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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by J. Brady Anderson,
Delta State University
USAID Administrator
Wednesday, October 25, 2000
Let me begin by thanking President David Potter and Professor Gary Jennings for giving me this wonderful opportunity to return home to the Mississippi Delta. As some of you might know, I grew up just across the river in Helena, Arkansas and went to Rhodes College in Memphis.
I'm also happy to have with me Cleveland native son Richard Ragan who serves as my Deputy Assistant Administrator for Humanitarian Assistance at the United States Agency for International Development.
I am especially pleased that Delta State University and the James Madison Center offer me the opportunity to address the role of US foreign assistance as an instrument of foreign policy.
As it was in this very location in 1947 that Secretary of State Dean Achenson first announced the Marshall Plan - which I believe we can all agree was one of the most effective foreign policy initiatives of the 20th Century.
Today, much like the period of postwar reconstruction following World War II, we are faced with the question of defining how we wish to exercise US leadership on a very different world stage.
At the beginning of the new century, the United States faces an entirely new set of challenges . The focus of our national security has shifted from the Soviet/communist threat to international terrorism and regional conflicts fueled by ethnic, religious, tribal differences.
Our economic prosperity increasingly depends upon our ability to exploit emerging markets. Our security as well as our prosperity will be determined by how willing Americans are to get involved in the world outside our borders.
Foreign assistance as an instrument of foreign policy has a pivotal role to play in strengthening the position of the U.S. as we confront growing challenges from a variety of actors.
Today, foreign assistance costs the American taxpayer less than one-half of one penny for every federal dollar spent-that is, less than one-half of one percent of the federal budget.
By contrast, foreign assistance accounted for a nickel of every federal dollar at the beginning of the Kennedy Administration, and over a dime during the post-World War II Marshall Plan years-another period in our history when the United States was trying to "shape the peace."
And in an era of erupting conflict-from Kosovo to East Timor-foreign assistance can also help ensure peace.
Poverty, joblessness, political marginalization, corruption and the denial of fundamental human rights-create a breeding ground of hopelessness, which gives birth to extremist and terrorist organizations.
They in turn either cause instability themselves or hinder their governments' ability to take politically difficult but responsible steps toward peace.
Thomas Friedman, the insightful foreign affairs correspondent for the NYT, recently said:
"(what threatens America today is not the strength of Russia, China, Pakistan or Indonesia rather it) is the weakness and potential collapse of all these post-cold-war states-because of their lack of institutions and total corruption. If anything, we should be… upgrading our diplomatic tools such as the international development banks, …foreign aid and debt relief to help countries build the necessary democratic institutions for governing..."USAID, through our program of development assistance, is working to build democratic and free market institutions in developing countries all over the world.
In Indonesia, for example, we are helping create a transparent regulatory body that would prevent the ugly crony capitalism that destroyed Indonesia's economy.
In the troubled region of Aceh we are facilitating dialogue between Muslim and Christian factions and promoting the dissemination of reliable information so unfounded rumors won't lead to more violence.
President Clinton has said:
"The 20th Century resolved one big question, [I believe], conclusively. Humanity's best hope for a future of peace and prosperity lies in free people and free market democracies governed by the rule of law."The President then went on to quote Harry Truman who after WWII said:
"We are in the position now of making the world safe for democracy if we don't crawl in the shell and act selfish and foolish."Of course, combating terrorism and political extremism around the world clearly requires more than a strong foreign assistance program: we also need a strong military and strong, effective diplomacy.
But we must also work to give the (poor/unemployed) of the developing world hope for the future by helping them make a better life for themselves-. For without hope many will turn to violence as their savior, as we are witnessing in Central Asia and Central Africa.
Indeed, long-term peace and prosperity are possible only if the millions who struggle daily with disease and hunger see the international economic system as fair (as giving them a chance)-and as the country that profits from globalization the most, it is therefore in our best interests to make it acceptable to those who profit from it least.
Or, as John F. Kennedy once said, if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
That's why one of the most important things USAID does is help build democracy around the world.
We do this because we know that when people have a sense of ownership in their government, when they are consulted about the speed and direction of reform, two things happen:
1) the people-especially the poor and disadvantaged-are able to influence laws and policy to their benefit
and 2) because the whole process of governing has much greater political legitimacy, the government itself becomes stronger and more sustainable.
The spread of democracy benefits America too: for one thing, democracies have never gone to war against each other. It is also remarkable that no democracy has ever suffered a famine: Ethiopia was Marxist, India a colony and China communist.
True democracy-with a strong rule of law, protection of individual rights, and independent courts and media-also creates lasting political stability, allowing for solid economic growth.
In Serbia, USAID funded the International Republican Institute to train nearly 9,000 observers from the various opposition parties and assisted in their deployment in 98% of the polling stations in the resent elections.
Unbiased information collected by these observers provided the true "election results", as opposed to the "official" (fraudulent) numbers reported by the Milosevic-controlled Federal Election Commission. This allowed the opposition to claim victory, and ultimately forced Milosevic to leave office.
The spread of democracy benefits America because political stability is good for international trade and for American exports. Exports have accounted for over four-fifths of total U.S. economic growth since 1989.
And common sense tells us that a stable, democratic Indonesia, for example, which is the world's fourth largest country, will be a much better trading partner for the U.S. than an unstable Indonesia plagued with civil strife and a moribund economy.
If small American businesses are to expand they must find markets for their products and services overseas and probably in developing countries. USAID works to create investor-friendly environments in these countries.
U.S. exports to the countries of the former Soviet bloc, for example, have nearly tripled in the past decade, when USAID first established its aid program there.
Demand for U.S. exports in the countries of Central Europe-countries like Slovenia and Hungary- increased even more, almost fivefold.
Another way USAID is helping America by helping others is by fighting the spread of infectious diseases: AIDS, TB, polio-none of these respect national borders. As long as these diseases survive in India or the Congo they retain the real potential to threaten America.
Foreign aid works: in Eastern Europe, for example, we have been so successful at helping countries make the transition from Communism to democracy that this year we ended our programs in eight countries-including Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
Former aid recipients have become valuable trading partners. For example, U.S. exports to Poland have been expanding an average of 11 percent annually since our aid program began in 1990.
Indeed, many of the countries enjoying high rates of growth since World War II- South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand-benefited from U.S. foreign assistance programs in their development history.
Let's also take a look at some world statistics: in 1968, 53 percent of the world's population was illiterate. Four out of ten people didn't have enough food to eat.
Three-quarters of the world's population didn't have access to clean drinking water. Life expectancy, in 1968 was only 50 years.
Thanks to the efforts of USAID and the development community worldwide, thirty years later, in 1998, the literacy rates are up by 50 percent.
Fewer people are hungry-roughly one out of six. Three times as many people have access to clean water. Child mortality has been halved, and life expectancy is up ten years.
Of course many, many challenges remain. Central Africa and Haiti continue to defy solution and will require significant humanitarian assistance for the foreseeable future.
But the fact is that despite the setbacks, much progress has been made in improving the human condition in the last 50 years-since the idea of foreign assistance took root.
The end of the Cold War and the rise of globalization have given us an opportunity, perhaps only once in our lifetime, to pursue the development of democratic and free market systems in countries where the majoirty of the world's people live.
Will we accept this challenge as our parents generation did after WW II or will we turn our backs ; or in the words of Harry Truman's warning "crawl in the shell", in the naive assumption that what happens to 80% of the world's population will have no effect on us.
President Truman recognizing that peace could not be maintained by military power alone told the National War College that behind the shield of military strength, "We must help people improve the conditions of life, to create a world in which democracy and freedom can flourish." "Lasting peace means bread and justice and opportunity and freedom for all the people of the world."
If it was true in Harry Truman's day, that American security was threatened by the deplorable living conditions and repressive regimes found in the developing world, then isn't it even more true for our security in the 21st Century when ideas, capital, goods and people move across national borders at an unprecedented speed?
I believe we Americans have a moral duty to help people who are willing to help themselves. I realize some Americans disagree but I hope even they would agree with President Truman and Kennedy that our future and the futures of our children and grandchildren are intertwined with the futures of the men and women and children who live in the developing world.
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 12, 2001 |
