Washington, DC — "There is no constituency for agriculture," an apparently exasperated Andrew Natsios, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, told a Congressional committee in Washington, DC, Tuesday.
The House Committee on International Relations was meeting to discuss the U.S. response to East African famines and the future outlook for food aid in Africa. With surprising frankness, Natsios told the committee during questioning following his formal testimony: "We put money in the budget [for agriculture] then it's spent for other sectors that are regarded as more popular."
The White House makes those decisions, heavily influenced by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which bears the primary responsibility for devising and submitting the president's annual budget proposal. "It has taken on a more robust role," in the USAID budget said one congressional aide who follows budget matters closely.
Agriculture assistance to Africa has dropped by 50 percent in the last decade, Natsios told the committee. "I hope we can turn that around."
This year, he says, US$163m has been allocated for agriculture, up from US$113m in 2001. "We put more [money] in but money is transferred for HIV, for everything you can imagine. Money we put in was taken out. I was very angry about it."
Agriculture money officially falls under "development assistance" and development assistance includes money for trade as well as agriculture. It also includes money for democracy and governance along with funds for conflict prevention. The development assistance budget request for 2004 is US$498.9m a significant drop from the US$541.6 requested for 2003. More money is being put into the Child Survival budget which is up from US$458.5m in 2003 to US$542.1m for 2004.
Sources say that on the assumption that he will never get a budget request for agriculture in the amount he would like, Natsios wants the option of taking money from Child Survival and placing it in Development Assistance, as he sees fit.
Natsios' frustration emerged during hearings which charged that politics - as much as climate change- was the cause of drought in Ethiopia and Eritrea. "Bad governance....exacerbated a two and a half year border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea literally over nothing," said Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-VA).
"It is an outrage that these two governments, whose citizens live on the very edge of survival, cannot end their belligerent relationship, settle their disputes, and get on with addressing the most critical economic, social and political needs of their people," added Congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA) in a statement.
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But no criticism was harsher than that of Dr. Mesfin Wolde Mariam, one of Ethiopia's leading geographers and founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council who has been arrested several times for his criticism of government policies. The current famine "has nothing to do with natural forces," Dr Mesfin told the Committee, "but with oppression and exploitation."
"The government has resources to buy all these airplanes and tanks, but when people are starving it cannot bring out resources. Instead it is [seen as] the responsibility of the international community."
In Ethiopia, "nearly 60 percent of the population urgently requires food aid," World Food Program Deputy Executive Director, Sheila Sisulu, told the committee. And in Eritrea, "2002 was the fourth year of drought, leaving the population with no resilience to cope with another year of shortages."
