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