By the time I arrived in Afghanistan in the summer of 2014 for my third tour as a foreign service officer with USAID, I had already spent a decade working in the country with different U.S. government organizations. Something that particularly struck me during that tour was the contrast in how the United States engaged with Afghanistan compared to some other countries.
Our goal in Afghanistan was to create conditions for the country to benefit from its own natural resources and to advance on a path to increased stability and prosperity. Yet, at times, it seemed that our security and civilian assistance created conditions for others to profit from our investment of dollars and lives. While the U.S. Agency for International Development, as the largest donor of development and security assistance, provided billions toward building Afghan institutions, worked with our allies and our Afghan partners to create jobs, and deployed thousands of soldiers to work with the Afghan army to stabilize the country, China was negotiating deals for copper, lithium, and other valuable minerals.
Several years later, I arrived in Nepal to lead USAID’s mission there in the midst of strict COVID-19 lockdowns and difficult negotiations over a $500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact to expand electricity access, as well as our own $659 million development agreement. The goal of our assistance, as one of Nepal’s oldest bilateral partners, was to help build a more prosperous future for all of its people, within the context of high unemployment, weak economic growth, and a fragile natural environment. Disinformation, however, often fueled by external groups, spread widely during the negotiations. Our motives were questioned. Some accused us of providing aid only to build military bases. And the government seemed less interested in our projects than it was in our funding, to be channeled through their national budget. When I spoke at different forums about our work, I was asked what benefit the U.S. sought and why we would want to help Nepal at all.
About the author
Sepideh Keyvanshad
Sepideh Keyvanshad is senior adviser at Cambridge Global Advisors. Until recently, she was a foreign service officer at USAID holding leadership positions, including chief human capital officer, mission director to Nepal, and deputy mission director to Afghanistan. Her career spans over two decades at the intersection of diplomacy, development, and security.
