Senators Urged to Reform USAID for Afghan Fight (Agence France Presse)
Agence France Presse quotes CGD senior fellow Steve Radelet on development assistance for fragile states.
From the article:
"Threats posed by instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan are "direct and grave challenges to our national security at home," agreed Steven Radelet, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Global Development.
Radelet told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing, titled "USAID In The 21st Century," that the agency should be directed in line with President Barack Obama's new strategy for the war effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Stability in these crucial areas will remain elusive unless development outcomes are achieved," he said, noting that key parts of Obama's strategy are "core development activities."
Delivering basic health and education services, introducing alternative sources of livelihoods for Afghan poppy growers, building infrastructure and "stimulating robust economic growth in the impoverished border regions of Pakistan that are home to extremists" are areas in which USAID's input would be invaluable, he argued.
Natsios and Radelet said that if USAID is to act effectively, it needs autonomy from the State Department, which centers on diplomacy and is not endowed with the technical expertise for directing development."
