Reviewing Secretary Clinton’s “State of Our Development” Address

Jan 6th, 2010 5:30 PM UTC
By Mikiko Imai

Earlier today, I heard an inspiring, passionate speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the direction of U.S. global development strategy and its role in U.S. foreign policy.

In an event hosted by the Center for Global Development, the Secretary addressed a packed room filled with people from the development community, media, and top government officials who included Dr. Raj Shah, the new USAID administrator, and Daniel Yohannes, the CEO of MCC.

She started her speech with remarks about her personal interest towards development and why it is important even when there are people struggling domestically. She has seen the transformative effects of U.S. development assistance at work in Indonesia, Nicaragua, South Africa and in the West Bank, to name a few.

Development is vital for the security, stability, rights and prosperity of our world. It is a strategic importance as well as a moral imperative of the U.S. Therefore, it is time to “elevate development as central to diplomacy” and “make the USAID the world’s premier development agency.” She recognized the problems of the U.S. aid practices in the past and emphasized the Administration’s new approach driven by clear reasoning and common sense. She outlined the new direction and focus of the U.S. development strategy as follows:

1. To adopt a model of partnership with developing countries based on shared responsibility.
2. To elevate development alongside defense and diplomacy, and to integrate the 3Ds so that they are mutually reinforcing.
3. To coordinate across the different U.S. agencies that conduct development work to create a “whole of government” approach to development, and to restore capacity to USAID by bringing experts in-house, rather than as contractors.
4. To target key sectors such as health, agriculture, education, energy and local governance issues rather than spreading limited resources too thinly across sectors.
5. To strengthen investments in innovation, technology, and drivers of change, such as mobile banking in poor countries and innovations in agricultural crops.
6. To focus on women and girls, proven to yield one of the best returns on investment – “giving a man a fish feeds the man for a day, teaching a man how to fish will feed the man for the rest of his life, but teaching a woman how to fish will feed the whole village.”

She concluded her remarks by her determination to make development “better than ever before.” During the questions and answers, she acknowledged that there are many obstacles in adopting this new approach, and asked for the community’s support to urge Congress and the public to understand and support a more robust, effective and efficient development assistance program.

TAGS: Secretary Hillary Clinton, Spotlight