81. Memorandum From the Administrator of the Agency for International
Development (Hannah)
to Secretary of State Rogers1
Washington, January 20, 1972.
As you know, we have been engaged for a period of many months in a
thoughtful and comprehensive study looking toward reorganizing and
redirecting A.I.D. to better achieve
objectives attuned to the present and the future and within existing
legislation.2
We have completed this effort and are about to proceed with it.
I have kept Under Secretary Irwin informed as each step has been taken.
This morning I am personally hand-delivering copies of the material
attached to this memorandum to the Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members
of the Foreign Relations Committee and Appropriations Subcommittee of
the Senate, and to the Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members of the
Foreign Affairs Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee of the
House. A copy of one of the letters accompanying this material is also
attached for your information.
You will note that I am not asking for approval, but providing an
opportunity for them to point out anything they feel to be unwise or
undesirable before the last steps are taken.
There will be general distribution of the overall document with an
accompanying memorandum to A.I.D.
employees in Washington on Monday. Copies of this material are also
being forwarded to the President, Henry
Kissinger, Clark MacGregor, George Shultz and Cap
Weinberger.
I am sure you do not have time to read the longer document. The briefing
paper on reorganization will give you the thrust of it.
[Page 191]
Attachment
Washington, January 20,
1972.
Letter From the Administrator of the Agency for
International Development (Hannah) to the Chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee (Fulbright)
Dear Mr. Chairman:
As you know from our previous conversations, we have been engaged for
a period of many months in a thoughtful and comprehensive study
looking toward reorganizing and redirecting A.I.D. to better achieve its objectives attuned to the
present and the future and within existing legislation.
We have completed this effort and are about to proceed with it.
It seems appropriate that I should give you a copy of what is
contemplated before it is distributed within the agency and give you
an opportunity to look at it and give me the benefit of your
judgment as to whatever you see in it that seems unwise or
undesirable.
Because experience has taught me that within the bureaucracy any
distribution soon becomes public, and that a request for approval
provides an incentive for disapproval, I am delivering in person, if
possible, or if that is not possible through Matt Harvey, copies of
this mate-rial only to the Chairmen and ranking Minority Members of
the Foreign Relations Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee
of the Senate, and to the Chairmen and ranking Minority Members of
the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Appropriations Subcommittee
of the House.
I am not asking you to approve it or ratify it.
Unless there are substantial objections, I plan to distribute it to
A.I.D. employees the first of
next week and will move to implement it as rapidly as possible
beginning on February first.
To achieve the staff reductions contemplated will require legislation
permitting early retirement of a substantial number of people and
the retention of the most competent and able.
The material attached includes:3
- 1.
- Briefing paper on Reorganization
- 2.
- Memorandum to A.I.D.
Employees with attachment, “Reform of U.S. Economic
Assistance Programs”
- 3.
- Copy of proposed legislation to accomplish early
retirement of A.I.D.
personnel
I will appreciate your advice or any comments you care to offer.
Sincerely,
Attachment 1
Washington, January 20,
1972.
AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT BRIEFING PAPER ON
REORGANIZATION
The Agency for International Development is undertaking a
comprehensive self-reorganization, designed to
- —emphasize humanitarian and economic aspects of U.S.
development assistance;
- —adjust traditional techniques and policies to changed
development needs and resources in the world’s poorer
countries;
- —coordinate more effectively U.S. development assistance
within multilateral and consortia channels;
- —further emphasize the participation of private
organizations in assistance;
- —focus U.S. development resources on a sector basis;
and
- —reduce the size and complexity of the A.I.D. structure.
The new organizational plan is in keeping with President Nixon’s call for a more efficient
and modernized U.S. foreign assistance program and is consistent
with the philosophy of legislative proposals presently under review
by the Congress. It also reflects many of the suggestions for
program improvements previously expressed by the Congress.
In recent years a number of steps have been taken to modernize U.S.
assistance strategy and techniques. The establishment of an Auditor
General has improved program management. The sector approach has
been introduced into many country programs. More participation by
private U.S. organizations has been achieved. Administration of
Supporting Assistance has been placed within a separate bureau.4
A.I.D. staff has [Page 193] already been reduced by nearly a third
in the past three years. These and other steps have produced good
results in terms of program efficiency and effectiveness.
Nevertheless, basic A.I.D. structure
and many A.I.D. procedures continue
to reflect development needs and conditions of a decade or more ago
when the U.S. played a predominant, nearly exclusive, role in
providing development resources and guidance to the poor countries.
Since then, other advanced nations have greatly increased their
national contributions to the world’s development programs,
international lending institutions have expanded their resources and
administrative capacities, the underdeveloped nations have gained
perspective and understanding of their own problems and begun to
develop their own plans and their own human resources to deal with
them. And those problems have been seen to be more complex and
intractable, requiring remedies more highly sophisticated and
innovative than was originally recognized.
All this compels new approaches, including
- —a more collaborative style of assistance which places the
developing countries at the center of the development
process;
- —greater application of U.S. scientific and technical
advances on research and development of new and innovative
techniques for development problems;
- —broader participation of American private groups in the
practical work of development.
To achieve these ends the Agency is undertaking the following changes
within the framework of existing legislation.
- 1.
-
A new Bureau for Population and Humanitarian
Assistance will incorporate all elements of the
Agency’s programs and research in population and family
planning, the grant “Food for Peace” program, disaster relief,
and support for 82 U.S. voluntary agencies engaged in overseas
assistance. Disaster relief capability will be upgraded and
strengthened. Problems of exploding population growth and birth
control will receive the highest priority.
- 2.
-
The Bureau for Technical Assistance will
provide Agency leadership in technical assistance policy,
program development and research focused on basic human
problems, where American technology and experience can make
distinctive contributions. Coordinating A.I.D.’s resources in research and institutional
grants to undertake major pilot programs stressing innovative
techniques for adaptation of modern technology will be a major
task of this bureau.
- 3.
-
Regional Bureaus established on
geographical lines, which have been semi-autonomous and equipped
to undertake detailed individual country analysis and
programming will continue, but will rely increasingly on outside
sources, including private organizations and recipient [Page 194] nations themselves, to
do more of the programming and project management.
- 4.
- All program support and administrative service functions,
including personnel, accounting, contracting, procurement,
training, data systems and management analysis, will be
consolidated in a new Bureau for Program
Services. The new arrangement is designed for greater
flexibility, speed, policy consistency, procedural
simplifications and more efficient use of manpower.
- 5.
- Economic supporting assistance, sometimes called security
assistance, will continue to be administered, for now, by a
separate bureau within A.I.D.,
and will be subject to general policy changes of the Agency. We
hope these programs will ultimately be transferred to the
Department of State.
- 6.
- An Administrator’s Advisory Council,
composed of senior officers, will be formed to assist the
Administrator in the redirection of the Agency’s program and to
strengthen central policy direction.
When this reorganization is completed, the Agency expects to do its
work better with fewer people. If (but only if) necessary
Congressional authorities, previously urged, are obtained, the
Agency is confident it can assure improved effectiveness and achieve
further personnel savings of a magnitude approaching 25 percent of
present American staff. These authorities include incentives for
selective retirement of eligible personnel and permitting better
utilization of the Agency’s solid bedrock of highly skilled and
dedicated staff. Alternative methods of staff reduction could not
achieve this.
