News

Making Progress on President Obama's Feed the Future Initiative

Patricia Haslach as the Deputy Coordinator for Diplomacy will be working on engaging all key-stakeholders and multilateral partners around the world, like the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), as the United States progresses in this initiative. The new Deputy Coordinator for Development, William Garvelink, will be responsible for the implementation of Feed the Future in the twenty focus countries and oversight of their progress.

Questions for the newly appointed Deputy Coordinators were focused on how they plan to ensure coordination between all of the government agencies involved in FTF, between organizations in the field and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As their testimonies suggested, both of these Deputy Coordinators are confident about the ability of all agencies to coordinate without adding another level of bureaucracy through this initiative.  Haslach emphasized that all key players meet regularly and was adamant about referring to them as “one team for Feed the Future.” Garvelink added that country coordinators present on the ground in each of the 20 focus countries will be representatives of the U.S. government, all working towards one goal and with one set of standards.  

Other questions were raised regarding the involvement of NGOs in the process. Both Haslach and Garvelink expressed the importance of NGOs in contributing to the development of country-led plans.   The committee also voiced its appreciation for their work thus far, with Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) saying that he was very excited about the FTF initiative and with Rep. Diane Watson voicing her support for the work of the two Deputy Coordinators. As the initiative continues to make progress we are anxiously awaiting the announcement of the Global Hunger and Food Security Coordinator.