Afghan men fly kites on a hill in Kabul. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
LONDON (AlertNet)&${esc.hash}39; The head of the United States&${esc.hash}39; development organisation said poor countries supported Washington&${esc.hash}39;s policy of linking aid spending to the U.S. &${esc.hash}39;war on terror&${esc.hash}39;, despite criticism by Europeans who say this kind of money should be free of strings.
African countries feel they are more like equal partners with U.S. donors when they know Washington is investing in their development to prevent fragile states becoming havens for militants, according to Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
&${esc.hash}39;I think Europeans are somewhat suspicious when we talk about national security and connect it to development policy,&${esc.hash}39; he said, speaking in London.
&${esc.hash}39;Now is a time of global terror and emphasis on development,&${esc.hash}39; he said.
He said aid was now a &${esc.hash}39;central pillar&${esc.hash}39; of foreign policy.
During the 1990s, when the U.S. did not perceive any major security threats, its aid budget was relatively low. Natsios said in 2001, when he stepped into the top job, U.S. foreign aid was ${esc.dollar}10 billion. By 2004, he said, it had gone up to ${esc.dollar}19 billion. &${esc.hash}39;It will probably be 22 or 23 billion dollars this year,&${esc.hash}39; he said.
He said he expected the current trend to continue for years to come.
Natsios said tying aid to foreign policy made it a little easier to take budget requests to a Congress under the sway of local lobbying groups.
For example, he said the U.S. gave millions in aid to Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led invasion ousted the ruling Taliban in 2001, in retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks which it said were masterminded by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from his base in Afghanistan.
&${esc.hash}39;Is something wrong now that we&${esc.hash}39;re spending ${esc.dollar}1.2 billion in a poor country?&${esc.hash}39; he asked, pointing out that Afghanistan ranked among the lowest in the world for development indicators before the U.S.-led invasion.
&${esc.hash}39;I think it&${esc.hash}39;s better if we have a strategic interest,&${esc.hash}39; he said. If Congress threatened to cut his budget for Afghanistan, for example, he could retort: &${esc.hash}39;You&${esc.hash}39;ll see Bin Laden back in two seconds&${esc.hash}39;&${esc.hash}39;
WORRIED ABOUT BIRD FLUHe said terrorism was not the only threat to U.S. security. &${esc.hash}39;We are very, very worried about avian flu,&${esc.hash}39; he said.
&${esc.hash}39;There are eight steps in the development of an epidemic. We&${esc.hash}39;ve gone through seven,&${esc.hash}39; he said. &${esc.hash}39;If this mutates so it can pass from human to human, we will have an epidemic far worse than 1918,&${esc.hash}39; he said, referring to the Spanish influenza outbreak that killed at least 50 million people worldwide.
&${esc.hash}39;The frontline for stopping this is in the developing world,&${esc.hash}39; Natsios said. &${esc.hash}39;If we don&${esc.hash}39;t get on the frontline to do something, we face a catastrophe.&${esc.hash}39;
He said Europeans were wrong to accuse the U.S. of opposing the Millennium Development Goals, U.N. targets for alleviating poverty by 2015.
&${esc.hash}39;It would be a bit like attacking motherhood or apple pie,&${esc.hash}39; he said. But he said, from a U.S. perspective, the Millennium Development Goals were heavily weighted towards social services, and not enough on democracy, economic growth or good governance.
&${esc.hash}39;You may have all the social services in the world and still be horribly oppressed,&${esc.hash}39; said Natsios, pointing out Cuba&${esc.hash}39;s literacy rate and ratio of doctors to population.
Natios said Europeans misunderstood U.S. policy on HIV/AIDS, because they were hostile to religious right-wingers in North America who advocate sexual abstinence. He said U.S. President George W. Bush had angered the religious right in his own country by explicitly repeating the administration&${esc.hash}39;s support for condom distribution.
&${esc.hash}39;Our policy is ABC &${esc.hash}39; abstinence, being faithful, and condoms&${esc.hash}39; If people don&${esc.hash}39;t feel comfortable with the condom part, they can work with the AB part. There are others who don&${esc.hash}39;t like the AB part.
&${esc.hash}39;The AB part is six percent of the total (U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS) &${esc.hash}39; it&${esc.hash}39;s tiny.&${esc.hash}39;
Natsios emphasised that he himself was not an evangelical Christian. Although he used to work for World Vision, a Protestant aid agency, he is Orthodox Christian.
He said USAID was working with groups it had not involved in development before, like businesses and migrant workers.
For example, he said USAID was tapping into the flow of remittance money from the United States to countries with large migrant populations, such as El Salvador and Haiti, by matching funds sent home through banks.
He said the private sector had knowledge that could be useful to the aid world. &${esc.hash}39;Corporations know about logistics,&${esc.hash}39; he said. &${esc.hash}39;How do they get Coca Cola to places with no roads?&${esc.hash}39;
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