The Obama administration supports a three-track approach to financing development, according to U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Bisa Williams. Interviewed by AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana during last month's Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, where she represented the United States, the former ambassador to Niger spoke about the roles for foreign aid, private investment and domestic resources in contributing to the growth needed to reduce poverty and expand economies. She also stressed the central role women must play and outlined the Obama administration's efforts to combat corruption and illegal currency outflows.
What role can the United States play in the process of financing for development?
President Obama has been talking about economic development and opportunity, and these were the main themes at last year's U.S.-Africa Leaders' Summit. Part of our message here, and what we've done in collaboration with our many partners, is talk about three streams of financing for development that are available so that countries and communities can grow.
Financing for development has to come, certainly, from domestic resources. It has to come from private sector resources, and it also has to come from official development assistance [ODA]. Once you get that acknowledgement, then you have to look at the best mechanisms for taking advantage of all of those things. Our commitment has been to show the various ways in which you can stimulate, mobilize and accentuate private sector streams, and also focus on the ways that governments can take advantage of their own resources. We've been talking about transparency, good governance, and we've been talking about ways to block the flows of illicit finances, so you don't have revenues that escape from countries.
That's the first commitment - to get everyone to look at all of the opportunities [and] best practices and all of the innovative measures we can use. One of the things we have highlighted is data, the collection of data and the use of innovative technologies. There has been talk here about the billions of dollars that developing countries are not able to take advantage of because they flow out illegally. If you get good data to inform your evidence-based decision making, then you'll know where you need to adjust accounting, where you need to adjust your own systems so that you can recoup the benefits.
You mentioned domestic resource mobilization. What are your thoughts on the argument that foreign aid can stifle domestic resource mobilization in developing countries?
There is clearly a need for development assistance. There is a need for aid. That noted, aid will never be able to provide all of the resources needed for any country's development. That's why we have focused on understanding the potential and the impact of each of the three streams.
Yes, the United States is a generous humanitarian donor, and we always will be. The United States also recognizes that some of the most vulnerable countries, some of the poorest countries in the world, need more assistance. Some of the things that have been accented in the outcome document [from the Addis conference] have to do specifically with how you can target aid. You want to be able to understand where the resource flows are coming in, how much private investment you have and how you can better manage your domestic resources so we will know best how to target ODA.
The United States is the largest donor of development assistance. Last year we gave over U.S. $33 billion all around the world. We are proud of that record, and we understand that you can maximize the impact of that directed assistance if you complement it by effectively using the other flows of capital that are coming into a country.
A lot has been said about how the conference host, Ethiopia, can be a model for development. Can you cite other countries that have been successful in financing their development?
I think there are a lot of tools. We have seen some very innovative things going on. One of the tools that the United States government uses to accentuate innovation comes from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent agency of the U.S. government. MCC funds infrastructure development in countries that will have direct bearing on raising the conditions of life and improving economies; so it's got to be a profitable investment.
What we're seeing is, in order for countries to become eligible to have a compact [with MCC] - for example Benin, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, to name a few - countries must satisfy a series of criteria. That scorecard has to do with not only how well a country's government is managing its budget, but how they are doing on transparency, education, gender equality, particularly emphasizing the inclusion of women in decision making.
We assess this data, which comes from the country and from international organizations like the World Bank and IMF [International Monetary Fund] and from NGOs like Transparency International. For example, Benin was given hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate its port. That produced jobs and increased access to goods. It produced a gateway to get goods into the interior, and it was a boost to their economy. Cape Verde is another example. Cape Verde is a very small country, but they keep their house in order, and they have used the MCC compact [funding] to further stimulate their economy. Burkina Faso used it to improve their roads infrastructure and schools.
There are lots of ways that countries are doing the right things and when they do, they are rewarded. This makes them less dependent on ODA. It also makes them a magnet for other types of investments. When you invest in building a major road system, then you have companies saying, "Well, maybe I can put my next business here because I can get my product from one region of the country to another." So we're really excited about that.
What can the United States do to work with countries to stamp out corruption that hinders growth?
Corruption does hinder growth. Countries in the developing world do not have the market cornered on corruption. We have corruption in the United States. You find corruption in Europe. You find it in Asia. You find it all over.
At the U.S.-Africa Leaders' Summit last year, President Obama and President Macky Sall of Senegal announced a partnership on illicit financing to encourage countries to say: "Look, we are going to combat corruption. We're not going to stand for it, and we're going to strengthen instruments of government and ways of doing business outside of government to give confidence to our populations and give confidence to potential investors."
We talk about transparency and tackling corruption in our document for the Financing for Development Conference, but it's a topic that comes up in multiple fora. The initiative that presidents Obama and Macky Sall started is picking up support. We are very happy about that.
We are calling for each country to adopt a National Action Plan. Each country is different. Some countries rich in natural resources [are] really bent on ensuring that they are getting the benefits of those resources - ensuring that their contracts are fair and transparent, that the community benefits, that the money goes to where it's supposed to go. Other countries that are important hubs for interregional trade have to focus on those specificities. They can learn from their experiences and share what makes for the best experience. They can link their institutions. You need a way to prosecute, a way to codify, and a way to know how corruption affects other aspects of society.
What role can women play in sustainable development?
Women, particularly in Africa, have a very important role to play. Too often women are left out of policy making roles. That is one of the first things we need to emphasize. They can play that role when they are given equal access to education and to opportunity.
Women have to be included in decisions that affect agriculture, in decisions that affect energy. We are half of the society and very often, particularly in Africa, women are the ones working in the fields. Women are the ones holding up the family. They can advise governments on the best use of energy, on the best use of resources, on ways that domestic resources will have the furthest impact.
Take energy, for example. Very often for energy projects, people talk about improving the national grid. In countries where agriculture plays the main role, and women are the main farmers, you really need to think about off-grid solutions. You need energy for irrigation. You need lights on the street so that markets can stay open late, and so women feel safe bringing their goods to market, so kids can go to school. All of those facts of life and conditions of living need to be brought to the table when governments make decisions about their national plans.
The message is that women need an influential role in every step of the decision making process that affects the lives of the population.
What are specific areas of financing for development where governments should focus?
Where do I start? First is to say that this conference should reflect a collective, global commitment to diversify the financial resources that are going to be put into sustainable development. We need to build sustainable and inclusive societies. We need those societies to be well-governed. We need those societies to be accountable, because we want them to deliver results. Financing for development needs to be sustainable, transparent and inclusive. We do that by ensuring that we are making the best use of private flows, public flows and foreign aid.
I mentioned earlier that we are using data. We think that this conference is also underscoring the need to use data to inform decision making. Now decisions can be made based on evidence rather than theory.
If you use data to make your decisions, it can be used to measure impact, to enforce transparency and of course deliver accountability. It will broaden the confidence that the public has in the ability of government to perform. We [the U.S.] have been a leader in data collection and analysis, and the use and release of data. We have been proponents of the idea of knowledge as a public good. We can share our methodology so that others too can harness and use this.
Speaking of data, a speaker here said that in order for data to be effective you need mass broadband, and in Africa that is a challenge. Any thoughts on that?
That is a challenge, but technology is changing by the minute. Take for example what the cell phone did to help almost every African country leapfrog into the global economy. Fiber optic cables are expanding on the continent. The faster that grows, the better. Reformed, innovative and liberalized transactions dealing with telecommunications can be unleashed in a country, once telecommunications regulatory regimes are accommodating, inviting and attractive to business.
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With our Power Africa initiative, the president has been talking about providing energy that will then give light to lots of businesses so that people will open restaurants or bring in trucking companies. People also want to be able to communicate. The notion that you'll have to wait a couple of hours before you can get on the internet or that you won't be able to use your telephone or cell phone if you go five miles out of the hub are impediments to business. There are innovations that we can use right now, that will be beneficial and help developing countries to be agents and actors in the global economy. That's what we're trying to do.
The President of the World Bank talked about how woefully unprepared the world is for a new pandemic. How is the U.S. working with Ebola-affected countries to bring their health infrastructure up to speed?
Before coming here, I went to Guinea - to Conakry, Forécariah and Nzérékoré - to see how people were improving and see how the ETU [Ebola Treatment Units] had been working. The fact is, when Ebola hit west Africa, people were unprepared. Global institutions, the World Health Organization - they were unprepared. I am happy to say that the United States and President Obama recognized that this was not a west African problem. This was an international problem. We moved quickly to mobilize international support for response.
You're from Liberia, and there have been a couple of new cases found there. But they have been identified and they are being treated. You don't hear a big appeal for the international community to come in, because now you know what to do and you're doing it. We learned through this experience that we need to do a better job.
President Obama has committed to helping the African Union establish centers of epidemiological research so that people will be able to analyze strains in their region more quickly. We need to train technicians and technical experts. National governments need to be able to develop their own national response plan.
We will support the creation of an African Centers for Disease Control (CDC). We have an American Centers for Disease Control; the African continent wants one too, and we support that. Technical experts from our CDC who are working throughout Africa in our embassies are acting as advisors - some for training, others for modeling how to build centers. We are getting more American expertise on the ground in order to help train and build up a cadre of African experts.
The president has also announced the Global Health Security Agenda. We are trying to develop a responsive approach that will prevent the kind of overwhelming experience that happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. We are working with many countries on the continent as they go over their entire health infrastructure to see if it should be restructured, how it can be restructured and how we can help.
