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USAID Official Questioned On Aid in Afghanistan

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The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent approximately $17 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. In a recent letter from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the general counsel claims that USAID has not been diligent in monitoring the use of money to prevent contract aid from being used by groups linked to terrorist organizations.

The letter declares that USAID has purposely withheld information regarding these funds and the fact that the Afghan government did not exercise oversight regarding the appropriation of those funds. John Sopko, the inspector general for SIGAR, stated “USAID kept this information from Congress and the American people.”

Yet a spokesperson for USAID, Matthew Herrick, has denied any wrongdoing on behalf of the agency. Herrick claimed that USAID complied with all requests from members of Congress and their staff to show documents relating to the matter.

In order to ensure the money was not spent in a fraudulent manner, the House Subcommittee on National Security questioned the USAID Assistant Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan Donald L. Samper. Members on the subcommittee called into question the ability of Afghan ministries to oversee the allocation of USAID funds.

In a country notorious for its corruption, USAID conducted internal risk reviews of its dealings in the country. But Rep. John Tierney of Massachusetts stated that although USAID conducted risk reviews of seven of the thirteen Afghan ministries and made 333 recommendations on how to lessen the risk to USAID funds, the agency provided direct assistance to the seven ministries and only required 24 of the 333 recommendations to be implemented.

Sopko called for the Afghan government to take more concrete steps to increase its oversight of USAID-funded projects and decrease corruption before USAID doles out any more funding for development assistance. Overseeing the proper delegation of funding to Afghanistan has been emphasized recently. In 2012 the US government concluded that a contractor working there had links to networks that provided parts of improvised explosive devices to be used against US troops.

This latest revelation comes amidst another scandal in which the USAID spearheaded a so-called covert “Cuban Twitter” project codenamed ZunZuneo. As a result, the federal agency has been under increasingly strict scrutiny from Congress.

– Jeff Meyer

Sources: UPI, USA Today
Photo: The Guardian

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USAID and Clinton Launch Global Development Lab

On April 3, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Hillary Clinton announced the launch of the U.S. Global Development Lab, with the goal to end extreme poverty by 2030.

Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator, said at the launch that, “To solve our most intractable development challenges, USAID has established a new way of working, bringing on board the best and brightest staff and new partners, all working in concert to help end extreme poverty.”

In the new program, USAID is partnering with 31 universities, corporations, and foundations in the hope to use science and technology to help find methods of alleviating poverty. These partners are being called the Cornerstone Partners, as they come from a number of different fields.

The Cornerstone Partners include corporations like Cargill, Cisco, Coca-Cola, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Nike, Syngenta and Walmart as well as foundations and organizations like CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Plan, Save the Children, World Vision, the Global Impact Investing Network, the Skoll Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences, the Smithsonian Foundation, and the Gates Foundation.

In addition, many universities have decided to be part of the Global Development Lab, including the University of California at Berkeley, Duke University, Johns Hopkins Univesrity, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute, Texas A&M University, and the College of William and Mary. Sweden has also decided to donate to the creation of the lab.

Together all of these groups have contributed over $30 billion in investments and have also provided technology, experts on the subject, and the capabilities to conduct necessary research and development.

Shah went on to explain the lab by saying that, “The Lab will engage a global community of inventors, academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate leaders in science and technology to invent, test, and scale the most promising and cost effective solutions to end extreme poverty.”

Shah believes that Americans can lead the effort to eliminate poverty, but admits that it will take time. He hopes that by forming these partnerships and creating the Global Development Lab, USAID will be able to help construct the best solutions to worldwide problems.

Prior to being the USAID administrator, Shah served as the undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and has worked with Clinton before. One example of their work together was when Shah was applying scientific techniques to improve agriculture in conjunction with Clinton’s work on a global food initiative. Shah hoped to combine these efforts, and his operations in USAID work towards that goal.

The Global Development Lab will work on developing cost-effective products that incorporate the newest discoveries in science, but will also work on solving other problems, such as hunger, disease, and literacy. By bringing together the greatest minds from several different fields, the Global Development Lab will have all the necessary resources to reach its goals.

In light of the announcement, Lana Stoll of USAID said, “By tapping into things that really make America what it is, which is our entrepreneurial spirit, our scientific expertise, and our real commitment to help people, you have a real ability to accelerate our impact.”

– Julie Guacci

Sources: TIME, The Skoll Foundation
Photo: Still4Hill

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Education in Haiti: All Children Reading

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March 26 marked the grand opening of a brand new school for the Lekol S&H students in Caracol, Haiti. The students celebrated the inauguration alongside United States Ambassador Pamela White, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director John Groarke and Haitian officials, according to USAID Haiti’s Facebook page.

The new facility is one of many schools that fall under USAID’s All Children Reading program in Haiti. Also known as Tout Timoun Ap Li (ToTAL,) All Children Reading is one of the programs supported by U.S. and Haitian government collaboration in Haiti. Starting in 2011, Haiti’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training unveiled a plan to get more than 1.5 million students in school by 2016, says USAID.

The ToTAL program focuses on developing reading skills for Haitian students in first grade through third grade in the Port-au-Prince, Saint Marc and Cap Haitien areas. All Children Reading will provide more nearly 30,000 children and 900 teachers with critical reading curriculums to meet international literacy standards, says USAID. “In developing countries,” says the All Children Reading experts, “literacy leads to improved health, better education, greater employment opportunities, and more stable governments.”

The All Children Reading program partners with USAID, World Vision and the Australian government to utilize competitive science, technology and education grants to improve the school systems and educational opportunities for students in developing countries.

Awards are disseminated in two rounds, each of which has a different development focus. Round 1 “focuses on creating teaching and learning materials and education data applications to promote accountability and transparency” and has been awarded to 32 projects in more than 20 nations, according to the All Children Reading website.

Round 2 looks more to implementation strategies and technology solutions to improve education in Haiti. The three areas of focus for this branch of the project include promoting mother tongue instruction and reading materials, enhancing family and community engagement and supporting children with disabilities. All Children Reading prioritizes reading in the early school levels in order to instill strong education practices and create better and wider opportunities for children as adults.

Through programs such as ToTAL, the U.S government has trained nearly 900 teachers in new curriculum in both Haitian Creole and French. In addition, USAID has supplied Haitian students with more than 46,000 textbooks and workbooks. The ToTAL program has been introduced in more than 300 schools nationwide, such as the one in Caracol. In the years to come USAID hopes to reach more than 1 million children throughout Haiti, especially “as other partners extend the use of the program’s reading curricula and training methods beyond the development corridors.”

– Mallory Thayer

Sources: USAID, All Children Reading, Facebook
Photo: Save the Children

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U.S. Foreign Aid Facts


With all the attention in the United States focused on the economy and the government’s fiscal decisions, people are finally noticing the vast amount of pork barrel spending that occurs every year. Wasted government dollars are spent on projects of no significance while Congress still refuses to extend unemployment insurance benefits.  This intense scrutiny of U.S. spending usually finds its way over to the International Affairs Budget.

According to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans think 28% of the budget goes to foreign aid. Many are shocked to find that the real number is close to 1%! The same poll also found out that when people learn the truth, it changes their opinions.  When asked if the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid, 61% said “too much” while 13% said “too little.”  When asked the same question after learning the true proportion, just 30% said “too much” while 28% said “too little.”

Education must continue to dispel any myths about U.S. foreign aid and fight ignorance with facts.  Here are some facts about U.S. foreign aid that could help you in your crusade!

  • Nearly 3 billion people worldwide have received assistance from United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • U.S. foreign aid dictates future agriculture export totals; 43 of the top 50 consumers of American agriculture products are past recipients
  • Over 3 million lives are saved every year due to USAID health programs
  • Largely due to USAID programs, the world has observed a 10 percent reduction in infant mortality in just eight years
  • USAID family planning programs has seen the children per family average decrease from 6.1 to 4.2 in just 50 years in participating nations.
  • The number of democratic nations in the world grew from 58 to 115 between 1980 and 1995.  The U.S. provided assistance to 36 newly formed nations during this period.

U.S. foreign aid is a wonderful tool of diplomacy that promotes democracy and security throughout the world.  Investments are made in economic development, education and social services, health, humanitarian assistance, environment, governance, and security.  For further ammunition and a complete breakdown of U.S. foreign aid investments and their results, visit USAID’s results page.

– Sunny Bhatt

Sources: Washington Post, USAID, USAID
Photo: Ozy

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Water As A Tool For Peace

Last month, on February 24th, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released a new report, the Water and Conflict Toolkit. The toolkit is part of a series that explores the ways in which development assistance can assess and manage key risk factors that are associated with conflict and instability in developing countries.

One major contributing factor to conflict is in fact, water.

Water is a human necessity, essential for both survival and development. Its management can be complex, as it often generates competition between divided parties.

USAID is using this toolkit to try to mitigate these effects and promote effective water management. This will not only increase access to water and increase agricultural productivity, but also unite communities and lead the way towards peacebuilding.

This is the first time that USAID has created such a water strategy. During the five-year effort USAID hopes to ensure that 10 million more people have access to drinking water, 6 million have improved access to sanitation, and 3 million have improved access to agricultural productivity.

The report noted the multiple challenges that will be faced, with population growth and movement to urban areas at the top of the list. Other factors that also need to be taken into account include agricultural and industrial demands, corrupt governance, water politics, pollution and climate change.

A number of leaders spoke at the launch of the Water and Conflict Toolkit, held at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. Among them was Gideon Bromberg, the Israeli director of EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East.

Bromberg highlighted the particular importance of this report, noting that the toolkit is about much more than just conflict.

“It’s put very much in the forefront the possibilities of peacebuilding. Water is an opportunity in areas where there aren’t many opportunities.”

He used the example of the Jordan River to show how effective water management can generate the will for change.

The Jordan River has its headwaters in Syria and borders Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan. Over the past 50 years, about 96% of its freshwater has been diverted for agricultural and domestic use and the river’s flow has dropped substantially.

In 2013, a committee of local leaders got together and successfully passed an initiative to pump water regularly from Lake Kinneret into the lower Jordan River, to revitalize the overused ecosystem.

Bromberg explained the change that this grassroots, bottom-up initiative generated,

“I had a water minister from both sides come and say ‘You guys, you environmentalists, you’re dreamers, you’re tree-huggers! Water is too scarce! We’re not going to waste water to allow it to flow down the River Jordan. Were not going to allow water to go beyond our borders and empower the other side, the enemy.’ Well, that was said to us a decade ago. Today, that same leadership is carrying the flag of rehabilitating the Jordan River. This is their project, this is their political leadership, this is their success.”

Public awareness and community mobilization were key to the success of the Jordan River initiative.

The Water and Conflict Toolkit will hopefully be another resource that can be used to effectively manage water, mitigate conflict, and promote peacebuilding among communities.

– Mollie O’Brien

Sources: New Security Beat, All Africa, USAID
Photo: Aqua Rocks

USAID, Paragon of Higher Edu. for Developing Nations

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For decades, it was believed that funding should be siphoned into lower levels of education rather than university education, and throughout the 1980’s studies argued in favor of this mode of international aid. However, more recent studies show conclusive evidence that higher education has manifold benefits for developing nations. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is perhaps the paragon of the potential that universities and development agencies have when they work together. USAID has chosen to forego any future partnership with Higher Education for Development, an intermediary that works with universities at home and abroad, opting to instead work directly with universities themselves.This signals a more hands-on approach that shows the growing importance of higher education in the eyes of USAID.One very important case of this approach is the Higher Education Solutions Network, which attempts to find solutions to global issues such as food security through development labs at seven different universities.Another example of the commitment of USAID to higher education is its appointment of a senior higher education coordinator that will serve to improve the agency’s transparency and accountability.In every way, USAID shows the desire to forge strong relationships with universities in the belief universities are integral to addressing global problems.One real world example of these burgeoning relationships involves Burma and USAID’s attempt to help the country in its transition to democracy through its universities.In addition to supporting the future leaders of Burma, USAID hopes to create a culture of democracy within the universities that will proliferate outward, focusing on expanding courses in business and politics.The fact that Burma is near the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index shows the ambitious and optimistic nature of the endeavor, as well as the belief in the importance of higher education.The relationships formed through these partnerships have also gone a long way in mending what has been a problematic one between the U.S. and the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan since the killing of Osama bin Laden. USAID has sponsored and trained Afghan professors and hopes that this might curb the rampant Islamic extremism within the country.The U.S. also expanded the Fulbright program to Pakistan in 2011, providing 200 scholarships to bright Pakistani students to pursue an advanced degree. This makes it possible for intelligent but poor Pakistanis to transition to a higher economic strata.

USAID’s commitment to addressing global problems through its engagement with higher education is already being noticed and utilized by other agencies. As Peter McPherson, director of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, states, “There’s no question that USAID’s engagement with universities has increased…There’s more money and more relationships.” A good combination for helping those in need.

– Jordan Schunk

Sources: Inside Higher Ed, Insider Higher Ed Global, University World News, USAID
Photo: Flickr

Top 5 International Affairs Internships

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View Telecommuting and Seattle Internships at The Borgen Project.

 

Looking for a little bit of extra motivation for finishing that college degree? Need a little more incentive to pursue graduate study? The perks of a well-rounded academic background in foreign policy are many.

However, lectures and papers can only inspire so much excitement. If you are interested in a dynamic and interactive experience to set you on the path of being a global advocate, here are five of the top organizations that offer International Affairs internships.

1. Council on Foreign Relations

Take your pick between a yearlong experience in New York or a semester’s worth of study in Washington, D.C. In the Big Apple, the Council on Foreign Relations offers an editorial internship for those interested in pursuing advocacy-based journalism as a potential field. In the capital, students have the opportunity to help with the council’s board and development strategies. Also in Washington, students interested in Middle Eastern Affairs have two unique internship opportunities to further develop policy and advocacy in that area.

2. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

What better way to influence United States global policy than by interning with Congress? This intern will have the ability to attend meetings both on and off Capitol Hill, follow and influence congressional legislation and cultivate research projects for the committee.

3. USAID

USAID is the government agency responsible for executing U.S. policy concerning global development. An internship with USAID entails working at USAID headquarters in Washington and supporting international agriculture programs, immunization initiatives, hunger programs, and much more. Internships with the USAID vary between paid and unpaid as well.

4. United Nations, Social Policy and Development Division

Not only does an internship with the U.N. offer all of the prestige and influence of the world’s most collaborative decision-making body, it also gives students a wonderful opportunity to intern abroad. Whether you are interested in working on development programs from the New York office or promoting HIV/AIDS research in Geneva or Humanitarian Affairs in Nairobi, Kenya, the U.N.’s vastness is a resource waiting to be used.

5. The Borgen Project

Interested in writing for a broad readership? Fascinated by the idea of working for a true non-profit? Are you a self-motivated and independent worker? Then the Borgen Project could be the internship for you! Borgen allows you the creative freedom to find your own niche within the advocacy world and express it to a diverse audience through either writing and/or editing internships as well as front line regional advocates.

– Taylor Diamond

Sources: UN Social Policy and Development Division, Council on Foreign Affairs
Photo:

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Digital Green and Nutrition Education

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In 2006, a non-governmental organization called Digital Green was created as a spin-off from Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets Team.  Digital Green operates with the purpose of “integrat[ing] innovative technology with global development efforts to improve human well being.”  Teams of trained mediators are assembled in various target villages in order to educate community members on locally relevant health and agricultural practices using low cost and adaptive equipment.

Digital Green has already produced over 2,600 videos and has shared these videos with more than 150,000 households in India and throughout Africa.  Each video is content and context specific, based on the community’s individual needs. Digital Green’s efforts have noticeably improved agricultural development efforts in these areas.

Due to the success of the video project, Digital Green is teaming up with Strengthening Partnerships, Results, and Innovations in Nutrition Globally (SPRING) – USAID’s global nutrition project – to try to use similar methods in a new project.  The initiative includes using videos to endorse maternal, infant and child nutrition and hygiene practices.

Digital Green, SPRING and other partners have already made 10 videos designed to educate on nutrition and hygiene techniques in developing communities.  The videos are shown at small women’s groups on a projector.  Participants are encouraged to give feedback, exchange ideas and engage in discourse to improve conditions based on the experiences of others.

SPRING hosted a webinar on December 17, 2013 to highlight and examine Digital Green’s video methods.  Through nutrition education, the process is a testament to how the collaboration between technological innovation and the ability of communities to work together improve quality of life for developing regions.

The Digital Green and SPRING collaborative videos on nutrition can be found at the following links:
Digital Green, Collection of Maternal and Child Nutrition Videos
SPRING Webinar, “Seeds of Change: Leveraging Community Video for Agriculture and Nutrition Behavior Change in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa”

– Daren Gottlieb

Sources: USAID Blog, Digital Green, SPRING Nutrition
Photo: Vintage 3D

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For Agencies, Foreign Aid Transparency is Key

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The Obama Administration released data on United States foreign aid earlier this week while Congress is pushing legislation that will make such transparency law. These efforts seek to make aid more effective and to create a more open government. This is by no means, a recent occurrence.

For the past decade, the U.S. has moved toward making foreign aid accountable and transparent, which was started in 2004 with the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. Initiated during the Bush Administration, it sought to generate publicly available data on foreign aid and selected which countries to give aid grants to based on how well they do in areas such as rule of law, trade policy and civil liberties.

USAID is revamping a self-audit program that seeks, in addition to being extensive and impartial, for the evaluations to be a spring of learning that the agency can build from. In this vein, they have named their first major series of evaluations USAID Forward.

The benefits of this transparency are multifold, but one of the major boons is that citizens have the ability to become better informed on what the government is doing to combat global poverty. This could do untold good since the majority of Americans vastly overestimate the amount that the United States contributes to foreign aid. The general public believes the U.S. spends 25 percent of the Federal Budget on international aid, when, in actuality, expenditure is only a paltry 0.2 percent.

In the Philippines, the Department of Budget and Management launched the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub, anagrammed as FAiTH, which provides information on what is being done with the aid received in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. This is likely in response to allegations of corruption scandals in relation to foreign aid.

The accountability of aid is a high priority, and Benigno Aquino III, President of the Philippines, says that this accountability stems from gratitude: “Ultimately, FAiTH is more than a hub of information: it is an expression of appreciation for the kindness of those who stand in solidarity with our countrymen.” The pair of accountability and appreciation seems a strong one in winning further donations.

With 3,976 people dead, 1,600 missing, and another 4 million displaced and in need of basic amenities, there is great need for aid. More than $270 million has been donated thus far, and FAiTH is helping ensure further aid does not diminish amid the graft. An oft-used excuse for not donating is that the money never makes its way to those in need. Transparency is an active foe to this pernicious way of thinking, and one that is dramatically making ground.

– Jordan Schunk 

Sources: Brookings, Ingram and Adams, Huffington Post, Inquirer News

USAID Funds Innovation in Agriculture

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This past week, USAID, the Swedish government, Duke Energy Corporation, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and more teamed up to fund organizations with agriculture and clean energy related innovations. The partners challenged organizations to invent new technologies that could implement clean energy and agriculture solutions in developing countries. Of the 475 applicants, 12 organizations were chosen and awarded $13 million in funding to implement their ideas into the developing world.

These technologies aim to help farmers increase production of crops by improving current irrigation, mechanization, agro-processing and storage systems. Among the winners were International Development Enterprised (iDE), The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Camco Advisory Services, Motivo Engineering, African Bamboo, Promethean Power Systems, University of Georgia Research Foundation and more.

The African Bamboo, for example, is an invention by Heartland Global that aims to make Bamboo, a common resource in Ethiopia, easier to process and utilize for construction and furnishing. Another innovation aims to improve the refrigeration and production of dairy products in Kenya. SunDanzer Refrigeration will use a battery-powered, portable refrigeration system to form “milk packs” that will remain chilled when being transported.

The announcement of the winners took place at the Development Exchange in Washington, D.C. All 12 chosen organizations had the opportunity to discuss their plans and the impact of their innovations. The event included speeches by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah who stated that the event “demonstrates how we can harness ingenuity and entrepreneurship to generate and scale real solutions in our fight to end extreme poverty.”

– Lienna Feleke-Eshete

Sources: All Africa, Power Agriculture