Head of USAID Highlights the Importance of Development Assistance

Posted on 03/31/2011 @ 03:30 PM

Tags: Peaceful Prevention, , Development

At a hearing yesterday before the House appropriations subcommittee that controls the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s budget, USAID Administrator Raj Shah defended the Obama Administration’s request for Fiscal Year 2012. While the President can request that a certain amount of the federal budget be appropriated to these agencies, the final decision is up to this subcommittee, as well as the broader Congress. Dr. Shah’s testimony was therefore an important opportunity to convey the Administration’s policies and priorities within the overall international development agenda.

With that in mind, it was disappointing that Dr. Shah did not mention conflict prevention as a priority of U.S. development assistance. However, he did spend some time explaining the importance of U.S. humanitarian and crisis response efforts around the world, including assistance for civilians affected by violent conflict. In response to a question from Representative Jackson (IL), Dr. Shah expressed his concern about the 50% cut to the International Disaster Assistance account proposed by the House, saying that this cut would represent “the most dramatic backing away from our responsibilities around the world in decades.” He also described some of the impacts that these cuts would have on the ground, including a reduction in humanitarian assistance to the Darfur region of Sudan, where 1.6 million people are currently receiving aid and 800,000 would be put at risk. Shah acknowledged the contentious budget climate on the Hill, but insisted that there is a way to responsibly balance the budget “that does not cost lives.”

Shah’s argument echoes the same thinking that the Peaceful Prevention of Deadly Conflict program has about several small sources of funding for State and USAID in the federal budget, such as the Civilian Response Corps, the Complex Crises Fund, and U.S. dues to the U.N. In a recent letter to members of this House subcommittee, FCNL pointed out that “research now demonstrates that every one dollar invested in preventing conflicts from turning deadly would cost 60 dollars in crisis response once violence erupts.” Small investments in civilian capacity through development, as well as diplomacy and international cooperation, can yield billions of dollars in savings in the long-run by preventing conflicts from turning violent and avoiding costly interventions.

Questions posed by many members of the subcommittee about which programs are duplicitous or could be cut without hurting U.S. national security interests indicated to me that many members of the House don’t understand the tangible impacts that their cuts to such programs could cause. Yet even beyond their value to the budget, development is also an expression of our values as Americans and as fellow human beings. For this reason, Dr. Shah’s closing statement rang true for me: “right now is a critical moment in our country’s history. As a nation, we are making a lasting determination about the future of our country, and the future of our global leadership.”