Remarks by Henrietta Holsman Fore
Acting Director of Foreign Assistance and Acting USAID Administrator
A New Consensus in International Development
U.S. Global Leadership Campaign and
Chicago Council on Global Affairs Luncheon
September 19, 2007
Thank you, Simon O'Rourke, and thank you leaders and members of the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the U.S. Global leadership Campaign
for having me here today.
I am encouraged by your attendance and my thanks goes to all of you.
You are the thought- and action- leading stakeholders that drive social justice
and institutional change. This afternoon I will lay out my initial thoughts.
Then I want to know what you think.
Secretary of State Rice, in describing her vision of "American Realism," has
said "we achieve our greatest and most enduring goals when we unite power
and purpose together."
I have felt this spirit and purpose throughout the global development community.
You know what is possible when collective power is driven by experience and
commitment.
Priorities
Under President Bush's leadership, the United States has launched the most
ambitious development agenda since the Marshall Plan - nearly tripling our foreign
assistance in six years.
We have nearly doubled spending in Latin America. We have nearly
quadrupled spending in sub-Saharan Africa. With the President's Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief, we lead the world in funding HIV treatment. And, the President's
Freedom Agenda has stimulated global debate on freedom and democracy.
Relief efforts for the Asian tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake and the Darfur crisis
show our nation's strong commitment to providing rapid and sustained assistance to
those in immediate need. We are still the largest bilateral donor in the world - public
or private.
Our Moment
Today, development is on the world's agenda. When you see it in Vanity Fair
Magazine. When you hear about it from rock stars. When the G-8 holds a global
summit to make new progress in Africa. You know our moment has arrived.
But have we been smart enough? Have we communicated and worked together
closely enough to see where and why a program works? Do we capture all of our best
practices? Today, I join you to capitalize on this moment - and ensure that our
combined efforts are strong, revitalized, and ready for the next phase.
For context, let's briefly consider the evolution of foreign assistance over time:
The first era in the nineteen fifties and sixties was an era of institutional and
infrastructure development. It established the major frameworks, infrastructure,
international and bilateral donors, and the financing organizations we all work with
today.
The second ERA, in the nineteen seventies, might be thought of as the era of human
development - a people-oriented period, which introduced an enormous diversity of
innovations in social sectors like education and health.
The nineteen eighties brought new energy and emphasis on private sector
development; and the nineteen nineties saw tremendous transitional
development, as state-run economies and non-democratic governments in the Soviet
Union, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia gave way to democracy.
Today, we are at the threshold of a new era. And in this new era we are just
beginning to create what could be described as a Global Development Commons.
The Global Development Commons
A Global Development Commons would be a community of continuous and real-
time exchange, collaboration, partnership and action between public and private
donors, agencies, NGOs, host governments and civil society - all operating as equals.
It is a time of great excitement and momentum, with an explosion of ideas, actors and
solutions.
While we will continue to build on past advances, the number of players and
the complexity of the issues demand that we build a more comprehensive and
efficient network of resources, skills and information exchange. Rather than
command and control, we must communicate, collaborate, and act - together.
A Global Development Commons relies on the interconnections, information
institutions, businesses, organizations, governments, sectors and individuals
within a country, within a region, and around the world.
The greatest danger to our common cause in development is not the developed
world's will to use its power, or its political designs. We find the greatest risk
is in our gaps in communication - in a shared understanding of the facts and in
intramural competition among well-intentioned offices, agencies, donors and
NGOs. This competition undermines morale and commitment, as well as
clarity of action, and inflicts a poverty of hope and an abundance of paperwork.
I join you today, to make a singular appeal to you - as well as to the larger
community of development experts and partners, contractors, entrepreneurs,
corporations, foundations, funding organizations, NGOs, and agencies of the
federal government - to join me in a new quest.
In this era, so different from that which prompted the Marshall Plan, together
we need to seek a New Consensus in international development: a commitment
to work together in ways we never have before.
Think of it as a declaration of inter-dependence.
Genuine consultation and increased collaborative efforts within our own
community, with civil society and with governments will ultimately make our
shared commitment and the network that supports it stronger.
To start that conversation, here is a principle I would like to offer. While
many of us are devoted to our own businesses, agencies, organizations, regions,
or sectors - and we will always need to manage through the complexity of that
matrix - I believe we are most successful when we put the host country - its
priorities, capacities, norms, and local design - at the center of our collective
thought and action.
What I'm hearing from host governments - most recently from President
Kufuor of Ghana - is that they want direct access to the world economy. They
are interested in trade, not aid. They want all of us - the U. S. government, the
business community, and the development community - to help them create
coherence out of the chaos of good intentions.
We must be open to new ways of doing business.
I believe that USAID, the State Department, PEPFAR, the Millennium Challenge
Corporation, other agencies, and the business world must all operate as part of a
Global Development Commons that reaches across to every donor in the world, and
up into NGOs and the private sector.
Public- Private Partnerships
USAID is the world leader in engaging the private sector - mobilizing ideas
and resources, skills and technologies. To expand our network in the for-profit
world, our Global Development Alliance has built more than 500 public-private
alliances with over 1,800 partners - using $1.4 billion of the people's money to
leverage $4.8 billion in private money, and leveraging thousands of people in
the process.
I'm proud to announce that USAID is about to sign a global
memorandum of understanding with the Microsoft Corporation. International
development and technology are rapidly converging. You'll soon hear more
about how and where Microsoft and USAID are going to be working together
around the world. This week I also met with John Chambers of CISCO with whom
we have helped launch a profound technological partnership with their global
networking academies which are bringing education and economic opportunity to
children and young adults throughout the developing world. We are committed to
using technology to improve, leverage and deepen aid effectiveness. At USAID we
know it works and we are leading the U.S. Government's resolve to make
partnerships a bigger part of the U.S. assistance package.
Execution
Now, let's talk about execution. Over the past 60 years we have deepened our
knowledge about the enormous power of economic growth to improve people's
lives. But do we use our knowledge effectively enough to be the power for
global prosperity and stability?
More recently, we've added new knowledge about the impact of education, the
environment, energy, health, and women in society. But do we apply and
disseminate our knowledge enough?
I'm committed to bringing clarity to complexity through technology - because
technology is a tool that facilitates insight and networking. We must begin a
sustained effort to make all aspects of U.S. assistance work over the web, so the
host country and all of the players can see the whole - not just the distinct parts
- and they can see their role and opportunities in it.
We will marshal resources to build Development Net - a database and website
to let the host country and all stakeholders see the whole picture. We need a
country-centric base of information and a trading exchange - that lets public and
private partnerships and foundation donors look at potential projects by country or by
type of program - and helps host governments and delivery teams drive efficiency
and reduce redundancy.
We need to make this data asset available, and link it with some of the excellent
portals and networking sites already being built by groups like the Development
Gateway Foundation and the Development Executive Group.
And from an overall execution perspective, the American people and the international
community who trust us with their money want to know that our work delivers results
- that it changes the world.
I want to engage with you to identify and apply high-quality outcome measures - so
that we can more quickly adjust programs to ensure we achieve results.
USAID was the first agency to require systematic evaluations of its projects and
programs. We're going to emphasize that discipline with the useful purpose of
sharing the best practices and then investing more resources to scale up best
practices.
I am committed to:
One: Rebuilding a revitalized diverse and skilled USAID workforce. We
need to ensure our staff has 21st Century skills and the ability to use 21st Century
tools to advance our development mission. We want people who have world-class
policy skills, technical skills, public diplomacy skills, and yes, procurement skills.
And,
Two: Asserting USAID's leadership in development. To that end, I will chair the U.S.
government's inter-agency Development Policy Coordinating Committee.
The USAID Office of Development Partners will be strengthened to engage with a
broad spectrum of partners, from the bilateral and multilateral donors to
the NGOs, to the private sector and foundations.
We need more communication about what our foreign assistance does to help U.S.
interests around the world and it's critical role in fighting poverty and
promoting economic growth. We also need more focused forums on the
promise and results of public-private partnerships.
And we will improve our outreach. The story of the generosity of the people of the
United States must be told, domestically and internationally. We need to
brand all U.S. foreign assistance as being "From the American People."
And we need your help specifically.
Call to Action
Today, and over the next sixteen months, I would like to ask you to join me in
forging a New Consensus about the future of international development.
If, as I believe, we are entering a new era of international development, a Global
Development Commons where the connections between businesses, organizations,
and resources matter more than ever, an era when we need tolerant information,
ideas, technology, and public-private partnerships to spur innovation and deliver
results, when host countries must be at the center of our collective thought and action.
If you accept my invitation, I pledge to be inclusive and earnest in building this new
consensus. You'll find me a great collaborator - and we couldn't ask for a better
sponsor or more powerful advocate than Secretary Rice.
To our many shared stakeholders, I would suggest that we put at least as much energy
into communicating what unites us as declaring our differences and inevitable
shortcomings. For there is one thing of which I am absolutely certain: A New
Consensus will only emerge if - together - we seek it.
Thank you for your attention. Now, let me know what you think.
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