Today in his ”In the Loop” column, Al Kamen mentioned MFAN’s USAID Administrator poll while lamenting the continued lack of a lack of a qualified person to oversee U.S. development efforts. Kamen also throws out some eccentric suggestions for a new nominee, including South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) , former deputy Secretary of Defense and head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz, and even Bono. Tongue-in-cheek nominations aside, Kamen makes a great point. The proclaimed vetting process and failure of the Obama Administration to get a USAID Administrator in place, despite ambitious pledges to elevate development as a pillar of U.S. foreign policy, is just as ridiculous. He writes:
“Clinton a few months ago blamed the clearance process for the delay, calling it a “nightmare.” No one is going to disagree with that, but pretty much the same ridiculous process was in place in 1993 when Bill Clinton named Brian Atwood to the job only two months after inauguration. And nothing in the process had changed by 2001 whenGeorge W. Bush named Andrew Natsios to the job scarcely one month after taking office.”
Kamen notes the unease felt in the community given the unique opportunity to reform foreign assistance based on current legislation in the House and Senate, as well as the QDDR and the recently announced Presidential Study Directive. He points to MFAN’s poll to find candidates for USAID as a sign of urgency needed to fill the position and save a crumbling agency. MFAN Principal and President of Oxfam Ray Offenheiser notes of this “serious crisis” and the need for a leader to ”inspire a demoralized staff, who is a strong manager” with “gravitas” and development experience.
Tags: Center for Global Development, foreign assistance reform, house committee on foreign affairs, mfan, modernizing foreign assistance, President Obama, QDDR, senate foreign relations committee, United States Agency for International Development
