Training and Preparing for a High Threat Environment

Do I understand the USG's objectives and USAID's role in the Afghanistan?  Am I mentally and physically resilient for the stresses of the work, the environment, and the separation from loved ones?  And do I know how to react and respond to events of duress or trauma for the safety and security of myself or my colleagues?

Over the past few weeks, I've been in training specific to address these questions.  USAID and other  agencies invest a considerable amount of resources to prepare their staff for assignments to high threat posts overseas.  A high threat environment is a post where there are risk considerations not present in other conventional posts.

A House bill defines these posts as:

(2) High risk, high threat post.--The term `high risk, high threat post' means a United States diplomatic or consular post, as determined by the Secretary, that, among other factors, is--
``(A) located in a country--
``(i) with high to critical levels of political violence and terrorism; and
``(ii) the government of which lacks the ability or willingness to provide adequate security; and

``(B) with mission physical security platforms that fall below the Department of State's established standards.

The training has been interesting and very engaging.  In some ways, reminiscent to DLI orientation training from before but specifically focused on select countries and with participants on at least their second tours (or much more) overseas.  Training also includes the "Crash Bang" course which was the most hands-on and immersing training I've experienced yet in my Foreign Service career.

A good amount of time has been spent on the topic of resiliency to ensure we are physically and mentally prepared for this type of hardship environment.  This includes having healthy habits and practices to have a successful tour and the plans for maintaining relationships at a distance.  I've known for quite some time Afghanistan would be my ongoing post, but sometimes, particularly when friends and family express their concern, I wonder if I should be more worried than I am.  But we decided on this assignment based on what was best for our family at the time and for the future.  Serving in Afghanistan will definitely be a unique lifetime experience and opportunity seek to make a difference in one of the most impoverished nations in the world.

Here's to the next big adventure.

An extra large dose of Emerson inspiration.

Junior Officer Training

With my DC based assignment coming soon to a close, I'd like to reflect back and explain the training for new FSOs while in Washington.

New FSOs coming in can typically expect a timeline such as:

1. Orientation (5 weeks)
• USAID brings in new Officers in classes.  Classes are composed of a mixture of Officers of various functions (backstops) that the Agency is needing at that point in time.   
• During these 5 weeks, new employees complete administrative paperwork for in-processing and benefits; obtain mandatory briefing on various USAID policies; are introduced to USAID programs, operations, and structure; are briefed on career development and leadership; and are given the opportunity to network and bond with classmates.
• At the end of these 5 weeks, a ceremony is held to "graduate" from orientation.  This is a family and friend event and typically features the Administrator as the keynote speaker.  Before, they used to present overseas assignments at this time, but due to a backlog in the assignment process, that is no longer done.
2. Move to functional office (1 week)
• After the 5 week orientation, Officers spend a week in their home Office of their backstop.  During the time in DC, each new FSO will have a supervisor whom they will report to and work under to obtain on-the-job training (OJT) and familiarity with operations of DC.
3. Consolidated Training (1 week)
• A week away in their home office, the class is brought back together again to receive additional mandatory training.  This includes working across cultures, training on the Automated Directives System (ADS - internal policy and regulations of USAID), and others.
4. Functional Training (~10-16 weeks)

• Each backstop has a plethora courses and training that are specific to them.  Plus, there are additional mandatory trainings on things like Programming Foreign Affairs, Environmental Compliance, etc. that all Officers must take.
5. Language Training (~24 weeks)
• Depending on if you have language ability that can be tested at the required level at the Foreign Service Institute to make tenure and if you are going to language designated position for your assignment, then most Officers spend some time here.  
• I found language training to be a pretty enjoyable experience.  It's great meeting people from all different Agencies and language learning, if one is so inclined, can be fun.
6. OJT/Rotations (It depends but perhaps about 2-4 months)
• Between functional training and before/after language training, then new Officers work in their home offices practicing their trade.  Some people have a mixed experience here depending on their supervisor and the work going on at the time.  It's difficult for the supervisors because if an Officer schedules training so they are gone every other week, then they really can't provide substantial responsibility to be completed and then some DC based personnel view incoming FSOs as too transient to give responsibility.
• Generally, I think it was important plan out trainings to be well spaced apart to give adequate time to integrate to the team and demonstrate capability.  Additionally, this is also the opportunity for Officers to rotate to whichever Bureaus they feel would be beneficial to their experience.  So one could work as an assistant to the desk officer of your assignment country, spend a month learning how to award contracts or grants, or work with one of the bureaus on new program design.
7. Temporary Duty Assignments (TDY)
• In additional to all this, there are also various opportunities for new Officers to take details to different Missions for assignments.  These range from assisting Missions in developing their new long-term strategies, evaluating cooperating countries' financial systems, or reviewing portfolios and compliance of Missions.  Mainly, these assignments must be unique opportunities that could not be obtained in Washington or your onward assignment.  That and budget, of course.  But these opportunities tend to arise more often than one thinks.

The average time most people spend in Washington is probably about a year if they need language training.  But there are some cases where individuals move to their overseas assignment almost immediately.  For me, it will be about a year and a half, but the last few months are mainly just working in Washington until I can replace the person in my onward position.

I feel fortunate that I had a pretty good team to work with in Washington and anticipate being fairly capable when I move on, though I still tend to learn something new every day!  There are also many different people to meet around the home office and you never know when that network could help in the future.

Protocol and U.S. Representation Abroad

Spent my Saturday attending a course at the Foreign Service Institute on the basics of protocol and representation.  It was an interesting class with near 40 people giving up their Saturday.  The majority of the class was made up of representatives from State but there were also a handful of other agencies represented.  I was the only officer there from USAID, as it is a recommended but not mandatory class.

The "protocol" portion is defined as the "set of rules prescribing good manners and customs internationally recognized by diplomats".  Diplomatic protocol, it seems, came about during the Congress of Vienna in 1815 where diplomatic titles were agreed upon as well as general guidelines of protocol (ex. addressing others, introductions, hierarchy, formal entertaining/representational events).  This included fun exercises such as a coffee reception exercise where each person had the objective of making contact with a designated person they did not know; practice introducing another person; and arranging seating for a formal dinner. 

Diplomatic Titles Established by the Congress of Vienna in Use Today

Diplomatic Ranks	Consular Ranks
Ambassador	Consul General
Minister	Consul
Minister-Counselor	Vice Consul
Counselor
Attache (military and civilian)
First Secretary
Second Secretary
Third Secretary

The U.S. Representation portion basically meant the emphasis of good etiquette and the importance of appearance for U.S. officials abroad.  This included basics such as dining etiquette (very much mirroring business dining etiquette) and entertaining others.  I felt some great refreshers were with business card etiquette, RSVPing (always within 48 hours!), working representational events, and the importance of appearance (dress appropriately, be confident).

I felt the class was a pretty good use of time.  It was a good reminder of good etiquette at the very least and I think would be a useful class for anyone, going abroad or not.

As a sidenote, USAID just put up their new website which looks pretty sharp.

Religion in International Relations with Sec. Clinton

Today, morning classes were replaced with a session on the influence of religion in international relations.  This event was hosted by an organization called the Appeal of Conscience Foundation with the FSI.  The Appeal of Conscience Foundation is an interfaith coalition working to increase dialogue and promote understanding among religions.  Evidently, this seminar has been an annual tradition for the past 30 years.  This session was entitled "Resurgence of Religion as a Factor in International Relations.

When I received notice a couple weeks ago that this event would take place, I wasn't sure what to expect or make of it.  The notice only really said "Appeal of Conscience" and I didn't understand what that was referring to and didn't investigate it further.  So when I arrived today to the event, I was greatly surprised to open the program and see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the keynote speaker!  Moving up to the closest front row seat remaining, I eagerly anticipated the program start.

It was actually a very interesting seminar.  Religion plays a very important part of the lives of people who have faith and in order to fully understand the perspectives and situations in other countries, one has to be cognizant of religion.  In terms of fulfilling US objectives overseas regarding promotion of democracy, equality, trade, and many other aspects, religious leaders or the role religion is often very prominent.  Even in countries without official religions like China, religion still plays a major role as that will often will be the source of intolerance or oppression.  So US officials should really understand religion in their country of assignment in order to fully be effective in they reporting, negotiations, and programs.

A message that was often conveyed, even by Sec. Clinton, was that supporting religious freedom and combating intolerance should be on the agenda in every country of assignment.  I very much agree with this as every US foreign policy objective is supported by working with other countries that support openness and discussion.  If every country we worked with was an open and free democracy, US business abroad would be booming and we could expect economic growth for all (with the assumption that open and free democracies lead to economic prosperity).  South Korea was mentioned as case study for this theory.  Being that the peninsula of Korea was a very homogenous society but now has an arbitrary border separating the North and South, the evidence of economic growth in the south supports the theory that democracy is conducive to prosperity.  I suppose the argument could be made that privatization is the key but anyway..

One last point that I like about Clinton is that she has always been a strong advocate for the role of development and USAID in her tenure.  She consistently makes sure to mention the role of development in the US foreign policy strategy and I hope whoever follows her will be equally supportive and knowledgeable.

Following the presentation, I was warming up my lunch and overheard a couple talking about the presentation.  The wife was saying to her husband that she didn't agree with statements by some of the presenters that FSO's join to help humanity abroad.  This got me thinking about motivation.  The motivation to join the Foreign Service.  One's real motivation, not whatever one might have submitted in the Statement of Interest before taking the Oral Assessment.  But that will have to wait for another post.

CFO/OAA Conference

Last week, I was able to make it out for bit to the CFO/OAA joint conference.  Much of the conference was in regard to implementing procurement reform and the USAID Forward initiatives.  It was a very good conference and I was excited to see the initiative still very much alive and progressing.  Many sessions dealt with best practices for implementation as well as brain-storming/sharing sessions on lessons learned in the field and understanding the challenges and roadblocks.

One of the best parts about the conference was the opportunity to meet many of the FSO's from the Missions overseas as well as reunite with colleagues from my DLI class who are already at post.  I had the opportunity to meet colleagues and supervisors whom I will be working with in my onward assignments which is invaluable IMO to be able to meet people in person.

Not sure if another conference will be able to be held next year due to the many government budgetary pressures which is a shame since I think it was so useful.

In other news, a State colleague picked up some fun lapel pins for me from Main State.

Language Training Begins

I started this week at the Foreign Service Institute taking Indonesian.  I'll be attending classes here for the next 6 months (24 weeks) though I'm planning on beating that by testing out in 22 for personal reasons.

I was surprised at the large number of people they had starting classes this week.  I think the number 800 was put out there of students beginning language studies.  That number though includes FSOs, who make up the largest amount of that number, Eligible Family Members (spouses of FSOs, typically from State Dept., who are allowed to learn their post's language), and a handful of DoD and other agencies.

So far, I've been very impressed with the method of instruction and have good expectations for the future.  They push us at an aggressive pace to build our understanding of grammatical construction and vocabulary and the instructors are very personable and knowledgeable.

When contrasting it to my previous experiences in formal language training, I think this is the most impressive.  The teachers seem well-trained and quickly adapt to the needs of the students.  They also prepare much of their language materials and books themselves to specifically address the needs of the Foreign Affairs professionals which they mainly cater to.  I'll need to dedicate lots of time to studying..

The Complexity of Development

International development is a very complicated profession.  Over the past two weeks, interspersed with OTJ training, online training, and formal class instruction, it's really starting to dawn on me the many challenges in the development arena.

Some classes I've attended, in particular, have shown me the complexity of the challenges to come.  In the class for USAID's Project Design Workshop, there are many considerations involved to develop a program that leaves a sustainable, meaningful, lasting impact in the communities in which they are implemented.  I've learned a lot regarding what and how to design a results framework and logical framework.  It's amazing how much thought and planning is necessary!  And that's not even getting to considering the monitoring and evaluation aspects of the program required to really understand whether the development goals of the project are successful.

I also attended a course on Environmental Compliance.  Now, I came into this class especially skeptical of what it would be about because, of course, I figured, our efforts shouldn't pollute or whatever.  However, this viewpoint was greatly corrected as I learned USAID environmental compliance is not just following federal regulations to not break the law, but much, much more.  An environmental analysis for planned projects is actually to examine the big picture of a project and how it might affect the society, the environment, and how it will contribute to the development objectives.

For example, a project to do something like teach farmers in Western Africa to grow cocoa in order to stimulate economic growth would seem fairly harmless and innocuous.  What environmental considerations really need to be considered??  Well....Considerations would have to include where they plan to grow cocoa, how will this affect the mix of the current crops, is there a demand for this crop, is there buy-in/ownership by the receiving community, what pesticides or pest control will be used for the crop (will they need to be trained on how to handle and incorporate the pesticide), how does this affect the land and surrounding area?  And then other considerations like where will this crop be sold, is there infrastructure to transport, how will this program affect the interactions of the community and the families, is there support by the host government and how will they contribute, how might climate change affect the ability to grow this crop in the future, how will this program be sustained after the program ends and no longer receives donor support?  With so many considerations, this original plan to teach cocoa might need to be accompanied with a variety of mitigating activities and may even need a fundamental change to ensure a program's success and sustainability.  You can't do things with a narrow focus and you have to really analyze and consider all variables and possible impacts and work to mitigate risks.  Do all this while potentially facing pressures from the Ambassador, the Mission Director, a General, or Congress to obligate funds and put out results.

Challenging work, indeed.

Getting acquainted with Work

So after 5 weeks of orientation, DLI's are then sent to their assigned functional areas to begin familiarizing themselves with the work of the organization and to obtain some on-the-job training.  Each of my classmates all have related different experiences thus far in the past two weeks ranging from simply taking online training or looking for anything to do to even already becoming a country desk officer.  I think though a lot also depends on a lot of self-initiative and your boss.

My experience has been pretty good.  Since I already had a contracting background, much of the processes and activities are already very familiar.  Last week I was tasked with doing several contract modifications to current contracts in order to revise to add incremental funding (government funding for contracts is only available for effort 18 months in the future at which point additional funding will then need to added).  The only part of this I was unable to do was make the administrative modification in USAID's contract system since I have not yet had the required instructor training and been granted access.  (not really in a rush to get this access and start using it :P)

In between doing these modifications, I have a very intimidating list of online and instructor-taught training classes that I started to work on.  In order for me to obtain my warrant which allows me to sign contracts to obligate funding, I need various trainings and certifications.  

This week, I was assigned a cost analysis to perform on contractor proposals for an RFP for a new effort.  Basically, I read through the proposals and then analyzed whether the costs were reasonable and compared them to what we are wanting in the RFP. Then, I got to make recommendations for the negotiator on what is or is not reasonable, what they should negotiate at, and provide all the justification and information to make that argument.

It's a very time-consuming process but I actually enjoyed it.  I learned a lot about the type of work USAID does as well as how contractor's structure their proposals.  Some of these contractors propose ridiculous rates and salaries that it's unbelievable.  To think they have been taking taxpayer money at some of these rates is crazy.  There so many better places resources could be used than lining the pockets of some of these contractors to better help people and we're going to change that.

On a less work related subject, my DLI class continues to organize social functions and gatherings each week and we all do a decent job of keeping in touch.  Next week, we all get to come back together for a week of "Consolidated Training" where we will all debrief our experiences thus far, share advice, and get additional required training.  An event I'm looking forward to is a field trip to spend the day at the State Department in the "F" Bureau which monitors Foreign Assistance.  I've been in this bubble of USAID and it will be interesting to see the other agencies in which we will need to work with together so closely once out in the field.

DLI-17 with Dep. Admin. Steinberg on our first day of orientation.

The End of Orientation and Orientation Graduation

It's been a busy past two weeks!  Week three included more bureau presentations but also had some great Q&A sessions with Congressional staffers.  It's interesting to hear the perspectives of USAID from those that allocate the budgets.

On that topic, the big government shutdown and potential furlough was avoided.  If the government budget extension was not passed, I would have fallen into the Non-Excluded category meaning basically unpaid time-off.  Historically, Congress has passed a measure to provide backpay to those furloughed, but in this government environment, that would not have been a guaranteed.  So I'm happy things were worked out.  Plus, I really enjoy coming into work everyday :P.

Our class also took a trip to have lunch with the American Foreign Service Association.  It was interesting to hear how the union for the Foreign Service works and what they do.  Since I've never been part of a union, it was nice to learn how they work.  Union dues were fairly nominal and the work they do seems pretty important to me so I elected to join.

The closure to the five-week orientation program also came about.  During the last two weeks, I was able to meet my supervisor and the team which I'll be working with during my period here in Washington before assignments are determined.  The team seems great and I'm anxious to learn the USAID contracting function.  I also feel my prior contracting experience is going to be quite useful in this transition as many of the terms and overview of the types of acquisitions and awards they do are already familiar.

This last Friday was Orientation Graduation.  This past week, I've had my fiancee in town and some family fly in this weekend for the graduation so I've been busy with lots of entertaining and sightseeing but it's been a good time.  Graduation morning began with a very brief welcome by Administrator Shah who quickly had to leave to other meetings.  However, I really appreciated him taking the time to come speak to us.  Our keynote speaker was the most senior Foreign Service Officer of the agency. Instead of giving flags to everyone to indicate our country assignments, they presented certificates and planned to have small "flag days" as the assignments can be determined in the future.  I think the Graduation would have been nice if they had the ability to give us our assignments but they notified us from day one that wouldn't be the case.  All in all though, it was a very nice conclusion to the Orientation and a good transition to training and work.

Tomorrow begins the next phase of the Foreign Service adventure and I'm looking forward to it!

Teamwork?

This week introduced new concepts of America's Foreign Policy.  Particularly, the discussion of the interactions between the various foreign affairs agencies with a focus on the State Department Foreign Service Officers and USAID Foreign Service Officers.

USAID instruction has revolved around Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and how Civilian efforts should take the lead in foreign affairs.  This leads to the USAID Forward strategy which is how USAID will adjust to take the lead in international development.

What was particularly interesting was the culture difference and attitudes between State FSO's and USAID FSO's.  At USAID, the main emphasis for strategy is how to incorporate the different strategies of the military, State (politics), and USAID (long-term relationships abroad and international development goals) into a focused strategy.

We had a panel discussion with a senior State FSO and senior USAID FSO on the 3 D's (Defense, Diplomacy, and Development).  During the Q&A session, a question was asked regarding best ways in the field to encourage the push for long-term relationships and stability (development) in partner countries.  From this the State FSO responded fine at first of the importance in country team meetings to clearly articulate the USAID point of view and how it can benefit the overall embassy strategy.  However, he then further went on to say that everything is very competitive out in the field you'll have to be aggressive and need to step on the backs of others to achieve your mission objectives and advance (get promoted) in the field.  After the panel, our USAID coaches clearly advised that this was not the culture of USAID and that programs or objectives in the field are only achieved through input and cooperation from all our teammates.

The corporate world is pretty competitive but from my experience, doing your job well and playing nice with others seemed to be the best recipe for success.  I'm tending to believe our coaches that the diplomacy world is similar with an even more emphasis on teamwork and relationships.