The new head of USAID, Rajiv Shah, took up his position late last year, filling a ten month vacancy and immediately facing tremendous hopes and expectations for change from within the agency. Commentators around Capitol Hill note that he has his work cut out.
Over the last decade USAID has watched as large volumes of aid funding were hived off to other government agencies, notably the Department of Defence, and in 2006 USAID was ushered under the State Department.
Just over a year into the new administration and we have heard little about what changes there they hope to achieve at USAID.
The FY2010 Appropriations Bill however, may provide one indication of USAID’s evolving role and sphere of influence, with the creation of a new $50 million ‘Complex Crises Fund’, a contingency fund for stabilisation and reconstruction.
The Complex Crisis Fund is dwarfed by the FY10 $1.3 billion budgeted for the DoD Commander’s Emergency Response Program, which similarly includes provision for funding stabilisation, reconstruction and ‘humanitarian’ projects. What the full mandate, functioning and future of this fund will be remain to be seen, as does its position within USAID and the State Department, but that Congress has approved USAID’s management of its own contingency fund for Stabilisation and Reconstruction rather than routing the funding via DoD, suggests some shift in emphasis back towards routing aid through civilian agencies.
As for the rest of the changes that might be afoot at USAID....Secretary of State Clinton has reiterated her commitment to a ‘three D’s’ policy, alluding to elevating development to an equal footing with diplomacy and defence; aid budgets are expected to increase significantly in the coming years. But what of Mr Shah?
Rajiv Shah was slated to address a gala dinner for the Society for International Development last night in Washington DC with some indications of the Obama Administration’s vision of the future of its overseas aid hotly anticipated.
