UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman at the Africa Chiefs of Defense (CHOD) Conference
Gaborone, Botswana
DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR ISOBEL COLEMAN: Thank you, Brigadier General [Rose P.] Keravuori for that kind introduction, and thank you, General [Michael] Langley, for your steadfast leadership of the U.S. Africa Command, and for inviting me to join you here today.
Thank you Lieutenant General [P.D.] Segokgo and General [Charles Q.] Brown for your efforts to bring us together and for your lifelong dedication to serving and protecting your people.
Good afternoon, everyone. It’s great to be with you as we explore ways we can deepen our collaboration to build a safer, healthier, and more prosperous world.
First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to each and every one of you for making the selfless and courageous decision to dedicate your lives to serving your countries. You’ve chosen a path of bravery and sacrifice, working tirelessly to protect your countries and your fellow citizens. Thank you.
Throughout the morning, we’ve heard a lot about the threats facing our world today – conflict and violent extremism. Poverty and pandemics. Drought and food insecurity. Climate change and natural disasters. And the list goes on.
These threats are related, mutually reinforcing, and the issues that keep us up at night. At the U.S. Agency for International Development, addressing these challenges is at the heart of our mission.
Today, I want to do three things. First, briefly describe how the main elements of American foreign policy fit together. Next, acknowledge the remarkable development progress in Africa. And finally, underscore the importance of continued collaboration between civilian assistance and military assistance in advancing our shared goals of building a more secure and stable world.
As General Langley noted this morning, U.S. foreign policy is organized around three essential lines of effort which we call the 3D’s – diplomacy, defense, and development. The 3D’s are the three-legged stool on which our global engagement rests.
The first leg of the stool is diplomacy – our work, currently led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to forge constructive, mutually beneficial relationships with nations around the world, to build coalitions to tackle transnational challenges, and to negotiate an end to economic, territorial and other disputes.
The second leg of the stool is defense – led by Secretary of Defense [Lloyd] Austin, Chairman Brown, and General Langley in Africa. This is work that you all know well.
And the third leg is development – led by the agency I represent, the U.S. Agency for International Development, in collaboration with other donors and partners like the World Bank and African Development Bank.
USAID spends about half of its budget in Africa. USAID leads the U.S. government’s response in emergencies and some of you undoubtedly have encountered USAID in a time of conflict or natural disaster. Sometimes, we request the unique capabilities of our own Department of Defense to get lifesaving support to communities that might not be reached through a strictly civilian response.
But while emergency response work is vitally important, the vast majority of USAID’s investments are in fact in sustainable development – in supporting our partners around the world in building stable, prosperous, healthy communities. And, in doing so, extending life expectancy, strengthening accountable governance and the rule of law, fueling inclusive economic growth, and helping prevent conflicts from breaking out.
Our ability to build a secure world rests on collaboration between our diplomatic, defense, and development efforts. Through our development efforts around the world, we take on the underlying destabilizing factors that we know lead to violence and threaten peace – such as resource scarcity, lack of economic opportunity, attacks on human rights, corruption and weak governance.
We also address non-military threats – including disease outbreaks and natural disasters – that cost lives, damage economies, and too often create the preconditions for conflict. By investing in prosperity, health, and basic dignity, we create a more stable and peaceful world for all of us.
We know that human security – which includes health security, food and water security, climate security and economic security – and national security are two sides of the same coin. They are inextricably related and dependent upon one another.
Our development and diplomacy efforts rely on a strong and principled defense and security effort to succeed. Countries need security and a capable defense that protects the will of people, not the whims of the powerful – because we know that’s what development progress relies upon.
Indeed, as President [Mokgweetsi] Masisi noted this morning, we recognize that good governance is the bedrock of peace, stability and economic progress. The more we can depend on all of you, our military leaders, to establish stability, defend the will of the people, and protect democratic governance, the more effective our development work can be.
As the panel this morning emphasized, the bottom line is that establishing enduring peace and stability requires a comprehensive civil-military approach – one that proactively engages and builds trust with local communities, empowering them to take ownership of the underlying social, economic, and political issues that drive conflict – and ultimately creating the preconditions for durable peace and political stability.
For example, in Somalia, the United States is the largest contributor to stabilization efforts in areas recovered from Al-Shabaab. In newly liberated areas, USAID rapidly engages with community leaders to address immediate needs – fixing wells, clearing roads, and getting children that have been out of school for decades back in classrooms so that families experience real, tangible benefits from a re-established state presence.
In Nigeria, USAID simply listened to local businesses and worked with the military to adjust curfew hours so that markets could remain open, reducing the burden that security restrictions had on citizens.
Making just a few extra dollars to bring food home to your family can make the difference between trust and resentment. These types of efforts go a long way in building confidence and understanding between communities and security forces, and ultimately achieving a shared objective of peace and security.
Now, I want to take a moment to recognize the development gains that you all have played a part in achieving in Africa. While we are acutely aware of the challenges ahead of us, we must also note that development progress across the African continent over the past few decades has been remarkable.
Over just the past twenty years, life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by a full decade, the maternal mortality rate has fallen by over a third, and the child mortality rate has fallen by over 50 percent.
Thanks to the commitment of people and governments across the African continent to uplift women, and recognize and integrate them as equal participants in society, women’s rights and leadership have markedly improved. Five African countries are now among the top 20 nations for women’s parliamentary representation around the world.
In the global health domain, USAID has partnered with governments and communities across Africa to help eradicate smallpox and wild poliovirus, to turn the tide against Malaria, and most recently, to help countries move beyond the COVID-19 emergency.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we supported your efforts to get millions of shots in arms across Africa. For example, with support from USAID, over the course of just seven months in 2022, Tanzania increased its vaccination rate from 15 percent to over 90 percent.
Our work together towards controlling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic has been an outstanding example of impact and success. Over the past 20 years, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, alone has saved 25 million lives and assured that nearly 6 million babies have been born HIV-free. Two years ago, our host Botswana, achieved an important milestone – far exceeding its targets towards assuring an AIDS-free population.
Our work on food security has also yielded significant results. In response to spiking global food, fuel and fertilizer prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States surged food assistance to communities in need. USAID has scaled up food security programs to strengthen agricultural productivity, to tackle urgent fertilizer shortages, and mitigate the impact of macroeconomic shocks on the most vulnerable.
That work is now being implemented in multiple countries across Africa. For example, in Kenya, USAID is collaborating with the private sector to improve the movement of food from areas of high supply, such as urban centers and high rainfall regions, to those parts of the country most affected by drought. These efforts are helping to reduce prices and support more than 3 million families affected by the drought.
In Zambia, USAID is working with local processors to reduce costs and increase the production of wheat.
In Ghana, USAID is working with fertilizer firms to make blended fertilizers specially formulated to work well with local soil conditions and crops. Our collective efforts are increasing resiliency and strengthening longer-term agricultural productivity and growth.
Recognizing the transformative power of the private sector to grow more prosperous economies, USAID is investing in Africa’s economic growth. For example, through Prosper Africa, we partner with other U.S. government agencies to create jobs and foster shared prosperity by catalyzing two-way trade and investment flows, forging new private-sector partnerships, and mobilizing large-scale private investment in Africa’s most promising opportunities.
Since 2019, Prosper Africa has closed nearly 2,000 deals valued at almost $90 billion in trade and investment in 49 countries across the African continent. These deals have catalyzed critical investments in cybersecurity and digital finance platforms in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, forged partnerships that have increased affordable housing in West Africa, and unlocked green bonds and loans to fund climate-smart solutions across the African continent.
Across sectors, USAID has contributed to development progress in Africa. And USAID provides the vast majority of our assistance in the form of grants, not loans. Our goal is not to create dependence on the United States, but to help communities develop their own resources and build self-reliance.
Nevertheless, high rates of conflict and displacement on the African continent are currently threatening to slow or stop this story of progress. It is estimated that over 40 million people across Africa are forcibly displaced – more than double the number in 2016. In Sudan – the world’s largest displacement crisis – more than 10 million people have been driven from their homes in the past 14 months. It’s a staggering human tragedy, and Sudan’s collapse is creating security and humanitarian challenges across the region.
In order to maintain Africa’s development gains, and avoid turning back decades of hard-won progress, we need support from all sides.
From a development perspective, we must continue to support people in need, invest in economies, and address threats like disease and natural disasters that put countries and communities at even greater risk.
At USAID, we are working to meet the needs of people trapped in conflict areas, building human security to stop conflict from spiraling – to stop desperation from breeding further desperation and stoking more violence.
But we also need security leaders across the continent to help advance stability, defend the will of the people, and help create the kind of predictable economic conditions that foster investment and growth. Our sustainable development progress depends on the enabling condition of peace and security.
We are eager to discuss how we can work together to coordinate our efforts to advance human security and national security across the African continent – during our time together this week, and beyond.
It is essential that we work together urgently – bringing diplomacy, defense, and development to bear – to address the most pressing challenges of our time in a strategic and sustainable way that uplifts humanity while building a more peaceful, prosperous, and secure world.
Thank you.