Video interview: Larry Sampler

Larry Sampler on USAID in Afghanistan

What lessons has USAID learned after over a decade in Afghanistan? How is the agency pursuing Rajiv Shah’s “localization” agenda and dealing with the drawdown of foreign troops? Check out Devex reporter Michael Igoe’s full interview with Assistant Administrator Larry Sampler.

By Michael Igoe // 25 February 2014

Creating and maintaining a new government in such a challenging environment as Afghanistan comes with certain tradeoffs for U.S. aid.

That’s why the U.S. Agency for International Development has been compelled to permit some “degradation of pure effectiveness” that comes with host government capacity building in the push for “localization,” Assistant Administrator Larry Sampler said in an exclusive interview with Devex.

USAID has come under fire for providing direct assistance to the Afghan government, despite the agency’s own findings of considerable weaknesses within several departments. Sampler admitted they “pushed back” against ministries that failed to implemented necessary oversight reforms.

So what’s in store for USAID’s offices there and in Pakistan as the U.S. military drawdown continues in 2014?

Sampler admitted that, for the time being, he is not comfortable using the words “normal” and “Afghanistan” in the same sentence — but they are working nonetheless to draw the country into a more productive long-term economic relationship with its neighbors.

Click on the above video for the full interview with the USAID Assistant Administrator, available now for the first time after the three partial clips already published since last week, which you can watch below:

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