Rep. Lowey: We Have to Build USAID Back Up
FrontLines - April 2009
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs, which is instrumental in shaping the USAID annual budget. On Feb. 27, Lowey spoke by phone from her district
in New York with FrontLines editor Ben Barber. Excerpts of that interview follow.
Q: Increasingly, USAID has been operating in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, working very closely with the Department of Defense, which spends its own money on development,
on assistance.
What do you think is the role of Defense in development
activities?
Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) shakes hands with Oro Verde Cooperative’s President Carmelo Diaz as USAID’s director in Peru Paul Weisenfeld (in cap) and Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) look on.
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LOWEY : The growing role of the military in humanitarian
and development
programs is of great concern to me, and implementation
is best left to the
professionals at the State Department and USAID, who are uniquely trained and qualified
to help improve the health, education, and economic security of foreign nations.
A recent Congressional Research Service study found that nearly one-fourth of
our foreign aid dollars are appropriated to and implemented by the Department of Defense, and another 22 percent by other departments and agencies, and only 53 percent of our total foreign
aid programs are executed by the State Department and USAID.
Q: There’s a lot of discussion about foreign assistance reform. What would you like to see in a reformed USAID?
LOWEY: Well, when it comes to reform of USAID, number one, we have to build it back up again with more positions, and I have included in the appropriations
for…this year that we just passed, the omnibus bill, an increase in staff for USAID and for the State Department.
We need people with specific skills. We need people who understand education, who understand health care. I would hope that we can have people with the skills. For example, USAID currently has 8,000 employees, which is half the number the agency had at its peak in the 1970s. And the bill that I talked about contains $808.5 million—$178 million above 2008—to allow USAID to hire 300 additional Foreign Service Officers.
So I really look forward to working with President Obama because his budget envisions major capacity increases for USAID.
Q: There’s a budget crisis, a financial
crisis. How will this affect the deployment of soft power?
LOWEY: The economic crisis…
has a severe impact on the world’s most impoverished nations and people. Despite our fiscal problems at home and abroad, I’m very pleased that President Obama’s budget indicates
he understands that it’s critical that this economic crisis not diminish our commitment to diplomacy and development abroad. In fact, it’s even more critical now. Economic stability and security around the world are directly related to our economic
stability at home.
And I am very pleased for the first time since I’ve been in the Congress that there seems to be a broad understanding in the Congress and in the new administration
that diplomacy is involved in a critical element of our national security. And my role as chairwoman of the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee is to continue making the point to my colleagues
that diplomacy and development are vital pillars of our national security and we must maintain the political will to provide assistance.
Q: You just came back from three countries that receive USAID assistance in Latin America. What are the activities there that impressed you the most?
LOWEY: I saw some very important alternative development programs in Peru and Colombia to get the coca farmers off growing coca for cocaine production so they [can produce] chocolate and coffee and keep the narco-traffickers
away from that area.
One of my most impressive visits a few years ago was the opening of a girls’ school in Dadar, Pakistan. It was inspiring to see how appreciative the students
were of the opportunity to learn. And I also continue to be very impressed with the quality of people we have in our embassies:
USAID, the political people.
They understand the countries,
they work very hard, and they’re absolutely committed to our policy in those countries.
Q: What do you see as USAID’s strengths? And what would you like to see improved at the agency?
LOWEY: Well, our current assistance and development programs
alleviate suffering, they reduce poverty around the world…However, neither the programs nor the people are able to keep pace with the increasing demands and the changing political
and security environment in which they must operate today. So I’d like to see a greater coherence,
coordination between the 10 Cabinet departments, over 15 sub-Cabinet or independent agencies
with diplomacy and development
responsibility. This has been a management nightmare for our ambassadors from the field—congressional lack of oversight, accountability, coordination,
and coherence of assistance
programs.
I’d like to see, and I feel confident
that we will see because of the Secretary of State’s great commitment
to this, major changes in the State Department and USAID.
Q: Will these changes involve rewriting the Foreign Assistance Act or is that not important to the reforms that you’d like to see?
LOWEY: I think they’re both important. But while the Foreign Assistance Act is being rewritten—
and I know that [House Foreign Affairs] Chairman [Howard] Berman [D-Calif.] is hard at work at that project—the process has to continue to move forward, and the Secretary of State will continue to make changes that make all the programs more coherent and coordinated.
Q: You’ve always been particularly
interested in basic education,
health, and women’s rights. What sparked your interest in this area, and why do you think these are important for development?
LOWEY: My interest in basic education, health, and women’s rights abroad are an extension of my commitment on these issues at home, and they’re rooted in the strong belief that a society that is healthy, well educated, and respects women’s rights will be more stable politically, less susceptible to extremism and violence….
Q: There is a lot of need out there. The resources of USAID, of the U.S. government, are finite. What can we expect to achieve? Are we just holding a finger in the dike? Are there areas we should focus more on whereas maybe there are areas we should abandon?
LOWEY: Well, it’s not realistic to expect diplomatic and development
agencies to completely eliminate hunger, disease, and poverty throughout the world. What we should do is set an example by respecting human rights, ensuring that our own population has access to health care and education. We can intervene
and offer assistance where there is suffering, ensure that recipients are aware of the generosity
of the American taxpayer. We can help countries develop the technical capacity so that they can be self-sufficient over the long term and we can reach out even to countries that totally disagree
on fundamental issues to cooperate on areas of agreement.
And we’ll have to coordinate better because there are many foundations that are doing this work. The Clinton Global Initiative, the Gates Foundation, we have to coordinate better with the World Bank, with IMF, with other countries so we’re not duplicating efforts, so each dollar
can be spent wisely.
Q: What do we do when there’s a lack of security, there’s a lack of governance, and there’s a culture
of corruption? We put something
in place and then when we leave, the bad guys just take it over. What comes first—security, governance, or development?
LOWEY: I think it all has to work together. For example, in Colombia, President Uribe is very sensitive to this and he’s overcome many challenges. And you can walk through Cartagena, you can walk through Bogota. You couldn’t do that years ago. You can walk through Medellin. When we establish security—President Uribe has said we need to immediately put that in place to lift people up—we give them opportunities to earn their own way. So we need integrated approaches. We need security with economic development while respecting human rights and people’s traditions.
★
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