On December 1, Dr. Rajiv Shah appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his long-awaited confirmation hearing to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development. After nearly 10 months and growing impatience from Congress, the development community, and within the Executive branch, Dr. Shah was warmly received by the Senate Committee, but with a sense of anticipation over the challenges he faces in re-building a widely perceived weakened Agency and strengthening U.S. global development policy. In his opening statement, Committee Chairman John Kerry noted that USAID may be the “last major foreign policy agency to have its leadership named, but its mission – poverty reduction and sustainable development – belongs near the top of our list of priorities.”

Dr. Shah, a medical doctor, former Gates Foundation senior official, and currently the Agriculture Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, emphasized throughout his testimony the theme of “development as a discipline” in which USAID has a strategic leadership responsibility based on five principles set out by President Obama:

• Support for country-led plans and priorities
• Narrow the strategic focus of activities to maximize impact
• Coordinate with a cross-section of stakeholders
• Leverage the resources and activities of multilateral organizations
• Maintain a sustained commitment with a “focus-for decades”

What else did we learn about leadership and priorities of the USAID nominee? Policy planning is a “critical tool of a development agency,” he said, suggesting that he intends to restore policy and strategic capacity that USAID lost in 2006. He also noted the need to reinvest in the monitoring and evaluation capability at USAID and the importance of integrating evaluation into program design. Dr. Shah also stated that development assistance and USAID budgets would be his responsibility, working with other partners and directly engaging OMB. Each of these points address key concerns expressed by former USAID Administrators and other global development experts as key elements necessary for a viable and well-functioning institution, but which had been weakened or lost at USAID in the past two decades. They are also issues raised in S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act, which cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in November.

On the thorny question of reporting relationships, Dr. Shah emphatically emphasized that he would report directly to Secretary Clinton. For the moment, this sets asides concerns voiced by some Senators and many in the development community that the new USAID Administrator would not have a direct line to the Secretary, thereby weakening the stature and elevation of the Agency. His day-to-day working relationship with the State Department, including the status of the Bush Administration-created position of Director of Foreign Assistance, however, was not addressed, but will be closely watched by the development community as an indication of how much influence over development policy Dr. Shah will exert.

For many of the operational issues raised by members of the Foreign Relations Committee, the USAID nominee deferred to the outcome of two Administration reviews – the Presidential Study Directive (PSD) on Global Development and the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR). Given that Dr. Shah will assume his post in the middle of the PSD and QDDR deliberations, this is an understandable response. But in his position as the QDDR co-chair and the USAID PSD representative, he will immediately need to be a key voice for the “discipline of development” in both processes.

Next steps: the Senate Committee plans to vote on the Shah nomination December 8, followed by consideration in the Senate at any time following Committee approval.