Everywhere and Anywhere
More than 326,000 people call Dadaabhome, but the vast sea of tents in theKenyan desert is really the opposite. It’sthe world’s largest refugee camp, and itsoccupants, mostly Somalians, must eventuallyreturn whence they fled or find amore hospitable place to take them in.
Gayle Smith (Engl’78), head of theU.S. Agency for International Development(USAID), has been visiting placeslike it for decades.
“People come away from a refugeecamp with two thoughts oftentimes,” shesaid in an interview in her Washingtonoffice, a few blocks from the WhiteHouse. “One is a level of shock. Theyimagine what it would mean if we suddenlyhad to live in a field with a blue tarpand just wait. You’ll talk to a lot of peoplewho are despairing, but you’ll talk to asmany people who, if we can help get themback home or help them where they arenow, are pretty resilient. I think that’ssometimes missed. On one level youthink ‘this is horrible,’ on another levelyou walk away saying, ‘Those are some ofthe most courageous, strongest, amazingpeople I’ve ever met.’”
USAID is the federal agency chargedwith international development —helping people outside the U.S. improvebasic local living conditions and recoverfrom catastrophe, including mass violence,natural disasters, extreme poverty,famine and disease.
Smith — nominated by PresidentObama to run the agency and confirmedby the Senate — took charge last yearamid unprecedented demand for itsexpertise and resources.
In June, the United Nations reportedthat, for the first time in history, the numberof people displaced from their homesdue to conflict and persecution aloneexceeded 60 million.
“We respond to pretty much everyhumanitarian crisis on the planet,” saidSmith, 60. “There are the really big onesthat get the world’s attention. Thoserange from Syria to the Ebola epidemicto the earthquake in Nepal. Then thereare the smaller ones, like a local foodemergency in one small part of a smallcountry. What’s happening today is thatthere are more crises at the same time.Many of them are more complex thansome in the past, and they’re chronic —they’re lasting longer.”
She speaks from experience.
“We respond to pretty much every humanitarian crisis on the planet,” said USAID’s Gayle Smith (center left) seen here early in her career.
After CU, Smith spent 20 years as ajournalist reporting from Africa, thenjoined the National Security Council(NSC) during the Clinton Administration,focusing on African affairs. She consultedfor the World Bank and UNICEF andheld high-level USAID positions. She’drejoined the NSC when Obama nominatedher for USAID’s top job.
“Gayle’s energy and passion have beeninstrumental in guiding America’s internationaldevelopment policy, respondingto a record number of humanitariancrises worldwide, and ensuring thatdevelopment remains at the forefrontof the national security agenda at a timewhen USAID is more indispensablethan ever,” the president said then.
Sworn in on Dec. 2, Smith assumedleadership of nearly 10,000 employeesin 100 countries, many of them volatileand dangerous.
She grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Mathhad always been a strength, but shemajored in English at CU and eventuallybecame a journalist. While traveling inGreece and Egypt after graduation shegrew interested in international issues.
“The more I saw, the more questions Ihad,” she said, “and the more I wanted togo chase down the answers.”
For the next two decades she hopscotchedacross Africa, reporting onwars, famines, refugees and other issuesas a freelancer. In the early 1990s shewas approached by Clinton’s transitionteam and served as senior director forAfrican affairs at the NSC and as senioradvisor to the administrator and chiefof staff of USAID.
It’s a sunny but not particularly muggyJune day in Washington six monthsinto Smith’s tenure as USAID chief.She’s sitting in her office on the sixthfloor of the Ronald Reagan Building andInternational Trade Center, a gleamingmodern edifice set among neoclassicalbuildings along Pennsylvania Avenue. Acherished photo of her late parents takenin Nova Scotia rests on an end table.Instead of a nameplate on her desk, twosigns face visitors. One says “Girl Boss,”the other “LuGyiMaMa,” which meansthe same in Burmese.
The more I saw, the more questions I had.
Smith had recently returned fromTurkey, where she dropped in on aUSAID Disaster Assistance ResponseTeam (DART) charged, in part, withhelping manage the epic refugeeexodus from Syria. DARTs are theagency’s first unit of response whencatastrophe strikes and typicallyinclude experts in logistics, nutrition,water, sanitation, hygiene, emergencyshelter, plus military advisors.
Historically, USAID has dispatcheda few DART teams every year, but thenumber has been rising. Working on theground with the United Nations andother aid organizations, they can movemoney and import supplies quickly.
“We are the world’s leading donor tohumanitarian crises, and we are almostevery time the first and the fastest torespond, whether it’s a war, an earthquake,or some other epidemic,” she says.
There’s plenty of work ahead forUSAID. Kenya has announced it intendsto close Dadaab. Civil war rages in Syria.Typhoons, drought and, alas, armedconflicts, are inevitable.
When they happen, Smith believespeople remember those who are thereto lend a helping hand: “I have foundthat everywhere I travel, regular people,regardless of the politics of the day, rememberthat it’s America that stands up.”
Top photo:© Thomas Trutsche/Getty Images; Above: Courtesy Gayle Smith