U.S. Senate today confirmed Rajiv Shah to serve as the 16th Administrator of USAID

Alonzo L. Fulgham
Acting Administrator

USAID/General Notice

I am delighted to inform you that the U.S. Senate today confirmed Rajiv Shah to serve as the 16th Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.  It is with tremendous pride and satisfaction that I offer Dr. Shah heartfelt congratulations on behalf of our Agency. I believe that he has the vision, the energy, and the leadership skills necessary to take USAID to the next level. I ask that you provide him your full support and continued dedication throughout this transition period.

A number of administrative steps will be taken in the days to come, which will enable Dr. Shah to formally assume the responsibilities of the USAID Administrator.

In the meantime, and to facilitate a smooth and orderly transition, the following personnel designations have been made:

Steven D. Pierce will serve as Acting Executive Secretary.

Connie Turner will continue to serve as Deputy Executive Secretary.

The Front Office will include a Chief of Staff and two Deputy Chiefs of Staff – one for internal affairs; and one for external affairs. Barbara Feinstein will serve as Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Internal Affairs.

Effective January 4, 2009, Nishant Roy will serve as an Assistant to the Administrator.

Further personnel announcements will follow in the weeks and months to come.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to the amazing individuals who make up this Agency. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Acting Administrator over the past twelve months.

For the first time in my lifetime, there is broad recognition across our government – from the White House to Capitol Hill to the State Department and the Department of Defense– that development plays a vital role in our foreign policy. And while these words have been uttered in the past, we are actually seeing them realized in this Administration. I see this as a real opportunity for USAID to step up and provide leadership – in terms of our people’s experience, unique skill sets, and knowledge of local conditions – to transform not only the developing world but also how the United States operates in the global community. We are well-positioned to offer the development perspective in policy deliberations and in the implementation of programs that make development a reality for those around the world who aspire to a better life.

I am proud of what we have accomplished as an Agency over the past year, and I believe that Dr. Shah will inherit an Agency that is stronger today than it was when I took the job in January 2009. Allow me to highlight just a few of our shared achievements:

Expanding the Workforce: We are taking steps to revitalize the Agency’s technical and leadership capacity by hiring more staff, particularly Foreign Service officers, increasing existing staff capacity through training and development, and improving personnel and information technology systems. Since the inception of the Development Leadership Initiative, we have selected 543 candidates, sworn-in 374 officers, and sent 165 DLIs to post. This plan will double our FSO workforce - an increase of 1200 - to work in more than 90 countries around the globe to promote stability, reduce crises, and allow the agency to reclaim a more direct role in development design and implementation. This officer corps will provide USAID with greater depth and breadth across technical areas, bringing a wider range of foreign language expertise, more partnership activities, enhanced capacity to ensure accountability, and better targeted, more tailored local programming. We will be able to assign officers to work directly with their counterparts at all levels of government.

Promoting Diversity: We have made increasing diversity at USAID a paramount priority. This is a commitment not only to an expanded workforce, but to a more diverse workforce. For example, DLI recruitment is explicitly targeting under-represented minority groups by recruiting at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and through the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). We have taken steps to create a new Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) that replicates the structure of State’s Office of Civil Rights. The OCRD will have a broader mandate than its predecessor to promote diversity throughout the Agency and to attend to a broader range of diversity issues such as promotions, outreach, accountability, and attention to historically overlooked groups.

Enhancing Crisis Response: USAID is providing leadership on behalf of the U.S. Government in response to the newchallenges we face in the developing world. Under the Civilian Stabilization initiative, we are recruiting specializedForeign Service and Civil Service personnel to enhance our development-oriented crisis response capacity. We areprojecting a total of 91 CRC active staff. As of today, nearly a third of these are already on board. USAID isalso posting officers as development advisors to combatant commands and conducting joint planning exercises with DOD. Ofour DLI officers, a total of 65 will be crisis response, humanitarian assistance, and DG officers.

CPC countries and Afghanistan-Pakistan: USAID continues to show leadership and results in the critical prioritycountries in which we work, from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to Iraq and Sudan. Our surge efforts in Iraq in 2006 and 2007have been successful and, as a result, we are now reducing our footprint there. Applying this approach to Afghanistan andPakistan, USAID is working to meet our 333 civilian uplift number by early 2010. GLAAS and other systems: These expansions in our workforce need to be supported by robust management tools andsystems, and one of these is GLAAS, our new worldwide integrated procurement system that will help us to reduce our dependence on outside contractors. To date, GLAAS has been deployed to 21 Missions and all or part of 6 Washington Bureaus. GLAAS will continue to be rolled out this winter, with all Washington Bureaus and Offices live by March 8, 2010. Deployment to remaining Missions worldwide begins immediately thereafter, with Agency-wide deployment scheduled for mid-2011. Upgrades such as GLAAS have been made possible in large part by a much-needed increase in OE funding. We have made a convincing case for additional budgetary resources and have been rewarded with a near doubling of our Operating Expenses since 2007.

Private sector partnerships: Since 2001, USAID has leveraged substantial private sector resources and has alreadyestablished 900 Global Development Alliances with over 1,700 partners to leverage $9 billion in resources. We have madeover $1 billion available to underserved markets though the Development Credit Authority. And, in keeping with our visionof development partnership, we have prioritized the establishment of cost sharing agreements with emerging donorgovernments. Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Last, a word about how we are building systems to make sure we are workingeffectively. We are working to rebuild performance monitoring, evaluation, and knowledge management capabilities. TheOffice of the Chief Operating Officer has established a process to formulate Agency positions on key cross-cuttingpolicies and program initiatives, such as reconstruction and stabilization, climate change, food security, and aideffectiveness. We have also reestablished a central evaluation unit in the Agency. We are working now to strengthen ourcapabilities and expertise in the areas of: applied research and impact evaluation; measuring results and sustainableoutcomes; learning and disseminating findings throughout USAID, the broader USG and among development partners; andanalysis of performance results to inform budget allocations and program design. While Dr. Shah will have his own vision for where he wants to take USAID, I am proud of the fact that, over thepast year, a very strong foundation has been laid on which he can build.

Thank you, as always, for your hard work, dedication and sacrifice. I send you my warmest wishes over this holiday season, and ask once again that your offer our new Administrator your strong support and dedication.

Gratefully,

Alonzo L. Fulgham
Acting Administrator