By Regina Moore, Manager, External Relations and Communications
Last week, President Obama nominated Gayle Smith as the new Administrator for USAID. The nomination comes two months after former Administrator Rajiv Shah stepped down from the post he held for five years.
While the development community eagerly awaits the Senate confirmation hearing, here’s a run down of what people are saying about Smith as a fit for the head of the world’s largest development agency.
1) She is a Washington insider.
Smith has held top posts within the US Administration for years. She currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council (NSC). During the Clinton Administration she served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the NSC. And she even had a previous period with USAID as the Senior Advisor to the Administrator and Chief of Staff.
This status could serve her well:
Smith’s insider status, far from being a liability, is one reason she is the right choice for the job, Berman said …
Smith might also be able to leave a mark on the USAID administrator role itself. If confirmed, Smith’s close relationship with the president could pave the way for an elevated role for the U.S. aid chief in foreign policy. Chvotkin described Smith’s close relationship with Obama as a very, very valuable commodity and one of her distinguishing characteristics. When Berman was in the Senate, fighting an ill-fated battle to rewrite the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, one of his goals was to put the USAID administrator on the president’s cabinet. USAID does now enjoy a seat at the National Security Council, but Smith could do a lot to make that seat a permanent one, Sharma pointed out.
But it could pose challenges to being confirmed by a Republican-led Senate:
If Smith — and her supporters in the White House — struggle to convince Congress she is more than Obama’s hand-picked confidante and that she will be willing to build key bipartisan relationships in the way Shah did, then the confirmation process could drag on and chip away at the time Smith has left to make her mark at USAID.
2) She knows development.
Smith has extensive on-the-ground experience, having lived and worked in Africa as a journalist and aid worker.
Ms. Smith spent 20 years in Africa — Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya — first as a freelance journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters, The Associated Press and The Boston Globe, and then with nongovernmental groups. She is a co-founder of the Enough Project to end genocide.
And has continued her experience in the U.S.
Smith approaches her confirmation process with a wealth of development — and developing world — experience. On Obama’s National Security Council, she has played a key role in formulating the president’s Africa policy…
Smith has also coordinated administration responses to major humanitarian emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and has championed U.S. global health and food security programs.
3) She’s not without controversy.
Her pragmatic take on allies for National Security could make some uncomfortable with aid bedfellows.
Economist William Easterly said Smith’s nomination reflects the prevalent idea in Washington that what’s good for development is good for national security, and what’s good for national security is good for development. According to him, giving development aid to an autocrat because he is a valuable ally on the war on terror is NOT [sic] good for development, it is the opposite of development.
4) There’s pressure for a swift confirmation.
It took 18 months to nominate former USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah, with an additional six weeks to confirm.
In light of current disasters …
Ms. Smith, 59, who is well-known in Washington development circles, would be responsible for leading the government’s response to humanitarian disasters like the earthquake in Nepal, the refugee crisis in Syria and the receding Ebola epidemic in West Africa, as well as managing the agency’s $20 billion budget.
… as well as longer term development efforts – and as the Administration’s term quickly approaches an end – the Senate should move quickly to nominate a permanent head to USAID.
Now it is up to the Senate to confirm Smith. If the United States is to play a role in shaping the future development agenda and most effectively answer the call to respond to current crises, we need a new USAID Administrator in place quickly. Otherwise, the U.S. will be sidelined at this crucial juncture in international development.
Time is short, and the Senate must act fast to confirm Gayle Smith and empower U.S. leadership in global development.
Photo Credit: Ralph Alswang and Center for American Progress. Original photo cropped for publication.
