EXPANDING CIVILIAN CAPACITY FOR DIPLOMACY AND

UNCLAS STATE 046087 FOR CHIEF OF MISSION FROM DEPUTY SECRETARY LEW E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID AMGT APER KCOM KMRS SUBJECT: EXPANDING CIVILIAN CAPACITY FOR DIPLOMACY AND DEVELOPMENT REFTEL: STATE 4183 ¶1. SUMMARY: President Obama and Secretary Clinton secured for FY2009 significantly increased resources to expand the civilian capacity to undertake diplomacy and development. An expanded overseas presence is critical in renewing America's security and standing in the world. With more officers, State and USAID can build partnerships, address the global development challenges of the 21st century, and achieve the foreign policy outcomes that will serve the United States for the long term. The successful expansion of our civilian capacity will also challenge our core systems especially overseas, in the early stages. We must work together beginning immediately to build a stronger capacity to serve the needs of the United States around the world. This is an action cable, see paragraph 7. END SUMMARY ¶2. With the strong support and endorsement of President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Congress, expanding the civilian capacity to undertake diplomacy and development is underway. This will require that State and USAID hire, train, and deploy more Foreign Service personnel around the world. USAID began the process in FY2008 and has already dramatically increased the number of FSOs that have been hired. With the increased resources appropriated in FY09, USAID and State will further increase staff. Posts will need to begin planning for the most appropriate deployment and to address common constraints including space, ICASS services, and security. USAID Expansion ¶3. Development is an equal partner to diplomacy in meeting the USG's foreign policy goals. This Administration has embraced the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty and hunger around the world in half by 2015, recognizing that economic growth, sound governance, and social development are keys to long-term stability in the world. To successfully promote these objectives in order to help overall Country Mission goals, USAID's FSOs will provide development leadership, technical knowledge, and policy advice, build partnerships with the private sector and civil society, and manage development program resources, working in alliance with country teams. ¶4. USAID accelerated FSO hiring in FY2008 by 10% and will expand by an additional 25% with FY2009 funds, totaling 450 new officers. The objective is to double the USAID FSO workforce by 2012. USAID will have at least 180 new officers in the field on two-year training assignments by the end of FY2009 and will soon start establishing long-term positions in Missions. ¶5. USAID's FSO presence is planned to eventually expand from the current 89 cities in 85 countries to approximately 113 cities in 104 countries by 2012. The proposed positioning depends on USG strategic goals, country needs, and mission objectives. USAID missions have already been in discussions with country teams on projected position increases, which may have been incorporated in the 2011 Mission Strategic Plans. In addition to the increased Foreign Service Officer projections, limited expansion of Foreign Service National/Locally Employed Staff is also anticipated. Planning and Implementation ¶6. This expansion will be an extraordinary challenge. In Washington, a joint USAID and State Department working group has been established to address the requirements for increased FSO deployments in FY2009 and FY2010, and to resolve constraints on long-term expansion. Resource requests have been made to meet capital expansion costs. To ensure successful coordination of these efforts, collaborative planning is required for both training deployment and the permanent position increases. ¶7. Consistent with NSDD-38 and the President's Letter of Instruction, U.S. development and foreign policy goals should drive the determination of where new regular overseas FSO positions are placed. Agencies will continue to propose individual positions via the NSDD-38 process, and individual Chiefs of Mission will make the final staffing decisions. USAID Washington will also work with State and post management to implement administrative consolidation in order to achieve efficiencies and cost savings and to enable posts to better absorb workload increases. ¶8. ACTION: Chiefs of Mission are requested to fully support increasing our civilian diplomatic and development capacity overseas and instruct that joint detailed planning begin for this projected expansion. Target levels for USAID training positions for the new officers this year will be provided to posts before the end of May. Space and administrative service requirements to accommodate this expansion should be identified and conveyed to regional bureaus. State and USAID appreciate fully that DLI can only be successful with an adequate support platform; we are committed to getting those resources to posts in a timely manner. Chiefs of Mission are requested to address NSDD-38 requests and other requirements understanding the high priority placed on our successful expansion by the President and Secretary. ¶9. Minimize Considered. CLINTON