Coalition Urges Support for Diplomatic, Conflict Response Initiatives and U.N. Peacekeeping

Jun 11, 2009

Letter to Key House Appropriators

June 11, 2009

Representative Nita Lowey
Representative Kay Granger
State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee
Appropriations Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

RE: 11 Organizations Urge Support for Diplomacy, Conflict Response and U.N. Peacekeeping

Dear Chairwoman Lowey and Ranking Member Granger:

We write to express our strong support for President Obama’s FY 10 International affairs budget. As organizations focused on ending mass atrocities, protecting civilians in conflict zones and preventing deadly conflict, we urge support for initiatives that would enhance U.S. preventive diplomacy, crisis response and stabilization capabilities, as well as strengthen the U.S. relationship with international organizations, including the United Nations.

As you consider priorities for the FY 10 State and Foreign Operations bill, we urge strong support for the following initiatives:

Expanding Personnel
Significantly increasing the number of well-trained U.S. diplomats is critical to improving the ability of the U.S. to prevent, mitigate, and respond to crises. Increased personnel are also urgently needed to make U.S. foreign aid more effective at reducing poverty, meeting human needs and stabilizing conflict prone countries. We urge you to fully fund the Administration’s request to hire and train increased personnel for the State Department (802 new hires) and USAID (350 new FSOs).

Civilian Stabilization Initiative
The Civilian Stabilization Initiative (CSI) will support continued development of an interagency civilian response corps. This corps – comprised of experts in fields such as policing and the rule of law, transitional governance, and economic development – will provide expertise and assistance to stabilize states in transition from war to peace. A deployable civilian corps will help resolve security threats in failing states, potentially reducing the need for expensive military deployments. We urge you to fully meet the President’s request of $323 million for the CSI.

Stabilization Bridge Fund
The Stabilization Bridge Fund would better resource the U.S. to stabilize crises, lessening the need for long and expensive deployments of military forces or peacekeepers. This fund would provide program money for the civilian response corps, enabling civilians to begin stabilization efforts immediately after a crisis, rather than waiting for the next budget cycle. Given that conflicts and crises rarely follow the U.S. budget cycle; these flexible funds are urgently needed. We urge the committee to fully meet the President’s request of $40 million for this fund.

Transitions Initiatives and Rapid Response Fund
The President’s request of $126 million for the Transition Initiatives (TI) account would support an appropriation of $50 million for the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) and $76 million for a new Rapid Response Fund. As you know, OTI has a track record of providing effective assistance to help fragile or conflict-prone countries transition to peace and stability.

The proposed new Rapid Response Fund would strengthen OTI’s ability to respond to unforeseen opportunities or stabilize crises in fragile democracies, such as the post-election violence in Kenya (2007 – 2008). This fund could support quick assistance to shore up peacemaking efforts and strengthen democratic processes and institutions. We urge the committee to fully meet the President’s request of $126 million for Transition Initiatives.

Multilateral Diplomacy
The Contributions to International Organizations (CIO) account funds U.S. treaty obligations at the United Nations and 44 other international organizations and programs, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, the World Food Program (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). U.S. financial support is essential to ensure these agencies can fulfill their mandates. The WHO, for example, is delivering medical supplies to assist many of the millions of refugees fleeing the northwest region of Pakistan and providing expert guidance to the international community during the ongoing H1N1 flu crisis. We appreciate this committee’s past support for the UN and urge you to fully meet the President’s request at $1.797 billion.

UN Peacekeeping
Today, more than 100,000 peacekeepers, the second largest deployed military in the world, are operating in sixteen UN peacekeeping missions, including places like Liberia, Haiti, Sudan, and the DR Congo. The U.S. has voted for all 16 peacekeeping missions and the UN has financed these operations for just over $7 billion in the last year – less than the U.S. spends in Iraq per month. In addition, fulfilling our obligations to UN peacekeeping is a smart investment. According to the Government Accountability Office, UN peacekeeping is 8 times less expensive—just 12¢ on the dollar—than fielding a comparative U.S. force. The Administration’s request of $2.260 billion for the Contributions for International Peacekeeping Activities (CIPA) account, which is 10% less than FY09 CIPA funding, fully meets U.S. dues for UN peacekeeping this year. We support fully funding the Administration’s request.

If fully funded, these initiatives will improve the U.S. ability to prevent crises from erupting into violence or genocide, stabilize conflict-prone states, as well as contribute our share to life-saving UN peacekeeping missions. If these investments help prevent just one crisis from exploding into violence, it will have generated a significant return in dollars and lives.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

3-D Security Initiative
American Friends Service Committee
Better World Campaign
Caring for Kaela
Citizens for Global Solutions
The Enough Project
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Genocide Intervention Network
International Rescue Committee
Oxfam America
Refugees International