New leadership, re-organization for Feed the Future
March 17, 2011 | 06:53 PM
By JERRY HAGSTROM
The Obama administration’s Feed the Future program to encourage agricultural development in Third World countries will get new leadership and the bureau that runs it will be reorganized, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah announced this week.
The changes come as Feed the Future is under intense budgetary pressure. If H.R. 1, the House-passed bill to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, were to become law, funds for the Feed the Future would be cut dramatically.
The Obama administration created the Feed the Future initiative in reaction to the food price spikes in developing countries in 2008, although many of the ideas behind it came from the Gates Foundation, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and other groups that said the United States had devoted too many resources to food aid and should instead help Third World farmers grow their own crops. It has become one of the administration’s signature foreign policy initiatives: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, have taken a personal interest in Feed the Future, and USAID has set up a Bureau of Food Security to run the program.
In an internal USAID memo obtained by The Hagstrom Report, Shah informed his staff Tuesday that Bill Garvelink, who has held the titles of deputy coordinator for development and assistant to the administrator, will be leaving. Julie Howard, the executive director and CEO of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty, will assume Garvelink’s title of deputy coordinator, Shah said, adding that a new position, assistant to the administrator within the Bureau of Food Security has also been established. It will be filled by Paul Weisenfeld, who has been USAID deputy assistant administrator for Latin American and the Caribbean.
“The new deputy coordinator will focus on communication, donor and [non-governmental organization] engagement, interagency coordination, and initiative-wide strategy and policy development, as well as overall [U.S. government] Feed the Future budget management and monitoring and evaluation. Day-to-day operational authority and accountability will remain with the bureau,” Shah said in a public announcement released Wednesday.
Howard holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University, according to the Partnership website. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, and has carried out research and written on agricultural technology development and transfer in Zambia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia.
In a statement, Partnership Chairman Peter McPherson praised Howard for bringing "the Partnership from infancy to young adulthood, securing essential funding from the Gates and Hewlett Foundations and building strong collaborations with [the African Union's] Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program and the U.S.-based African diplomatic corps."
Garvelink, a 31-year USAID veteran and former ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is leaving to become senior development advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Defense Department.
One USAID source described the position at Defense as “a dream job” for Garvelink, but other sources said it had become clear that running both the external and internal operations of Feed the Future was too much responsibility for one person, and that Shah had decided to split the job in two.
Feed the Future’s leadership is supposed to have an overall coordinator and two deputies coordinators — one for development at USAID and one for diplomacy at the State Department. The Obama administration has interviewed several prominent persons for the coordinator position, but no one has ever been named to it. In addition, Patricia Haslach, who held the State Department deputy coordinator position, has left to work on Iraq reconstruction and State is now looking for a long-term replacement, a USAID source said.
Even though no overall coordinator is in place, Shah told his staff that the office of the coordinator would be strengthened with “a small team focused on communication and external reputation building, donor and NGO engagement, interagency coordination, initiative-wide strategy, and policy development.” This team will also lead overall the U.S. Feed the Future budget management and monitoring and evaluation, he said.
Shah also announced two other key personnel changes and structural changes within the Bureau for Food Security.
Greg Gottlieb, who has been serving as deputy assistant to the administrator, will be promoted to senior deputy assistant to the administrator. Gottlieb spoke on a panel on biotechnology at the National Farmers Union convention in San Antonio earlier this week.
Tjada McKenna, who has been a special adviser on Feed the Future, has been promoted to deputy assistant to the administrator. Before coming to USAID as a political appointee, McKenna worked for the Seattle-based Gates Foundation.
Shah said the Bureau of Food Security would be organized into four teams:
* A country strategy implementation team that will “serve as the hub for [Bureau of Food Security]- country-led transformations” and will be structured around the three key regions--West and East Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean—on which Feed the Future is focused.
* A market access partnership team that will leverage and integrate key private sector actors and nongovernmental organization partners.
* A research, development and thought leadership team that will “harness USAID food security and nutrition intellectual leadership,” and serve as a “global convener” of food security scholars and practitioners worldwide and “fund innovative research activities.”
* A resource management, planning and evaluation team “that will support a high performance, modern enterprise” by providing budget, procurement, human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and other critical administrative functions to drive strong performance management.
The Obama administration’s Feed the Future program to encourage agricultural development in Third World countries will get new leadership and the bureau that runs it will be reorganized, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah announced this week.
The changes come as Feed the Future is under intense budgetary pressure. If H.R. 1, the House-passed bill to fund the government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, were to become law, funds for the Feed the Future would be cut dramatically.
The Obama administration created the Feed the Future initiative in reaction to the food price spikes in developing countries in 2008, although many of the ideas behind it came from the Gates Foundation, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and other groups that said the United States had devoted too many resources to food aid and should instead help Third World farmers grow their own crops. It has become one of the administration’s signature foreign policy initiatives: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, have taken a personal interest in Feed the Future, and USAID has set up a Bureau of Food Security to run the program.
In an internal USAID memo obtained by The Hagstrom Report, Shah informed his staff Tuesday that Bill Garvelink, who has held the titles of deputy coordinator for development and assistant to the administrator, will be leaving. Julie Howard, the executive director and CEO of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty, will assume Garvelink’s title of deputy coordinator, Shah said, adding that a new position, assistant to the administrator within the Bureau of Food Security has also been established. It will be filled by Paul Weisenfeld, who has been USAID deputy assistant administrator for Latin American and the Caribbean.
“The new deputy coordinator will focus on communication, donor and [non-governmental organization] engagement, interagency coordination, and initiative-wide strategy and policy development, as well as overall [U.S. government] Feed the Future budget management and monitoring and evaluation. Day-to-day operational authority and accountability will remain with the bureau,” Shah said in a public announcement released Wednesday.
Howard holds a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University, according to the Partnership website. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic, and has carried out research and written on agricultural technology development and transfer in Zambia, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia.
In a statement, Partnership Chairman Peter McPherson praised Howard for bringing "the Partnership from infancy to young adulthood, securing essential funding from the Gates and Hewlett Foundations and building strong collaborations with [the African Union's] Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program and the U.S.-based African diplomatic corps."
Garvelink, a 31-year USAID veteran and former ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is leaving to become senior development advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Defense Department.
One USAID source described the position at Defense as “a dream job” for Garvelink, but other sources said it had become clear that running both the external and internal operations of Feed the Future was too much responsibility for one person, and that Shah had decided to split the job in two.
Feed the Future’s leadership is supposed to have an overall coordinator and two deputies coordinators — one for development at USAID and one for diplomacy at the State Department. The Obama administration has interviewed several prominent persons for the coordinator position, but no one has ever been named to it. In addition, Patricia Haslach, who held the State Department deputy coordinator position, has left to work on Iraq reconstruction and State is now looking for a long-term replacement, a USAID source said.
Even though no overall coordinator is in place, Shah told his staff that the office of the coordinator would be strengthened with “a small team focused on communication and external reputation building, donor and NGO engagement, interagency coordination, initiative-wide strategy, and policy development.” This team will also lead overall the U.S. Feed the Future budget management and monitoring and evaluation, he said.
Shah also announced two other key personnel changes and structural changes within the Bureau for Food Security.
Greg Gottlieb, who has been serving as deputy assistant to the administrator, will be promoted to senior deputy assistant to the administrator. Gottlieb spoke on a panel on biotechnology at the National Farmers Union convention in San Antonio earlier this week.
Tjada McKenna, who has been a special adviser on Feed the Future, has been promoted to deputy assistant to the administrator. Before coming to USAID as a political appointee, McKenna worked for the Seattle-based Gates Foundation.
Shah said the Bureau of Food Security would be organized into four teams:
* A country strategy implementation team that will “serve as the hub for [Bureau of Food Security]- country-led transformations” and will be structured around the three key regions--West and East Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean—on which Feed the Future is focused.
* A market access partnership team that will leverage and integrate key private sector actors and nongovernmental organization partners.
* A research, development and thought leadership team that will “harness USAID food security and nutrition intellectual leadership,” and serve as a “global convener” of food security scholars and practitioners worldwide and “fund innovative research activities.”
* A resource management, planning and evaluation team “that will support a high performance, modern enterprise” by providing budget, procurement, human resources, monitoring and evaluation, and other critical administrative functions to drive strong performance management.
