintained not only your sense of purpose, but your sense of humor (I hope).
There were even times when everything was going exactly right.
Give yourselves a pat on the back - we survived those too.
But still, it’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the Berlin Wall fell - it seems like just yesterday that America stood spellbound, watching the German people tear down that most famous symbol of communist oppression.
But, as the Administrator just observed, dismantling that symbol proved to be far easier than dismantling communism itself.
As most of you know, I’ve been fortunate enough to have been on this journey in Europe and Eurasia ever since President Bush visited Poland and Hungary in 1989.
I first met many of you as Mission Director to Poland, where I saw first hand how complicated the struggle was going to be. I have watched as Solidarity, the harbinger of democracy in Europe and Eurasia, the party of Lech Walesa, won and lost and won back parliamentary majorities in the Sejm. I have seen Walesa himself idolized and vilified and then idolized again.
Believe me, I know what a roller coaster we ride.
Still, Poland has been lucky: it is today a member of NATO, on track to becoming a member of the EU, and, this year, graduating from USAID assistance.
Unfortunately, most of our region has not enjoyed the tremendous success of Poland, or Hungary, the Czech Republic or any of the other northern European countries. Most of our region is still struggling just to establish the rule of law, to understand this new thing called "the market," and to fight corruption.
And we’re all of us here a part of that struggle - fighting, yard by yard, to help the citizens of these countries move in the right direction.
At our last conference, in October 1998, we asked all of you - how can we improve our odds?
And you said, well, be sure to include the view from the field when you start your strategic planning.
You said: train your CTOs better, so they know and we know exactly what their role is in the whole process.
And you said you needed more flexibility to deal with crises in countries graduating from USAID assistance.
And to all this, we said: great.
So last year, when we thought of developing a new strategic framework, one of the first things we did was contact our field missions, our in-country partners, our colleagues in other parts of the government, and people like you.
And so, after a year of meetings and conference calls and long discussions, I am happy to announce that our new Strategic Framework is finished; if you haven’t already, you may pick up a copy at the resource table near the entrance to this room.
You should know, too, that this Bureau and USAID’s Management Bureau are currently in the process of training and certifying our CTOs - to help them better monitor the implementation process and to help them do a better job of interfacing with you.
And finally, you had suggested regional mechanisms as a way to better meet the needs of our graduating countries.
Today, we have a number of these in place: from the EcoLinks program, which deals with environmental issues, to the Partnership for Financial Stability, which deals with economic ones, we are developing and implementing activities that take into account the needs of the region as well as those of individual countries.
And now we want to know what else we can do.
As this conference gets underway, a few minutes from now, I’d like to ask you to think about how USAID can help you more: are there ways we can improve communication? Are there ways we can make your jobs easier? I want to know.
But if I may, I also want to ask you to think about some other things:
As we begin the twenty-first century, how can we target our efforts to ensure that the prosperity and peace we take for granted here in America spreads to every last corner of Europe and Eurasia?
How can we nurture and sustain indigenous capacity so that in-country institutions, organizations, and individuals can pick up the ball and carry it themselves? How can we make the countries of E&E partners in the global community of market democracies?
How can we ensure that our impact is felt not just in Moscow or Bucharest or Kiev but also in Samara and Transylvania and Crimea.
How can we ensure that the fruits of freedom and democracy are enjoyed by all citizens - women as well as men, farmers as well as industrialists, the disadvantaged as well as the middle class.
These are the kinds of questions still before us - and the kinds of challenges we will all face over the next ten years.
Now let me take a moment to try to overcome this stuffed shirt image I have, and talk football.
I don’t know how many of you watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday, but I have to tell you that the last quarter was about as exciting as football gets.
And without telling you who I was rooting for, let me just say that in the last play of the game, when Kevin Dyson was tackled on the one yard line, I just felt awful for him.
I turned to my wife, who was watching the game with me, and said, that man is going to remember that one yard for the rest of his life. But then, so will Mike Jones, the guy that tackled him - but in a different way.
Today, as we stand just beyond the threshold of the new millennium, we have a chance to make our own plays, so to speak.
And I can’t think of anything worse than for us to stand at the end of our assistance programs to the E&E region and say: we missed our chance.
But then, I can’t think of anything better than saying - look at what a difference we’ve made. Now, I know not all the plays over the next few years are going to result in touchdowns, but let’s try not to leave anyone hanging on that one yard line, either.
As you go about your work in the next few months and the next few years, don’t ever forget how important your work really is - not just to USAID, not just to the United States, but, I think it’s no exaggeration to say: to the world.
I know that not all the good we do is readily apparent, and not all of it is grand - but every bit of it still brings us closer to the goal, and, as we saw on Sunday, every last yard counts.
Thank you all again for coming here today. Let me echo the Administrator and say that I look forward to working with all of you over the coming year.
As we start this new millennium together, I wish for all of you hard work, patience, and a little luck - if the past ten years are any indication, we’ll need all three.
Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: June 25, 2002 |
