The Foreign Service Journal, April 2011

Foreign Affairs Day Foreign Affairs Day, including AFSA’s annual Memorial Plaque Cere- mony, will take place on Fri., May 6, at 10 a.m. at the Department of State. We regret to announce that this year yet another name will be added to the plaques: Eugene F. Sullivan, a Foreign Service officer who died of malaria in Ethiopia on Jan. 21, 1972. The plaque ceremony will take place on the morning of Foreign Affairs Day in the C Street lobby. We invite all members of the Foreign Service community to join us for this solemn occasion. For more information, please contact AFSA’s Coordinator for Special Awards and Outreach Perri Green at green@afsa.org . Following the official programs at the department, AFSA will wel- come members to its headquarters at 2101 E Street NW for a recep- tion and light refreshments. During the reception, we will also honor this year’s AFSA scholarship recipients and donors. C onsidering that USAID has operations in close to 100 locations worldwide, our agency is probably one of the most diverse organizations globally. It encompasses more than 4,300 Foreign Service Nationals and Third-Coun- try Nationals, comprising every imaginable ethnic, religious, race and gender category, working alongside U.S. Foreign Service officers. It is tempting, then, to believe that we have no problem in the area of diversity. Indeed, the results of our recent worldwide FSO survey (see p. 47) confirm that most respondents believe that diversity at USAID is either excellent (30 percent) or adequate (59 per- cent), with only a small fraction citing it as poor (11 percent). Yet with regard toUSAID’s direct-hire employees overseas and in Washington, the opposite is true. In addition, most re- spondents made wildly inaccurate assumptions about which categories were under-represented. Definitive data from the USAIDOffice of Civil Rights and Diversity show that the biggest discrepancy is for Hispanic- Americans, who account for only 3 percent of our staff even though they make up 11 percent of the U.S. national civilian labor force. Most respondents believe that Native Americans are the most under-represented group when, in fact, due to their relatively small numbers in the U.S. population as a whole, their representation at USAID is basically on target (0.3 percent). The proportion of Asian-American USAID em- ployees, whom respondents also identified as under-repre- sented, is actually twice the NCLF: 6.2 percent of the USAID work force compared to 3.6 percent nationally. While African-Americans are well represented within USAID (20.7 percent of the USAID work force compared to 10.5 percent of the NCLF), they, as well as His- panic-Americans, are not so well dis- tributed at senior leadership levels. Finally, the agency still has a way to go to better represent disabled workers and military veterans. Which brings us back to our question: Why should we care? The answer is simple.: USAID is often the most visible face America presents to the world regarding our values. We promote democratic government, representation, participa- tion and equality in everything we do. A diverse U.S. staff ac- curately representing our inclusive nature as a nation is not only justified in its own right, but it shows that we live up to our own rhetoric. As some survey respondents pointed out, it is, of course, important to get the best qualified person for the job regard- less of diversity status. However, these statistics do suggest that problems exist. No one intends these data to be used for the purpose of establishing quotas (which are illegal), but they can alert us to the fact that barriers to equal opportunity exist and should be dismantled. In a population of more than 300 million, we have to as- sume that there are sufficient numbers of qualified individ- uals of all backgrounds and abilities to fill the relatively small number of positions at USAID. A better performance on achieving diversity will more strongly project our values to the world and make us more credible as we help other coun- tries adopt democratic principles. 50 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 1 A F S A N E W S V.P. VOICE: USAID BY FRANCISCO ZAMORA Diversity at USAID: Why Should We Care? AFSA President Susan Johnson speaks at last year’s Plaque Ceremony, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton looking on. MICHAEL LAIACONA

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