USAID Africa head: Development has to be owned by Africans

Monde Muyangwa paused for some seconds before answering. She had just been asked how she felt when she first realized that she was going to be the next head of Africa for the U.S. Agency for International Development. A Zambian-born Rhodes scholar with a doctorate from Oxford University, Muyangwa has spent the past 25 years working in the crucible of U.S-Africa relations. So when staffers from the White House reached out to her and informed her that she was being considered for the role, she thought about how she could be a bridge between her adoptive country, the U.S., and her place of origin, Africa. “For me to be asked to be a part of that team and to help advance the work that they were doing was just something that I felt was an honor and a privilege, especially at this moment in time, given where the continent is, and given where U.S.-Africa relations are,” she told Devex in her first interview since being sworn in to her job in September. The continent is grappling with significant challenges: an economic crisis, soaring debt, and the devastating effects of a changing climate. Meanwhile, after years of simmering tensions and listless engagement between the U.S. and African countries, the Biden administration is making a concerted effort to reenergize its relationship with the continent, illustrated most clearly in the summit Washington held with African leaders and policymakers last week. The key word that emerged from the gathering was partnership. Muyangwa, who spoke to Devex only a few days after the summit, emphasized the importance of the U.S. government “developing partnerships” around “shared priorities” on development, governance, and security with African countries. “This was not a case of the U.S. doing for Africa, but the U.S. doing with Africa,” she said. “What we're trying to do is to have development that sticks, development that's sustainable.” --— Monde Muyangwa, assistant administrator for Africa Bureau, USAID One headline figure emerged from the three-day gathering of more than 45 heads of state, civil society organizations, and young African leaders — $55 billion. That’s the amount the U.S. government says it will invest on the continent over the next three years. Muyangwa talked about some of the priorities this money will be spent on. Funds — to the tune of $75 million — have been set aside to help shore up democracy on the continent, in addition to $100 million that will be dedicated toward the Young African Leaders Initiative. There was also a $350 million investment that will go toward expanding access to digital technologies for Africans. “If COVID has taught us anything, it was governance and communications shifted into the digital space,” Muyangwa said. “Many Africans were left behind. It further exacerbated the issue of between the haves and the have nots.” Another $250 million will go to climate adaptation, along with investments valued up to $2 billion to build resilient and diversified supply chains for food systems on the continent. Muyangwa also referenced the $415 million for health care and a partnership where USAID aims to catalyze up to $150 million from the private sector for about 10,000 health clinics across the African continent to secure electricity. “There was a lot going on,” she said. On this, she pointed to a key difference from the last time African leaders came to Washington for a summit in 2014. President Joe Biden has pulled Johnnie Carson — a senior U.S. Africa expert during the Obama years — out of retirement to ensure that the commitments made in 2022 are delivered. “We didn't have that in 2014,” Muyangwa said. “That's not to say nothing happened. But I think it's really key that you actually have a senior seasoned diplomat and public servant in Ambassador Johnnie Carson, who has been tasked with ensuring that the U.S. government is working towards the implementation of all these commitments that were made.” Muyangwa also spoke about how to make progress on an issue that has become the buzzword of 2022 in global development — localization. USAID has set ambitious goals. The agency says it wants to have at least a quarter of its funding go to local organizations in the country of operations by 2025, although only $13 billion of its $35.5 billion budget is included in that target. It also wants by 2030 to have 50% of projects “place local communities in the lead to set priorities, codesign projects, drive implementation, or evaluate the impact of our programs.” Muyangwa told Devex that she saw development led by Africans as the whole point of the mission of USAID. “As someone who grew up on the continent, what I will say to you is that I firmly believe in that agenda,” she said. “What we're trying to do is to have development that sticks, development that's sustainable.” “In order for it to be sustainable, it has to be owned by Africans, because otherwise, it's going to be a continual doing-for rather than facilitating Africans to actually own their development, realize their development aspirations,” she added. Muyangwa argued that there are already foundations that the agency can build on and she pointed out that 70% of USAID’s workforce around the world is drawn from the countries of operations. “We are tapping into local knowledge, we are tapping into what they bring to the table in terms of priorities, what they bring to the table in terms of how you best design a project that would work in the country,” she told Devex. Muyangwa acknowledged that this approach is a paradigm shift in global development and that it will take time. “It's not the way development has traditionally been done,” she said. “But it's such a key thing for the agency to be doing and I am fully supportive of that. It is the only way development works.” “If development is not owned by the locals, you're going to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again,” she added. “We should be focused on how do we make this sustainable from an African perspective, so that this sticks and carries forward.” .