Friday, November 18, 2022
Chairwoman Bass, Ranking Member Smith, distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify on how foreign assistance can alleviate the conditions that increase the risk of armed conflict in Africa. According to the International Monetary Fund, fragile and conflict-affected states may host 60% of the global poor by 2030. Nowhere is the specter of conflict derived from state fragility more acute than in sub-Saharan Africa, where 11 of the 15 most fragile states in the Fund for Peace’s Fragile States Index are located.
Internal and external pressures such as economic crises, food insecurity, climate security, corruption and governance challenges, and ethnic and faith-based societal divisions all contribute to uncertainty and ripen the environment for instability and conflict in Africa. Not one sector of development work is capable of “fixing” such a complex problem on its own, so the full spectrum of USAID’s assistance - including and not limited to peacebuilding, governance assistance, food security, gender equality, health, and youth-centered programming - all must play part of a holistic, concerted effort. Addressing violence takes time and effort to understand the local context and work with local partner communities.
Thursday, November 17, 2022
Good morning, Chairman Meeks, Ranking Member McCaul, and members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the new U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa. I appreciate your longstanding bipartisan commitment to the African continent.
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on USAID’s work and discuss our vision for a free and democratic future in Venezuela.
Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis is a man-made disaster, and the Venezuelan people’s continued suffering is a direct result of the corruption, incompetence, failed policies, and repression of the Maduro regime. Despite the pressure from democratic nations and the Venezuelan people, the regime has doubled down on its security apparatus and enriching cronies. Maduro seems to be betting that, with most Venezuelans too focused on feeding their families to protest, he can outlast the international community and whitewash his image.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Chairman Bera, Ranking Member Chabot, distinguished subcommittee members: Thank you for inviting me to testify on USAID’s 30-year partnership with Central Asia. USAID is proud to partner with the five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – to help them make extraordinary development progress since their independence.
Today, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the historic global hunger crisis we are facing and the steps USAID is taking to deliver critically-needed and lifesaving assistance. I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight potential reforms to key pieces of authorizing legislation that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of assistance to meet rising needs.
Chairman Meeks, Ranking Member McCaul, and distinguished Members of the Committee, thank you for having me here today. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak before this Committee on an incredibly important issue and one that is more pressing than ever.
While the narrative about Africa is often dominated by its challenges, it is a continent better characterized by resilience and transformation. We saw this in the innovations that sprang up to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, the resilience shown by individuals experiencing negative outcomes of climate change, and the thousands of voices that have spoken out to safeguard democracy.
Chairman Menendez, Ranking Member Risch, Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about the progress USAID has made to date – and the remaining opportunities to do more – on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) within our Agency.
Due to the overlapping crises of climate shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, millions more across the world are at risk of being driven into starvation unless action is taken now to respond together and at scale. Thanks to the bipartisan support of Congress, USAID is investing billions of dollars to ensure families can feed their children, help countries break their dependence on Russian food and fertilizer supply while ramping up our own domestic fertilizer production, protect the poorest households around the world by scaling up social safety nets, and unleash American technical expertise to spur the long-term agricultural productivity that essential to ending hunger. I thank the Committee for its support of our work, and I look forward to discussing with you in more detail.
It will be important for U.S. foreign assistance to the Sahel to include bolstering national institutions and policy reforms; promoting local-level civilian protection, service delivery, and development; improving partner coordination; optimizing coordination around food security and humanitarian assistance; and countering unhelpful external actors and disinformation campaigns. We must support timely democratic transitions in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali, and critical political, social, economic, and governance reforms across the region to reduce corruption and prevent further democratic erosion. U.S. assistance should also enable governments to enhance their presence in underserved areas and decentralize their service delivery, foster increased citizen trust in their governments, mitigate the risk of inter-communal conflict, improve business-enabling environments, and reduce cycles of political instability by demonstrating that democracy can deliver tangible benefits to all. We must also help our partners adapt to and manage consequences of ongoing climate change and displacement in the Sahel. None of this work will take root without strengthening and expanding the role of African institutions in balancing regional threats and opportunities with underlying macroeconomic conditions. The United States must similarly improve its coordination with other donors and allies to increase synchronization across development, humanitarian, and peace-building programming, and burden sharing while also countering the propaganda and disinformation generated by strategic competitors.
Although the immediate impacts of our work are first felt by people far from our shores, the lasting effects of greater security, stability, and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa impact our own national security and prosperity. By building vibrant economies, we create trading partners. By protecting human rights, we mitigate grievances and instability and build more sustainable partnerships. By improving governance and security, we lessen the threat of extremist violence and terrorism visiting the homeland. And in demonstrating compassion and cooperation, we build allies and partners who share our interests and aspirations.
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Last updated: December 06, 2022
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