Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Radio Program on USAID

This is a very good streaming audio of a radio program on U.S. foreign assistance and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Comment: This radio program is pretty good at showing the problems with U.S. foreign assistance -- a complex multi-faceted mission, lack of public understanding and support, lack of Congressional support, a very small staff given the mission and budget, a process that focuses on contracts and short term contractual monitoring instead of long term development concerns, delegation of many functions to military rather than development personnel in the largest programs, and a budget that is
fragmented by earmarks as well as programmed in Washington rather than the field and small compared with both the challenges and America's economic might.

I think the program missed the fragmentation of authority among a number of agencies and importantly, the abysmal morale in the remaining staff after decades of downsizing and criticism.

The radio program of course can't really be expected to provide a good
plan for the repair of the damaged organisation and damaged foreign assistance program. The Obama administration should be working on that plan, but has been very slow in appointing senior staff for foreign aid. The staff that is in place is going to be running very hard to deal with the programmatic needs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti as well as the rest of the poor nations in the world. JAD

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