The Best Move He Ever Made

Andrew Natsios MPA 1979

Surrounded by special forces, Andrew Natsios MPA 1979 touched ground a mere 10 kilometers from Taliban enemy lines when he arrived in Afghanistan in November. Natsios, administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), was the first American official to arrive in Afghanistan following the September 11 disaster, and while only in Afghanistan for two hours, this 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army Reserves who served in the Gulf War remembers vividly just how tense the situation was. “The security people were nervous because we were there just as the Taliban were collapsing in Kunduz. They say you could hear the bombing at night.”

Natsios, with 12 years of work in international development under his belt, says every famine has details that distinguish it from other emergencies. Two wars against the Soviet Union and two civil wars exacerbated the situation in Afghanistan, where relief workers had to contend with ethnic hatreds and 18 to 30 inches of snow on the Hindu Kush mountain range. “That is nothing like I’ve had to deal with.

“It makes it more difficult that a war is going on where the United States is on one side,” says Natsios. “When you’re asked to deliver humanitarian assistance, it makes it harder. It causes all sorts of policy and ethical dilemmas.”

But the United States, the largest aid donor to Afghanistan last year, has had a long-term commitment to Afghanistan’s development. When the aftermath of September 11 precipitated more aid, President Bush nearly doubled the amount of aid, from $174 to $320 million, which forced USAID to break with its normal policy of using only American goods in aid shipments. “It usually takes three to four months to distribute food, and this area is landlocked, very difficult to get to. Purchasing local goods would prevent widespread famine death and accomplish the president’s program,” says Natsios.

A Massachusetts state representative while he was a student at the Kennedy School, Natsios never dreamed he’d end up working in international development. He was asked to “just do it for a few months.” Then they’d move him someplace else. “But it was the best move I ever made,” he says. “The most interesting jobs I’ve held are ones I didn’t ask for.

“It’s like stepping into an entirely different world,” he says of his time in countries ranging from Kenya and Mozambique to North Korea and Somalia. “What bothers me most are the conditions of the children,” says Natsios. But this optimist has seen hope, even in the poorest of countries. He recalls a time in Mozambique when three million people died through starvation. Now Mozambique has one of the best functioning cabinets in Africa, and economic development reform has had a profound impact on the creation of a strong free economy.

Natsios is well aware that other countries look to the United States to take the lead on international development. “Even if they don’t want to admit that,” he says. “But all the Kennedy School graduates, all the money, all the big publicity won’t work well without local leadership. We also need to be a little humble about the limits on our ability to work abroad. Should we do it? Absolutely. We should understand that while American leadership is important, leadership in those countries is more important. The sustainability of reform should always be on our minds.”

— Aine Cryts