Shake up foreign aid, but don’t shoot it down

OPINION:

President Trump closed the U.S. Agency for International Development and ordered a review of all foreign aid programs to ensure they were consistent with his “America First” foreign policy. However, in today’s interconnected, competitive and strife-torn world, Mr. Trump should take this opportunity to increase, not decrease, U.S. engagement with other countries through reformed aid to keep America safe and prosperous. An obscure part of U.S. foreign policy I have participated in for the past 25 years reveals the benefits to America far beyond its focus: combating global nature crime.

For several decades, the U.S. has supported less-developed countries in reducing the illicit trade in wildlife, timber and fish. For 11 years, I was a “chief of party” of a USAID program in Asia that established government policies and networks to confront rampant poaching and trafficking. For 25 years, my staff and I led complementary State Department and Fish and Wildlife Service projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America to establish task forces to implement policies countering nature crimes.

We and other U.S. grantees have been doing more than saving animals, trees and coral reefs in faraway lands. We’ve been helping governments (including the U.S.) locate, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal rings that are raking in more than $20 billion a year on wildlife trafficking and more than $300 billion annually when we add illegal logging and fishing.

These criminal rings are getting stronger with nature crime profits and are expanding into human, drug and arms trafficking. They have links into the U.S. and are laundering hundreds of millions of dollars.

They also target American wildlife (bears, sturgeon, eagles and more). The task forces we’ve formed and trained in poorer countries to stop these crooks are getting better at stopping all illegal trade. Improved detection at foreign ports undermines piracy and smuggling, providing a fairer footing for U.S. exports.

We’re preventing pandemics. We help rangers stop illegal logging and border police stop shipments of “high-risk” species, both of which mitigate zoonotic outbreaks often sparked by wildlife trade and destruction of wildlife habitats. We’re attacking another big disease: corruption. Officers getting our support delivered under the U.S. flag remember who helped them as they climbed their career ladders and became good allies.

When Mr. Trump’s freeze hit, we were convening carefully selected law enforcement officers in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America to share intelligence on global criminal rings that threaten people, economies and natural resources in all our countries. When we convened officers on earlier occasions, they arrested dozens of criminals. They seized millions of dollars in illicit assets in places such as Thailand, South Africa and Argentina with links to the United States that remain under investigation. The impacts still reverberate. We have seen critically endangered species, such as tigers, rhinos, elephants and jaguars, starting to make comebacks while witnessing better international law enforcement cooperation to fight transboundary crime. We need to get back to work.

Shouldn’t these governments be doing this work alone, one might ask? Yes, and they are doing more than before, thanks to programs designed to wean (not suddenly cut) partners off the U.S. dime. But many governments remain poor, so good officers can keep pace with sophisticated crime groups only through advanced training, technology and travel support, which we provide (along with our watchful eyes to protect them from corruption). It will be another five to 10 years before some countries can front their nature protection and counter-mafia programs without help. Meanwhile, U.S. assistance has been paying off at a negligible cost to U.S. taxpayers.

That is where reform is needed. U.S.-sponsored programs run by front-line groups are not expensive; they cost $50,000 to $2 million over several years.

Over the past 10 years, I’ve witnessed more USAID funding being channeled to large development companies with good technical experts. These companies capably file onerous reports but pocket 50% to 70% of the contracts, ranging from $25 million to $100 million. Why so much? Well, they are profit-making companies, for one thing, but they also must hire people who understand the long list of regulations accompanying each contract.

I learned that this five-star approach to managing USAID contracts was happening across development sectors. It was not always like that. A former USAID administrator, Rajiv Shah, had a policy called Forward Reform. He moved the agency’s funds to front-line groups like ours, which required less money because we charged 5% to 10% for overheads and trained local staff to run most operations — and we got more done.

Then, the development sector lobbied Congress to change the rules back in their favor, and the gravy train resumed. Three important things to note here:

1. It was not a partisan thing. Development mercenaries profited under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Republicans dominated the call for stronger international wildlife protection.

2. USAID (and other agencies) have onerous reporting because their donor, Congress, dictates it by piling on spending rules every year.

3. It’s not endemic. Most agencies, such as the State Department and Fish and Wildlife Service, have consistently invested in front-line organizations.

So USAID needed a shake-up, not a bullet in the head. Apply some new version of Forward Reform, ask Congress to go easy on its reporting and compliance strings, and recognize that many U.S. agencies effectively channel support. If we can save time, money and lives through international nature protection programs, imagine the positive impacts that humanitarian, security and health programs will have.

All these issues are connected, as is the United States with the rest of the world. The sooner we lift the freeze, coupled with reform, the better and longer we can keep America safe and prosperous.

• Steven R. Galster is the founder and chairman of Freeland, a U.S. nonprofit that works globally to counter the trafficking of wildlife and people, www.freeland.org.