How USAID's shifting focus will affect staffing

The United States’ shifting international priorities will lead to significant staffing changes at the U.S. Agency for International Development, budget documents suggest. The world’s top bilateral donor is eager to focus more of its employees on Africa and Asia, with the plan of having six out of ten staff members working in these regions within the next year or so, the White House’s budget proposal for fiscal 2014 indicates. About 350 employees would be pulled out of Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Eurasia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. These staffing changes reflect the U.S. government’s shifting international affairs priorities and allow its aid programs to focus on areas where they have the greatest chance of making an impact, the White House argues. On the home front, USAID wants to stick with current welfare benefits for contract employees as well as foreign service officers and civil service staff. USAID’s staffing details for fiscal 2014 are included in the report submitted to Congress to justify President Barack Obama’s budget request. While the budget proposal has little chance of passing in its current form, it hints at overall trends in staffing and programming that will shape U.S. foreign assistance in the years ahead. “We request a moderate increase in staffing to position America for global leadership in the next decade and beyond,” the White House documents say. “The requested staffing level will be able to support the rebalancing in Asia, helping to bolster economic security and prosperity in the region; strengthen USAID’s civil service capacity in support of USAID Forward reform.” Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are now beginning to craft their own spending plans for fiscal 2014. Regional breakdown of staff Out of a total of about 10,000 employees, the White House wants to assign at least 112 to new countries where USAID hasn’t been present lately but where now “opportunities have opened up for more direct engagement”: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Niger, Kyrgyzstan, Libya and Tunisia. Excluding Libya, staff in those nations would oversee about $566 million under development assistance, global health and economic support fund accounts. USAID would not designate any ground personnel to Panama, Guyana and Russia, a country the agency withdrew from late last year. Around the world, USAID plans to change the geo-profile of its workforce, increasing its staff in 30 countries, reducing it in 39 and maintaining the number in 21. The sharpest increase — from 5 to 12 — would be in Myanmar, where the agency is slated to open a mission next year for 34 employees that would oversee about $75 million in global health and economic support accounts. Brazil would face the biggest downsizing, from 23 to 8. The staff would be in charge of $3 million in development assistance and global health. Under its overseas contingency operation budget, USAID would dramatically reduce its operating expenses from $255 million to $71 million. The funds would cover salaries and operational costs for 112 of 267 personnel working on programs “deemed non-enduring for USAID operations in Afghanistan” in 2014. The inspector-general’s office, which had $45 million to spend last year, would have no operating budget at all under the administration’s plan. Changes in headquarters, USAID Forward Reshuffling and realignment are also expected at USAID’s Washington headquarters. The new Office of Science and Technology, a pioneer initiative to promote scientific approaches to development challenges would have 22 workers and $85 million to spend, and the Office of Innovation Development Alliances would get 42. The Office of the Administrator would be cut from 66 to 57, while the civil service expansion office would be zeroed out. Staff at the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs would increase from 45 to 64. USAID Forward is likewise facing changes. The agency wants to continue allocating $33 million to supporting its current roster of 820 foreign service officers hired from 2008 to 2011 under the Development Leadership Initiative, a flagship program meant to reduce the reliance on outside contractors that, in recent years, has been affected by a funding freeze imposed by budget hawks. “No additional FSO positions are requested as part of this request,” the White House says in its fiscal 2014 request to Congress. USAID is looking to hire 22 additional civil service officers to implement USAID Forward procurement reforms and expand the new Office of Science and Technology, among other priorities. Salaries and benefits of overseas staff would amount to $315 million. The total excludes about $21.5 million allocated to fund the final phase of overseas pay comparability, performance-based pay and global pay rate of FSO grades FS-01 and below that senior FSO. All in all, $1.5 billion would be spent on USAID operating expenses next year. USAID is trying to meet mandatory budget cuts by in-sourcing and saving on real estate, discretionary travel, conferences, information technology and other operating costs. While it wants to keep down costs in other aspects, USAID is trying to not cut corners when it comes to compensation and benefits, asking for $597 million to pay full and part-time employees, as well as an additional $160 million for retirement, education and health benefits. The agency is also setting aside about $696,000 for training in 2013, but next year it wants to the raise the amount to $2.2 million. To keep USAID employees and facilities protected against terrorist threats and espionage, USAID wants an estimated $16.8 million to install emergency communication systems for eight missions, buy armed vehicles for another nine, provide counterintelligence training to staff and do more background checks. Obama signed in 2011 a presidential directive on global development, calling on USAID to be more selective about the work it does. A year later, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah approved a plan to realign staff and country presence in response to the directive. The newly released White House documents justify the realignment as follows: “Against criteria to be more selective in determining where USAID operates in fiscal year 2014, this realignment will maximize operational effectiveness and allow the agency to pursue a tailored engagement strategy.” Read more on U.S. aid reform online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.