Water and Agriculture in U.S. Foreign Assistance

Participation by Academic Institutions - Water and Agriculture in U.S. Foreign Assistance

Mon, Mar 30, 2009

We have time for one more question. Kellogg?

Kellogg Schwab, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Perhaps a comment, and then perhaps a question too. I see integrated into all this, a lot of public health, as we go into now talking about agricultural issues. And I was encouraged to hear the land grants and the technology pushing in there, but there are other academic institutions besides land grants that are really pushing this forward, and that links together into international health. Is there a mechanism, do you see, to go beyond just an NGO and into the academic side of trying to bring in some of the research, and cutting edge technology, to push these forward in an evidence-based approach, so that we can then assess what's going on and then reevaluate, perhaps more rapidly, with respect to what the more positive outcomes and then perhaps, even divert from some of these negative ones in there. That requires from our side some funding, and I know this is kind of a double-edged sword for us to really push this forward as well, so your thoughts on that would be appreciated.

We use universities all the time. I know Johns Hopkins works with our global health people. And so, again, land grants are just kind of a typical kind of thing; I'm not sure what the mechanism is that draws them in easier than others. But also there was the International Arid Lands Consortium, and that was a mix of land grant and other universities and research institutions. And so, there is a whole array of universities and research facilities and everything else that are tapped by USAID. Washington State University was in Jordan for thirty years, and they were doing programs when I was working there. Now, they were doing training, they were doing training of the professors. They were doing twinning operations of professors and students coming back and forth. They were doing special research projects. And so, it isn't a problem, it is a matter of the project manager, or the mission, or the office here in Washington recognizing an approach and getting ahead of the curve to solve something, to assess it, evaluate it, and make a recommendation so you don't keep doing the same thing every couple of years when this problem repeats itself.

All right. Well with that, will you please join me in thanking these gentlemen for their contributions?