3. An underestimation of the role of technical expertise in
development efforts today.
Economic growth is, to a considerable extent, a matter
of increasing productivity—and increasing productivity often
requires new technologies. In recent years, USAID has lost
much of its technical expertise and is now largely staffed by
generalist program and project managers. Technical expertise—to the extent that it was sought—has been increasingly
outsourced.
www.bread.org
leads to a broad expansion of employment in rural areas.
This failure to appreciate agriculture’s importance also reinforced the tendency to divert funds from the public goods
and government capacity that are especially important to
agriculture. Governments increasingly adopted a simplistic
analysis: if agriculture is important, the market will take care
of it; no special action is needed. But because agriculture
depends so heavily on public goods and services, this theory
led to disaster for poor people.
Bread for the World Institute 3
USAID
heavily on public (i.e. governmentprovided) goods such as roads, research,
and extension education, as well as on
supportive legislation and policies.
Contractors and grantees who implement USAID projects have been pressured to meet specific objectives in a relatively short time. Since there is usually
not enough time to develop the administrative and technical skills needed for
the project, many “poach” scarce skilled
staff members from elsewhere, particularly from host government offices. U.S.
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
implement a large share of U.S. development assistance and are strong in locallevel grassroots programs, but those programs need to complement the building USAID/Bangladesh helped to make small scale aquaculture a viable means of income for
of national level institutions—not try to women and very poor farmers.
substitute for them.
In many cases, the poaching of skilled
local personnel by USAID contractors and grantees, and
Once U.S. development policy lost its primary focus on
the competition among donor countries for these personnel, broad-based economic growth, there began an era of rapidly
has in fact reduced the capacity of host government institu- changing foreign aid emphases. There were many programs
tions. This is harmful in ways beyond the lack of capacity whose funding was secured by program earmarks, which, in
itself: the public lacks confidence in a government perceived turn, reinforced the trend toward small projects and away
as “useless,” and indirectly, corruption is encouraged since from seeking national impact.
there is so little possibility of government officials building
The decimation of technical staff is both a cause and an
a reputation for effective action. This is a problem in all low- effect of all these shifts in goals and priorities.
income countries and is proving disastrous in Afghanistan. It
4. Creating broad-based economic growth has been
is critical to build up the central government’s reputation in downplayed in favor of social sector interventions. As a result,
the eyes of its people, yet when village elders in Afghanistan support for agriculture has been virtually eliminated. Before
are asked if the government is helping them, they reply, “No, the current hunger crisis began, the U.S. government had
it is the NGOs who do all the good works, and they will soon decreased the share of official development assistance (ODA)
leave.”
devoted to economic growth from about 75 percent to about
Until recently, the government’s perceived lack of com- 25 percent. Aid to agriculture virtually ceased. The United
petence was often compounded by its neglect of the public States is part of a general trend among aid donors away from
goods needed by smallholder farmers (a neglect often support for agriculture. The neglect of agriculture is a key
encouraged by donors, who urged market orientation and reason that low-income countries have suffered so much
a focus on urban areas). These factors together add up to from the current crisis of high food prices.
a food security disaster that, in hindsight, could have been
Paying so little attention to agriculture reflects a lack
anticipated.
of understanding of how increased prosperity for farmers