Deputy Administrator Paloma Adams-Allen at the Launch of a Partnership Agreement with Fayetteville State University

DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR PALOMA ADAMS-ALLEN: Good morning, everyone! It is such a pleasure to be here at Fayetteville State University; to join Chancellor Allison and all of you; to meet with FSU students and faculty as USAID deepens its engagement with our country’s HBCUs and other minority serving institutions.

USAID is the foreign assistance arm of the U.S. government and the leading international development agency in the world. It was founded in November 1961 by President John F. Kennedy – its authority legislated by Congress through the Foreign Assistance Act – and reflects an aphorism he was fond of using - “A rising tide lifts all boats”.

USAID was established to further the United States’ foreign policy interests in expanding democracy and promoting free markets, and to improve the lives around the world. Today, our workforce of over 10,000 serves in more than 100 countries. 

Our objective as an Agency is to work with host countries and partners around the world to become self-reliant and capable of leading their own development journeys. We make progress toward this by supporting economic development, reducing the reach of conflict, preventing the spread of pandemic disease, and counteracting the drivers of violence, instability, transnational crime, and other security threats. 

You might be asking yourself, as a student here at Fayetteville State, how you fit into that mission.

The truth is, no matter your major, we need your skills at USAID: even those skills you may not have thought would apply to international development. 

Your business experience could help facilitate partnerships with the private sector that can help us fight the climate crisis. If you have agricultural training, you can help us support the smallholder farmers whose work is crucial to ending global hunger. And if you are passionate about management, you can help us support the operations that underpin our development and humanitarian work.

And no matter your background, your lived experience can help you make a real impact in communities facing the same kinds of challenges you may have faced—making you a powerful force in the fight to protect and promote human dignity. 

But for too long the foreign policy space has been missing the voices of students from communities like FSU – and I know that that absence may make it difficult for you to see a career for yourselves in development and public service.

It’s on us, here at USAID and in foreign policy institutions, to help you envision a career for yourselves in the field – by recruiting talent in more places, and reaching out to institutions that we have overlooked in the past. 

A 2020 study we commissioned to look at the relationship between USAID and HBCUs showed that we had little knowledge about the structure, capacity and research expertise that HBCUs had to offer. 

Worse, we weren’t trying to remedy that lack of familiarity. 

We weren’t reaching out to historically-Black schools and as a result, students and faculty at these institutions had limited to no knowledge of USAID and our mission to build a freer, more peaceful, more prosperous world. 

Which also meant their students and faculty weren’t joining our ranks, competing for our grants, or sharing their expertise – not because they were unwilling, but because we did not extend our hand to them. 

Our logo is a handshake: one hand embracing another, meant to represent our nation’s embrace of those in need around the world. 

That same gesture is conveyed in our motto: “From the American People.”

But unless we commit ourselves to tapping into the wisdom, intellect, and generosity of spirit of all the American people, we will never live up to our mission.

Today’s MOU between FSU and USAID represents an important step in changing our approach to partnership. 

It is the avenue by which we will collaborate with FSU on the development and piloting of an Acquisition Career Workforce Professional program, a program for which the Agency has made an initial investment of $1 million. 

This first-of-its-kind partnership will be so crucial to USAID achieving its long-term development objectives. We employ a number of strategies with clear and concise goals: to mitigate and adapt to the severe effects of climate change; to promote gender equality and combat harmful stereotypes that prevent women from leading; to build a more diverse workforce and more respectful, safe, and inclusive workplace. 

Stretching across each of our strategies is a broader agenda to partner more directly with local actors, to open up the Agency to new and non-traditional entities and empower underrepresented communities. But we’ve learned over the years that working with local partners is often more difficult, time-consuming, and riskier. So we need professional staff focused solely on how we can achieve results with local actors, lessen the burden on our own staff, and drive a shift across the Agency that supports local partnerships. 

The “how” often goes unnoticed. It is highly technical, behind-the-scenes work that requires legal prowess, business acumen, and a deep understanding of USAID’s development objectives. It is, at its core, the process of providing funding, via contracts and awards to nearly all of our partners. In fact, 85 percent of our work is funded through Acquisition and Assistance mechanisms. 

This new chapter in USAID and FSU’s partnership, and the development of an Acquisition Career Workforce Program, will position us to harness this campus’ science, technology, and innovation competencies that are critical for addressing complex global development challenges related to management and support operations, including the reduction of barriers that prevent local actors, small businesses, the private sector, and faith-based and community groups from joining our mission. 

We expect that this will provide FSU students with internships, professional development, and certification opportunities that will position them for careers with USAID and the federal workforce.

This new partnership will also focus on building the capacity of Minority Serving Institutions to partner with USAID in efforts to address development challenges globally – from preventing child and maternal deaths; and combating infectious diseases to the protection and expansion of space for civil society or strengthening health systems to become more resilient to the next pandemic. FSU is an early partner in this and will be the first to benefit as a result. 

Additionally, USAID will work closely with the FSU College of Business and Economics faculty to advise on course curriculum and research topics across a wide professional spectrum, including financial management, information technology, public sector management, budget, management operations support, and acquisition and assistance priorities. I can assure you that there is strong demand at USAID for professionals with training in these areas. 

FSU students have many options to choose from as they decide what to do with their lives. A career in foreign assistance and international development should be among them.

The legacy of this venerable institution is one of audacity, rooted in the hope of seven trailblazing Black men who, in the wake of the Civil War, defied expectations and threats to establish a learning institution for future generations of local Black youth. 

This campus would become the foundation for the education of educators, and today, serves as a major partner to businesses, the military, non-profits, and other institutions. 

FSU doesn’t necessarily need USAID’s help to make a difference. Your alumni drive transformational change in communities through business ventures, entrepreneurial education, STEM innovation and solutions for challenges facing underserved communities, and so much more. 

Even though you may not need our help, we need yours. Your expertise, your innovation in science and technology, your locally-driven economic empowerment. This school’s legacy of using education to uplift and empower vulnerable communities.

Today’s MOU signing is about expanding access that can connect your love of learning, problem solving, research, technology, and service to our shared mission of combating poverty and food insecurity; expanding educational and economic opportunity; and a whole range of global challenges that no one country can solve alone. 

Today, this partnership between USAID and FSU represents our call for you to join us.