and also to publicly of knowledge the great job that usaid and the u.s. military did in the aftermath of-i am, -- typhoon high and. express my appreciation for the overwhelming generosity in terms of the assistance we got. my question to the congressman, if i may -- las [laughter] reducing foreign aid, the kind of great job that usaid, u.s. congress consider providing a greater or larger budget for institutions like usaid. not only provide you mentioned the system but also are able to develop very i guess very attractive business opportunities for u.s. firms as mentioned, the experience of ge, starbucks, wal-mart and so on. i of course am concerned about reduction in terms of foreign aid but it think it also deprives the institutions of usaid to do much more for u.s. business. thank you. >> i want to hear the answer. [laughter] spent you are of course right. and the reference that was made not just usaid it to the united states military, watching any aftermath of the tsunami, watching our military going into action and providing water. i mean, it's i thin

usaid predates me.e wouldn't have done this if we could don't it in a way that would be acceptable to the taxpayer and acceptable to congress. i have to testify on these matters. >> larry sampler is the agent with responsibility for the afghan and pakistan area, thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> we're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we'll talk about the state of play in afghanistan today, and what kind of country is waiting out there in the future when nato forcesback pack up and go. this is "inside story." only on al jazeera america >>> welcome back to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. american and nato forces are leaving afghanistan by the end of the year, despite pressure from the united states, afghan president, hamid karzai has not signed a bilateral security agreement that would keep some u.s. troops in the country. we're continuing our conversation, joining me here in washington, senior central asia fellow at the new america organization. from new york, ex

agency for international development, usaid, promised $300 million for rebuilding afghanistan. the new usa package will include $125 million in food and farming, the foundation of the country's economy, $77 million for trade and taxes with plans to expand trade to the international markets and improve tax collection. and $100 million for education helping to fund ten afghan universities and partner with three u.s. schools. monday's announcement comes as the u.s. continues to pressure hamid karzai to sign the u.s. half began bilateral security agreement called the bsa. the pack would solidify conditions for involvement in the country after troops leave including police training and counter terrorism work. the pack got the approval of the loya jirga last year, but president karzai has still not signed it. >> afghanistan will never sign the security agreement under pressure. no pressure, no threat, no psychological operation against our people can force us to sign the security agreement. if the foreigners want to leave, they should leave today. >> afghanistan's foreign minister sa

usaid has facilities in this tiny little reagan center building.raj has not spoken here -- 2012, not 2013 -- in 14 months. he spoke on what then secretary of state hillary clinton called the economic statecraft. something that everybody agrees is a crucial part of the toolbox we use to project a u.s. narrative in the world. as raj put it, "harnessing american ingenuity to advance global development and in the process, strengthen our own nations economy is what we should be doing." the numbers tell the story. since 2001, aid has formed more than 1600 public-private partnerships with over 3500 partner organizations with an estimated value of more than $20 billion in public and private funds, but the work of usaid in public-private partnerships does not just provide a bounce to our economy and to our jobs picture. it enhances our security. at a time when too many see our foreign policy in kinetic terms like drones and special ops and guantÁnamo bay prison, soft power diplomacy, or i would call it smart power diplomacy, delivers life-saving help the de

earl is one of the brains behind usaid's first global water strategy which was launched in may 2013.our moderator is jason beaubien, wonderful name, npr's global health and development correspondent. i want to recognize many wilson supporters in the audience but particularly the ambassador from the philippines. there he is sitting in the second row. i have mentioned earl and i think that is it. dr. shah will now speak and right after his remarks, the panel will begin. welcome all of you. [applause] >> thank you, jane. thank you for your leadership here at the wilson center. the topic of today's conversation was really about defining america's role in the world. you have been doing that for quite some time very effectively. earl, it is great to be here with you. thank you for being here. i want to thank jason and roger-mark. the ambassador and friends and colleagues. i am glad folks are here. if you are walking through our offices which are right next door and in the building, i think most of our folks are teleworking or got stuck in the snow. this is great to see people out today. it

if you go the markets, usi r aid's -- usaid's materials, they're not getting to the people.ow do you get the aid to the people right now? >> okay, thank you very much. for the clarity. go ahead. >> i'm interested in the panelists' thoughts on -- >> you remind us who you are? >> sorry, yes. lauren -- [inaudible] with the congressional research service. interested in the panelists' thoughts on the role of igad and the mediation going forward. ambassador booth, you mentioned how critical they've been to the process so far and, obviously, in terms of timeliness and pressure, they were very instrumental. but going forward in terms of focusing on an inclusive political dialogue, the role that hay played in the cpa talks, that was an exclusive rather than inclusive process. and i guess, you know, there are some questions about the role of uganda and its military operations in south sudan right now on behalf of the south sudan government. kiir is, obviously, a sitting head of state and head of state of the igad administration. ethiopia, you began da -- uganda, these are one-party st

at the same time, we also have an external research effort which raj before he got the usaid job was in charge and now cathy's in charge of our national institute of food and agriculture. and that, basically, spends a substantial amount of money, hundreds of millions of dollars every year, in competitive grants to spur, to leverage, to spur innovation in a couple of key areas where we're focusing. we're going to have an additional tool as a result of passage of this farm bill. we advocated very strongly within this administration for precisely what these folks have suggested, which is we need to scale up our research effort. and in order to do that, we need to challenge the private sector to partner with us. so we are now able, as a result of the farm bill, to establish a research foundation. congress provided us $200 million. it's not in the scheme of things an enormous sum of money, but it's $200 million more than we had a year ago. and that has to be matched. so this is now a pool of 400 million. and i think if we manage pool and this foundation properly, it will provide us the ab

and later on it's determined that it's funded by usaid or funded by this or that. so it is possible. it's not an unsurmountable obstacle. >> and i, for example -- oh, sorry. a simple example, one of the schools in pakistan has a network of schools has asked us, you know, we are competing with the, you know, gulf-funded extremist schools. we don't have modern resources. we need textbooks, can you give us math and science textbooks? i mean, that's not -- it has nothing to do with the, you know, u.s. government's stamp or seal on a project, it's just helping them to compete against the resources of well funded extremist groups. so little micro projects that can have a tremendous impact on their ability to keep and maintain students, for example. >> broader ons ovation -- observation just globally from conflict and looking at sub-national governance and sub-national conflict worldwide, be there is a community in the middle of afghanistan and the people who live this that community are still alive despite 40 years of war, it means they've figured something out. [laughte

first of all i want to thank shah for the presentation job cknowledge the great usaid and u.s. military did in the typhoon. of i express my appreciation to the american of the people for the overwhelming generosity in terms of got.tance we my question is to the congressman if i may. foreign aid considering the kind of great job that wouldn't the u.s. congress consider providing a budget for arger institutions like usaid that only humanitarian assistance but are able to very attractive business ?pportunities for u.s. firms wal-mart ienced g.e., and so on. concerned about the reduction in terms of fortune -- but it deprives stukeses institutions to do moror u.s. business. thank you. right. are, of course, the reference that was made not the united d but states military. watching in the aftermath of the tsunami, watching our military and providing on there was morenk , not one in that region just for the hundreds of of people whose lives were turned up side down, but perception people had about the united states. over the ng to spend $700 ecade approximately illion on a nuclear ar

determinedt is funded by usaid or funded by this and that. so it is possible.it is not an insurmountable obstacle. a simple example, one of the schools and pakistan has asked with thee competing gulf-funded extremist schools and do not have modern resources. can you give us text looks? it has nothing to do with the u.s. government stamp or seal on a project i'm a just helping them to compete against the resources of well-funded extremist groups. little projects like that can have a tremendous impact on their ability to keep and maintain students for example. broader observation globally from context and looking at national conflict worldwide, if there is a community in the middle of afghanistan, and the people who live in the community are still a live, despite 40 years of war, it means they have figured something out. what they have figured out has always been an underutilized resource. so it is something that is worth paying attention to. >> thank you very much. i am with the public think tank called afghanistan awareness. i have two questions. at the same ti

according to usaid, this year alone the united states is spending $2 billion in food aid to countries. most of it is spent buying and shipping food from american farmers. but there's bipartisan concern that the food may be hurting some countries more than it's helping. >> dumping commodities often destroys local markets. putting local farmers out of business. >> it takes far too long to get food aid to starving people and often harms agricultural markets in the countries we're trying to help. >> care usa feels strongly about reforming the practice. they gave up an estimated $45 million a year in federal funding because of damage they feel some american food aid programs can do to local farmers. they see a different solution. >> buying local is faster and cheaper. it's a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars. and it ultimately supports our long-term goals in tackling hunger and nutrition. we're giving local farmers a hand up rather than a handout. >> would it help you if other organizations did what care did and refuse to accept american food on -- to sell on the kenyan market? >> it

and also usaid. >> what we have done with this force, i have not done anything with usaid, specifically. the partnerships with the state department have been great from my perspective. i mentioned on the slide -- we call it to leader engagement. i probably should've done a better job explaining that. i was fortunate enough with members of my staff to visit with a few embassies that were within my area of responsibility and work with the country teams there. that is the way that we operate. in france, italy, we spent a fair amount of time engaging with the state department, engaging with those country teams in order to make sure, as the other gentleman asked me, that we have a common understanding of these forces, its defensive nature, and how we would operate if in fact we were called to operate and execute from that country. i think that -- my slide about lessons learned is in no way a slight one way or another. it is just that sometimes this is kind of a hard problem. in order to be out and operate in some dangerous places. one of the things a force like this does is it enables our di

host: what was the response from usaid? tost: aid did not want us reveal the results.t would in barest the afghans. we do not think that is a -- they said it would embarrass the afghans. we do not think that is a basis to withhold it from congress. we paid for the audits, we are paying for the billions of dollars to be given to these agencies, we felt they had a right to know. we could design programs to protect the money. host: what was the response to the administration, to you showing this report and making a public? guest: some are happy and some are not. it does not comply with some people's view of how successful we are in afghanistan. that is not my job. i call the balls and strikes as i see them. this is the reality we are dealing with. this is an important year of reconstruction. host: why is that? guest: when there is a drawdown in u.s. troops, the election coming about, reconstruction money is going to continue, even if the troops are withdrawn. that is the plan. we have to make certain that we have the protections in place before we go to direct assistance,

that she has an extensive acheron working in south sudan and she was an assistant administrator for usaid and director for sudan in south sudan and she also represented the u.s. government and the evaluation commission charged with overseeing the implementation of the cpa agreement in the south in sudan. kate, please take the way. >> the opportunity to be here this morning, i just want to offer a few comments a few things we can work as we go forward, there is a current moment of crisis and what we might look for with a framework in terms of priorities. how sudan is the direct result to manage alternative positions given the failure of its leadership, namely the former and current president. we are trying to avoid resorting to violence in the country, however, is not due to instability and conflict. progress can be made during a transitional time toward a new political the sensation with responsible leadership and inclusive processes. empirical evidence tells us that this can be done. the world development report captures the experiences of countries that have successfully exited and prov

as a usaid foreign service officer in haiti, no challenge was too big or too complex for her.ac of dover air force base waiting for a military plane to land. it was dark and silent as i stood with toni's family. the lights of dover eliminated a small area in front of us. at 1:00 a.m., the casket of my fallen colleague came home to her family. toni was a community health specialist who was on her way to a clinic in haiti when she was hit in an accident. she had been on the road that day to ensure the clinic was stocked with the right medicines to save kids lives. she loved those kids like her own. dover, her mother in law , through the pain of her had beend me thattoni so very proud to serve her country. to represent the best of our values to the world. [applause] i have learned from toni, as i have learned from my colleagues and many of you, that this work, like prayer, changes us as much or more than a changes the world. i's light had a calling and a purpose. can we adopters. of commitment? can we love all children like our own? sphere we whatever live, embrace our faith, som

quote gardens participate in drawing workshops for making him my son performance is promoted by the usaid funded. shipped off to afghanistan and iraq to be. but it was hard. like that. not like that you read his conduct of both. in the minors and intrusions by the artist was a wonderful wonderful event. even with the weather we had so many beautiful things going on to showcase their talents to good use of afghanistan. i think it's it's easy just to see pitt and stability. i'm from. from what we what we see on tv. students see this instability. this mosque was off the trip. what is often betrays what we're seeing here today. there are thousands of kenyans with these towns with this positivity and done with his desire to leave there was no shortage of good to begin on the seventh day. inside it's up to one's own country she's relying on the younger generation to build it back up again the european parliament gave the final approval to the proposed regulations and restrictions of the use of phosphorus in consumer laundry and dishwasher detergent the ep prescription aims to reduce the local f

and as a usaid foreign service officer in haiti, no challenge was too big or too complex for her.of dover air force base waiting for a military plane to land. it was dark and silent as i stood with tony's family. delights of dover eliminating a small area in front of us. and then at 1 a.m., the casket of my fallen colleague, came home to her family. tony was a community health specialist who had been on her way to a clinic in haiti when she was hit in an accident. she had been on the road that day to ensure that the clinic was fully stocked with the right medicine to save kids lives. she loved those kids like her own. that night at dover, her mother-in-law, through the pain of her loss, leaned over and told me that tony had been so very proud to serve her country. to represent the best of our values to the world. [applause] >> i have learned from tony, as i've learned from my colleagues and many of you, that this work, like prayer, changes us as much or more than it changes the world. tony's life had a calling and a purpose. can we adopt her spirit of commitment? can we love all c

i think if i were sitting in a seat at usaid, would have a difficult conversation about how that was going to play out and what the role of the government is. this is a different situation that was before. the government is responsible for his people. the fact we have over 3.5 from 3.7 million in need of emergency food assistance between now and the next rainy season would not map you can see posted here and to this side, a vast amount of the countryside will be inaccessible. you will not appeal to reach a population with any kind of assisted. to be stolen or distributed or otherwise. so china said the. i hear over and over again the sp l.a. is a professional army. and they come in now from two ministers are a poor professional army, they would not be theft of humanitarian commodities. so it's a very serious question and that is one that has to be addressed front on because they cannot be the logic. nevermind going back to the status quo of december 14. we are going all the way back to well before the peace agreement was even conceived of as a process in terms of negotiation and back

and also usaid. >> what we have done with this force, i have not done anything with usaid, specifically. the partnerships with the state department have been great from my perspective. i mentioned on the slide -- we call it to leader engagement. i probably should've done a better job explaining that. i was fortunate enough with members of my staff to visit quite a few of the embassies that were within my area of responsibility and work with the country teams there. as well as the countries we operate in spain france, italy, , we spent a fair amount of time engaging with the state department, engaging with those country teams in order to make sure, as the other gentleman asked me, that we have a common understanding of these forces, its defensive nature, and how we would operate if in fact we were called to operate and execute from that country. i think that -- my slide about lessons learned is in no way a slight one way or another. it is just that sometimes this kind of a hard problem. in order to be out and operate in some dangerous places. one of the things of force like this does is

this force i would than anything with the usaid. specifically. i think the partnerships with the state department has been great from my perspective. and i mention on the slide out there, we called it chelator engagement but i probably should've done a better job explaining that, but i was fortunate enough with some of the members of my staff to visit quite a few of the embassies that were in my area of responsibility. and work with the country teams there any many cases, you know, getting to see the ambassador and then some of their key staff. as well in the country's that we operate in an are based in up in spain, france as well as italy. we spent a fair amount of time engaging with the state department and with this country teams in order to make sure, as the other gentleman asked in the back, that we all have a common understanding of what it is this force is designed for companies defensive nature and how we would intend to operate if, in fact, we were called to operate and execute from that country. i think that, this is, you

steven rado look at, the chief economist for usaid, the u.s. agency for international development, also a former senior of development to secretary of state hillary clinton and is the treasury for africa, the middle east and asia. he is now a professor in the practice of development at georgetown university. great to have you on the show. thanks for having us. this has to be a tough call for the obama administration. on the one hand, john kerry talking about human rights. on the other hand, there is good cooperation between the u.s. and uganda on aids, other health issues and counter terrorism efforts, specifically in somalia. uganda has 6,000 troops fighting al shabaab. so with can he just say, hey, we can't accept this law that you have passed against gay rights and pull aid or at least some of the aid we give uganda? >> we could pull some of it. we can't pull all of it. and part of the reason is for what you just said. we have multiple objectives here some of them short-term. some of them long-term, and the issues around gay rights are impor

usaid has awarded $8 million to support two independent international election observer missions for the upcoming elections. the u.s. will continue to support the election process in a variety of ways while in no respect, absolutely no respect supporting any particular can kate or party. let me say a few words about the campaign to date. posters, as the presidential campaign kicked off in kabul beginning on april, sorry, on february 2nd, posters appeared overnight and thousands attended rallies. enthusiasm for the election is on the rise and afghan society is showing increased democratic political sophistication with lively media coverage focusing on candidate rallies, platforms, and voter opinions. a series of television live debates focused on issues rather than ethnicity, have been particularly well-received. afghan news outlets offered minute by minute debate updates on their portals, facebook pages, and twitter feeds as candidates exchanged views on security, foreign affairs, the bilateral security agreement, corruption, economics and women's rights. four weeks in the various pr

en usaid administrator will deliver the keynote and grammy-winning gospel singer yolanda adams will perform the closing song sponsored by the house of representatives prayer breakfast. live coverage right here right now this morning on c-span2. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> it is nice to have the president of the united states here, isn't it? [applause] >> it is great to have the first lady. [applause] >> thank you. nina may be seated. we will begin the program, we are glad you are here today and for our foreign friends. there are a lot of things we appreciate in england. and the second person plural and we had to fill that in. we are glad you are here. that includes everyone here as well as hundreds in the overflow room that join us by video. includes the c-span audience. we have many faithful people praying for this breakfast right now in the upper air room. together dennis and i lead the house of representatives prayer breakfast every thursday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 in session. this is just an adjunct for what the senate prayer breakfast does on thursday and house prayer bre

funneling funds from venezuela's oil company into this new party and on the other hand, funding from the usaidm u.s. government institutions to so-called civil society organizations. thehavez came to power, traditional parties in venezuela collapsed about the domestic opposition and the u.s. government needed to create some other vehicle through which to oppose the chavez government, and this party that leopoldo lopez came to power through is one of those vehicles. this is where he is coming from. in this moment, even as former compatriot from that party capri unifiedo was the presidential candidate in april, has realized the line of taking street action to oust a democratic government is simply not going to work and leopoldo lopez as well as other far right have gone all in with his attempt to oust the government. >> shortly after leopoldo lopez plus arrest, his opposition party released a video of him speaking that was a poorly filmed before he surrendered to venezuelan government troops. this is part of what he said. >> i would like to tell all venezuelans that i do not regret what we have

. >> nancy lindborg with usaid, michael gerson, we thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: leaders from the corporate, philanthropic, arts, faith and sports worlds gathered at the white house today to address a single issue: the challenges facing young men and boys of color. the issue has become a key priority for the president. >> the bottom line is, michelle and i want every child to have the same chance this country gave us. >> ifill: when president obama uttered these words during his state of the union address, this is who he had in mind. christian champagne is an 18 year-old senior at hyde park career academy on chicago's south side. he plans to go to college and hopes to become a lawyer. but, as a young black man, he faces challenges steeper than most. high incarceration rates, low high school completion and unemployment dramatically higher than the rest of the population. but christian and the other young men like him who traveled to the white house this week, hope to buck that trend. they are all part of a program called becoming a man or bam. >> bam was needed because it helps you

and most recently, this week reuters published an article titled, and i quote, "usaid plan seeks to shield afghanistan from end to war economy." which details a new neshive from the united states agency for international development that would spend almost $300 million to prop up the afghan economy. mr. speaker, the common factor in these articles is that each describes in alarming details the absolute waste of american tax dollars overseas. the absolute waste of american tax dollars overseas. how can we in good conscience tell the american people we are going to continue to send their money to afghanistan for 10 more years under the bilateral strategic agreement that the united states is currently negotiating with president karzai? i hope president karzai will not sign the agreement. it would be the best thing to happen to the american taxpayer. ironically today or tomorrow we are going to raise the debt ceiling. this is after already raising it y $230 billion in october of 2013 with $30 billion reserved for afghanistan. this is not right or fair to the american people. we need to stop th

worked for the gates foundation, was the undersecretary of agriculture, and was appointed head of the usaid40 years old. who hasd think a man done all of that would not be as humble as he is. and if you read one of cs lewi'' that a seniord demon is encouraging the young demon, saying, the guy you have been signed to attempt is a very humble guy. have you pointed that out to him? because that is a good way to pull the maury from being humble. and even if he catches himself being proud of being humble, it is still not all lost. point out to him he should be proud that he caught himself being proud of being humble. [laughter] speaker has not yielded to the temptation to be proud, being humble. he is an amazing man with an iszing background, and he still humble. he has become a very good friend to a number of our senators and house breakfast groups. a couple of the senators have shared with me that they pray together regularly and have traveled abroad with him, they have seen his heart. and they have prayed with him about the issues that he is going to talk about this morning. so, friends, help

leader and is out there every single day, i could not be more proud of his outstanding leadership at usaidand it's a good remind er -- its a good reminder of the dedicated public servants that i have the chance to interact with every single day. and they do great work and don't always get a lot of credit. sometimes get subject to the sort of criticism that you do when you are in public life, but raj is single minded in terms of trying to help as many people as possible all around the world and is an extraordinary representative for our country. so i'm very, very proud of him. although he does always make me feel like an underachiever whenever i -- whenever i listen to him. i think, i should have been working harder and not slouching. dale jones and everyone else who worked on this breakfast this morning, thank you. and, obviously, i'm thrilled to be joined by my extraordinary wife. and she does a great job keeping me in line. just two other thank yous. to our men and women in uniform all around the world, we pray for them. many of them who do such great work to keep us safe. and then there

in the 1980's he received three appointments from reagan including assistant administrator for usaid, and u.s. ambassador to venezuela. ambassador reich? [applause] >> thank you very much to heritage for the invitation, and all of you for showing up on a rainy day. fromnot going to take time my colleagues who are venezuelan and know more about the issue than i do. i will give you my perspective about what is happening today, try to address three things. what is happening in venezuela today? what is the nature of government, which explains what is happening or why is it happening? and what are the implications for u.s. policy or what should we do? first, what is happening is a tragedy, human tragedy. it is the strangulation, the killing of a young democracy in our neighborhood with most of to say,hbors ashamed greening their hands, watching while the democracy of venezuela is being killed about watching from behind their lines or some would say blindly watching. this is not an even fight. some governments in the hemisphere who friendly favor the dictatorship have already said this. thi

has an extensive background working in south sudan, including she was assistant administrator for usaidfor africa. and the commission director for sudan and south sudan. kate represented the u.s. government in the international assessment and evaluation commission charged with overseeing the implementation of the cpa agreement in south -- in sudan and south sudan. so, kate, please take it away. >> thank you, joe. thank you to the africa center for the opportunity to be here this morning. i just wanted to offer a few comments and to -- i've written far more in the research paper, so i'll try not to repeat the entire thing here, but i think a few things that are worth highlighting as we think forward how south sudan can come out of its current moment of crisis and. to start i note south sudan's transition is not a surprise. in fact, it is to be expected to some extent. the current crisis and scale of violence in south sudan is the district result of the absence of constitutional alternatives to manage political competition given the failure of itself leadership namely president and former

2010 to june 2013 alex served assistant administrator afghanistan and pakistan affairs overseeing usaid two largest missions in the world are before, joining us. s aid and served as advisor for director of pakistan and afghanistan from 2005 to 2010 until he convinced me to come take his job here. then from 2002 to 2004 he was legal advisor to afghanistan's constitutional and judicial commission in kabul and also in the 1990s, worked in afghanistan for the u.n. and various ngos for 1993 till 1996 of the with that i turn it over to you, ambassador grossman. each much our speakers will speak about eight to 10 minutes and then we'll have some time for question and answer in discussion afterwards. thank you. >> andrew, thank you very much. let me first of all say thanks to all the organizers of this event and what an honor it is to be on this panel. alex was kind enough to say that you have experts here, not mes but the other three people really are and honor to be with all of you. if you allow me one personal note pay trib to ambassador dobbins and his l his team. serving aspects representa