NEW DIRECTOR FOR USAID ARRIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA

The new Director for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in South Africa, William Stacy Rhodes, arrived in the country this past weekend. A native of Tucson, Arizona, Mr. Rhodes, was sworn in on July 29, 1998. A senior Foreign Service Officer, who began his overseas experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia in 1968, he will manage a program with an average annual funding of $50 million.

In April 1994, South Africa entered a new stage of nonracial democracy with the election of President Nelson Mandela. To support that change and help redress the legacy of apartheid, President Clinton announced a three-year assistance package of nearly $600 million, an announcement superseded in 1996 by the current ten-year, $435 million program.

USAID's program in South Africa supports efforts to strengthen democratic institutions and values, to improve services to the majority population in education, health, and housing, to implement economic reform, and to encourage participation in the private sector and ownership of businesses, houses, and other assets by the majority population.

Rhodes was director of USAID's Office of Central American Affairs in July 1991 and was responsible for headquarters support for seven USAID programs--Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and a regional program. In December 1992, Rhodes became deputy assistant administrator of USAID's Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1993, Rhodes served as acting assistant administrator. Rhodes has served with USAID in Haiti, Morocco, Nepal, and Guatemala where he was Mission Director.

Before joining USAID in 1978, Rhodes was an attorney-advisor with the State Department and an associate lawyer in the law firm of Fried, Harris, Shriver and Kampelman in Washington, D.C.

He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1966, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a master's degree in international relations from John Hopkins university in 1968, a J.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974, and a master's degree in public policy from Duke University in 1991.

Rhodes, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Herbert Rhodes of Tucson, sang in the Tucson Boys Choir, is a 1962 graduate of Rincon High School in Tucson and attended the University of Arizona where his father was Dean of the Graduate College. Rhodes and his wife, Trisha, have three children, Amanda 18, Maggie 16, and Max, 9. He took the oath of office in Washington, D.C., attended by USAID Administrator J. Brian Atwood, colleagues, family and friends.

For more information about USAID programs in South Africa, please contact Reverie Zurba at 012-323-8869.