The U.S. Agency for International Development is in the midst of a hiring surge to reduce a long-standing shortage in foreign service staff, especially in regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan.
Through the Bush administration’s Development Leadership Initiative, USAID plans to hire 300 foreign service officers above attrition in fiscal year 2009 and is working to altogether double the foreign service work force within three years.
The Bush administration first proposed the staffing increase several years ago, but funding only became available recently. The planned recruitment of 140 foreign service officers this year, and 300 more over each of the following two years, has resulted in considerably more job postings on usaid.gov.