Usaid Administrator Speaks On Expanding Human Welfare

United States Department of State (Washington, DC)

20 June 2011

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The defining story of the Arab Spring belongs to Mohammed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian fruit seller who set himself on fire, in protest of the humiliation he had received at the hands of local police.

In one act of desperation-a figurative explosion made literal-he reminded us that deep within every soul lies a desire for self-determination and its ensuing dignity. And he began a chain reaction that has changed the world we know.

The authoritarian winter that had gripped the Arab world for so long, finally began to thaw. Even though protestors in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and eventually Syria met deadly resistance to their calls for freedom, the Arab Spring had begun.

It is a powerful story, one that resonates in all of us whether it stirs our empathy or calls us to the streets. It shows the power that individual human acts have to cause global and generational change.

But there is more to the Tunisian story.

Bouazizi’s story doesn’t mention the hundreds of protesters who rushed to the mayor’s office immediately after he set himself aflame. It doesn’t highlight their internal debate, as they first chanted “Dignity before bread!” before settling on the anti-corruption call: “Working is a duty, you thieves.”

It doesn’t describe the fearlessness protestors showed when fired upon by Tunisian police, or the thousands of young bloggers and amateur cell phone filmmakers who documented this violence and organized rallies on Facebook.

And it doesn’t mention Rachid Ammar, the commanding general of the Tunisian Army who refused to order his troops to fire on protestors gathered in the capital. The day after General Ammar’s brave decision, President Ben Ali fled.

That larger story-one of supporting people’s desires for freedom and dignity, of determining the path of progress, of using technology to unite people, of empowering leaders to make courageous stands-is what I’d like to speak about today.

As a voice for vulnerable people around the world, I believe USAID can and should play a larger role.

President Obama and Secretary Clinton have both made clear that it will be the policy of the United States to promote reform and democratic transitions. As a result, we must work to elevate the importance of self-determination and human dignity in our foreign policy and in our approach to development.

For years, a criticism of USAID’s assistance has been that we’ve worked too closely with governments that refuse to respect the rights of their people…

…that we have taken direction from regimes, limiting our investment in civil society or democracy promotion so as not to upset strategic partners…

…that we have pulled our punches, complicit in unbalanced relationships between autocrats and their people.

These criticisms have some merit.

Despite being the world’s largest supporter of democracy, rights and governance assistance, we still act as though democracy and development are two different objectives.

Because we fear pro-democracy orthodoxy will limit our ability to work in countries with unsavory leaders, we prioritized economic growth.

And as gutsy as we’ve been in places like Zimbabwe, in other countries where foreign governments limited the scope of our democracy, rights and governance promotion, we worked in the margins.

But as the President made clear in his recent speech, we are living in a new world, with a new paradigm of national interest that tracks more closely to our national values.

We cannot rely on the unsustainable stability provided by autocrats, or limit our assistance to groups that have been endorsed by governments. Instead, we will seek real democratic reform as a means to further peace and give people the ultimate voice in their own destiny and development.

USAID’s work must reflect a deeper understanding of the words “country ownership.” Instead of equating a country with its government, have to partner much more closely with an entire range of stakeholders: parliaments, opposition parties, civil society and most crucially, the citizens themselves.

More than any other Agency or Department, our main relationship with foreign countries is with their people, whether we empower a girl in Afghanistan to attend school for the first time, or provide shelter to a family in Haiti.

That personal level of interaction gives us a significant advantage to play the long game of political reform. By working to empower citizens and shape institutions and power structures over time, we can support a person’s call for self-determination and dignity in a way other institutions can’t.

That advantage is one we must assert across the countries in which we work, as we help citizens express their desire for freedom, organize behind their beliefs, broadcast their views and ultimately elect their leaders.

But to effectively play that long game, we must move past some of the unwarranted tensions that exist between the development and democracy communities, integrating the best lessons of each into a united approach.

We should not wage decades-old debates about whether democracy or development should proceed first; about dignity before bread or bread before dignity. As the Arab Spring has reminded us, economic prosperity and political freedom must go hand in hand.

This isn’t to say that democracy is necessary for economic growth-to ignore the experience of China and Vietnam. But for every country that manages to grow quickly without embracing democracy, there are five dictators who consign their countries to economic and political despair.

Even when growth does occur in dictatorships, it can be frighteningly uneven. Over the past decade, Equatorial Guinea has grown faster per capita than any other country, even China. Yet over 70% of its population still lives in dire poverty.

Growth that is not broad-based or equitable, that empowers leaders to mistreat their people, that enriches oligarchs while missing the poor, is just a statistic that has little bearing on the well-being of citizens.

For instance, around the world, we have seen spectacular gains in infant and maternal mortality over the last 15 years. More mothers are giving birth safely and more children are living past their fifth birthday than at any time in history.

But the rare countries that aren’t seeing that progress all have one thing in common: they are dictatorships. We can no longer seriously address problems like child death or famine without a willingness to confront corruption and autocracy.

I don’t claim this is easy to do. Our industry is full of incentives designed to keep assistance dollars flowing, even to countries where corruption undermines its effectiveness. Efforts to pull back support in an attempt to make assistance conditional are often met with criticism.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation and the UK’s Department for International Development have both worked to change this perception, emphasizing that assistance works best when tied to demands for strong democratic and governance reforms.

This is a movement we will embrace at USAID. If we wish to be a credible supporter of sustainable growth and progress-if we hope to expand opportunity to the people we serve-then we must work to support both democratic and economic empowerment. We must help countries deliver democracy with a dividend.

Delivering democracy with a dividend means breaking down the wall that has long existed between development practitioners and democracy, rights and governance experts.

I come from the development world, and I’ve both lived and witnessed the struggles our community has embracing and emphasizing the importance of democracy, rights and governance in our work.

Development practitioners must understand that without capable, transparent and accountable public institutions…

…without political stability or property rights…

…without fighting corruption and graft…

…without lowering the investment risk that private-sector partners face…

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