USAID Strategic Thinking — Activity Summary

On February 10th and 11th 2003, PPC and IRIS conducted a two-day USAID symposium to discuss important new concepts, documents and international agreements on foreign assistance. Over 40 participants engaged in a dialogue to distill the central tenets of new foreign aid influences on USAID development, objectives, priorities and approaches.

USAID’s past, present and future were discussed candidly as workshop participants reviewed important “influences” affecting USAID’s policies and programs. These influences included the Natsios Report, “Foreign Assistance in the National Interest,” the National Security Strategy, the Monterrey consensus and the MCA, several other policy-oriented studies, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Key concepts in these documents were identified and their strategic implications for USAID were considered, including what to incorporate into the joint five-year strategic plan being forged by State and USAID.

The attendees participated vigorously in the workshop. They were gratified to be part of a serious, agency-wide effort to identify the challenges impacting USAID’s future and to help develop policies to guide USAID’s response to them. They enthusiastically encouraged USAID management to shape a new mission and core policy statement quickly to maximize USAID’s effectiveness in the near and long terms.

Speakers for this event included Ambassador Robert Oakley, Distinguished Fellow, National Defense University; Dr. Steve Radelet, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development; Patrick Cronin, PPC, USAID; Barbara Turner, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator, PPC, USAID; Thomas Johnson, Democracy Advisor, PPC, USAID; Leticia Butler, Director, PPC, USAID; and David Gordon, Director, National Intelligence Council, Office of Transnational Issues.