Associates speak very highly of Radelet. "Radelet is sensational," one former senior State Department official said. "Father of the Millennium Challenge Corp., conceptually. Brilliant." A former Treasury Department DAS for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Radelet has worked on debt restructuring, policy development and international financial relations issues concerning Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Africa. A Harvard PhD and former lecturer there, Radelet served as the Harvard Institute for International Development resident advisor in Indonesia. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the Samoa Islands himself, Radelet is married to the deputy director of the Peace Corps, Carrie Hessler-Radelet.
Samoa RPCV Steve Radelet is under consideration for what would be a new senior State Department post advising Hillary Clinton and the State Department on development issues
New development appointment mulled as reviews advance
Development community experts say that the conceptual architect of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, Steve Radelet, is under consideration for what would be a new senior State Department post advising Hillary Clinton and the State Department on development issues.
Radelet, currently a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development where Clinton delivered a speech on her development vision last week, did not respond to queries.
But an administration official speaking on background acknowledged the Radelet appointment is under consideration, and a possibility.
Development sources suggested the post is being conceived as a high level advisory one, that likely will not require Senate confirmation. While some development hands thought the appointee would also serve a coordination role between State, USAID, the Millenium Challenge Corporation and PEPFAR, an official waved that off as unlikely.
One rationale described for the mulled appointment was Clinton's desire to elevate development issues in the Department. Another was Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew's plate being extremely full and his and Clinton's desire for him to be able to focus on State management and budget issues.
Associates speak very highly of Radelet. "Radelet is sensational," one former senior State Department official said. "Father of the Millennium Challenge Corp., conceptually. Brilliant."
A former Treasury Department DAS for Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Radelet has worked on debt restructuring, policy development and international financial relations issues concerning Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey and Africa. A Harvard PhD and former lecturer there, Radelet served as the Harvard Institute for International Development resident advisor in Indonesia. A former Peace Corps volunteer in the Samoa Islands himself, Radelet is married to the deputy director of the Peace Corps, Carrie Hessler-Radelet.
The rumored Radelet appointment consideration comes amid a flurry of activity underway on restructuring U.S. government development and foreign assistance.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee offered its vision for restructuring U.S. foreign assistance in a report this week. "This is in some sense a Congressional complement" to Clinton's development speech last week," one committee aide said. "Where we hope to see both the QDDR and foreign aid reform and constraints out there in the development landscape and potential reforms." Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has also led Congressional rethinking of U.S. foreign assistance.
Meantime, State and USAID are preparing their Quadrenniel Diplomacy and Development Review, with an interim draft expected in February. State Department Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter is leading the QDDR review in an executive director-type capacity, with State's Karen Hanrahan, a former State rule of law advisor in Iraq and aide to AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke, serving as a key deputy/COO.
The White House is also leading an inter-agency development policy review, officially co-chaired by the NSC's Jim Jones and the National Economic Council's Larry Summers (Summers was like Radelet a former Harvard advisor to the Indonesian government). The NSC/NEC's Gayle Smith, a former Clinton-era NSC Africa hand and USAID chief of staff, is taking the lead on the White House review, reporting to Jones and Summers through Michael Froman, the deputy for international economic affairs.
Smith led the team advising the Obama campaign on development and democracy issues. Radelet co-chaired the development subgroup for the campaign with Brookings' Noam Unger.
Hill sources said State had asked the White House to let it complete its QDDR before issuing their inter-agency development review findings and recommendations.
USAID administrator Raj Shah, who was confirmed to the job less than a month ago, has hit the ground running helping lead the U.S. Haiti quake relief response, with USAID having rushed eight disaster response teams to the country to help pull people out of the rubble.
Shah is also expected to be making appointments for his team at USAID. Maura O'Neill, a University of California Berkeley business school lecturer who served as Shah's chief of staff at the Department of Agriculture, is identifying potential hires while serving as his advisor on innovation, sources say.
"There's a bit of horse trading between him and State and the White House," one source said. "I am not sure who goes where."
Rob Goldberg, a former OMB official (like Lew), has also recently come on board at State as deputy director of the State Department's foreign assistance office.
The top "F" job is currently vacant, and is not expected to be filled until after State completes its QDDR, and the position may be restructured. Under the Bush administration, F, the State Department's director of foreign assistance, was dual-hatted as USAID Administrator (first Randall Tobias, then Henrietta Fore), so far not the case with new USAID administrator Shah.
