Rajiv Shah: “I’m not running for president”
In a light-hearted joke during his event today at the National Press Club, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah sought to put to rest previously non-existent rumors that he might seek the nation’s highest elected office. Referring to Shah’s meteoric rise to head a major government agency at a relatively young age, event moderator and National Press ...
In a light-hearted joke during his event today at the National Press Club, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah sought to put to rest previously non-existent rumors that he might seek the nation's highest elected office.
In a light-hearted joke during his event today at the National Press Club, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah sought to put to rest previously non-existent rumors that he might seek the nation’s highest elected office.
Referring to Shah’s meteoric rise to head a major government agency at a relatively young age, event moderator and National Press Club President Alan Bjerga said, "You worked at the Gates Foundation, you worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as its chief scientist, you are the head of USAID, but for some people in this room that is not enough…. Development experts have said the USAID chief position should be elevated to cabinet status or to a seat on the NSC. Do you agree?"
"I thought you were going a different place with that question," Shah responded, "In case anybody wants to know, I really wasn’t running for president at all."
The remarks got a laugh from the crowd of assembled development community practitioners and journalists assembled to hear Shah speak. He went on to address Bjerga’s actual question by indicating he is satisfied with the seniority and power of his position as USAID chief.
"I know in this administration we have a huge amount of support at all levels. And I’ve been fortunate to have as much access as I could possibly ask for to help carry out this mission," Shah said. "We have supporters everywhere. What we need to do is execute on our mission."
Shah also expressed confidence in the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to head the overall drive to reform development at State and USAID, in response to a question put forth by The Cable over whether he agreed with what most observers see at Clinton’s drive to place USAID under the control of the State Department.
"I proudly work for Secretary Clinton, she’s an incredible leader…. She’s elevating development to make USAID a more significant, more important, and better resourced organization," he said. "I actually see all of this coming together as really elevating development … and certainly elevating in a very significant and fundamental way USAID."
In his prepared remarks, Shah touted that USAID has rebuilt its policy-planning staff and is also in the process of making large-scale reforms to budgeting, innovation policies, procurement, and evaluation.
"We will rebuild USAID’s budget accountability with a strong focus on getting better results for U.S. taxpayers," he said. "We will pursue a development strategy that is based on focus, scale, and impact. We will focus in fewer sectors in each country of work. We will pursue those efforts that can scale to reach a large percentage of people in need. And we will assess missions based on their achievements — not the process indicators that often substitute for real results."
Shah also promised that both of the administration’s major reviews on development policy — the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) and the White House’s Presidential Study Directive on Global Development (PSD-7) — will be released to the public.
The PSD-7 will come first, sometime this summer, and the QDDR will be released this fall, Shah said.
The State QDDR team briefed Hill staffers on the QDDR this week. One Congressional aide said that State is now aiming for a release in late September or early October. As The Cable reported before, however, the interim report on the QDDR will not be released at all.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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