New Direction for U.S. Foreign Assistance

Go to the USAID announcement of the proposed reforms. The webpage also provides a transcript of the Secretary's remarks, streaming audio of her meeting with USAID staff, and related material.

U.S. Secretary of State Rice has announced a major change in the way the US government directs foreign assistance. This reorganization is described as intended to:

* Ensure that foreign assistance is used as effectively as possible to meet our broad foreign policy objectives
* More fully align the foreign assistance activities carried out by the Department of State and USAID
* Demonstrate that we are responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars.

The Secretary announced the intention of creating the new position of Director of Foreign Assistance to serve concurrently as USAID Administrator. She stated that

the Director will also provide overall leadership to foreign assistance that is delivered through other agencies and entities of the U.S. Government. He will coordinate our development efforts, for example, with the Office of Global AIDS Coordinator and with the Millennium Challenge Corporation which operates under unique, conditions-based standards for assistance.

The White House concurrently announced the nomination of Amb. Randall L. Tobias as USAID Administrator.

This change is to be implemented consistent with current law. No new legislation is seen as required at this time. USAID's status as an independent organization with an administrator reporting directly to the Secretary of State is to remain unchanged.

Bradley Graham and Glenn Kessler covered the announcement in today's Washington Post. (January 20, 2006.)

Rice took the unusual step of holding a town-hall-style meeting with hundreds of USAID employees after announcing the creation of a high-level State Department position to oversee all foreign aid programs. Rice said the position -- director of foreign assistance -- is intended to bring greater coherence and efficiency to a broad patchwork of often overlapping assistance programs that now total about $19 billion. Randall L. Tobias, a former pharmaceuticals industry executive who has headed the administration's global AIDS program for the past 2 1/2 years, was named to fill the position and also to serve as the new USAID administrator......Several longtime USAID officials who heard Rice said in brief interviews afterward that her decision to hold the meeting was itself a significant gesture, but they also made clear that they will be withholding final judgment about the revamped management structure.....The choice of Tobias drew some criticism. He has little experience in development issues other than the anti-AIDS effort, and some activists have faulted him for placing less emphasis on condom use than on abstinence to reduce the spread of AIDS, and for moving too slowly to promote inexpensive generic drugs.

The idea of a high-level official to coordinate U.S. foreign assistance is not new, and in fact was enacted into law a quarter century ago -- the last legacy of Hubert Humphrey. However, the implementation of that law was weak to non-existant. The Bush Administration has chosen to implement major foreign assistance initiative outside of USAID, and I am pleased to see that they are now trying to bring the various aid programs of the government together under a combined leadership. I hope that in doing so the Administration does not sacrifice the long term nature of development assistance to the short term objectives of military and economic policy, and that the leaders that they choose have the background and experience to fully understand the nature of development assistance.