White House Shifts Gears on AID Agenda

While the Bush Administration was the bete noire of the 1992 U.N. environmental summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Clinton Administration shifted gears in 1993.

“We now see the sustainable development initiative as the cutting edge of preventive diplomacy,” said Brian Atwood, the new administrator of the Agency for International Development (AID).

AID still has $8 billion worth of traditional projects in the pipeline, but the centerpiece of a revamped and smaller new agenda are 50 missions focusing on sustainability.

The new AID programs include microenterprises in Asia, integrated tree-planting and women’s empowerment programs in Africa and an unusual project this year in Jamaica. After AID-funded training on family planning and AIDS, drivers from a local brewery there will sell condoms and educate owners, clients and prostitutes in bars where they deliver beer.