New USAID-Ethiopia head appointed – Capital

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the top aid donor that funds various projects in Ethiopia, gets a new chief, Capital learnt.

Tom Staal, a veteran career US diplomat, is appointed as the new USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director and is expected to arrive in Addis Ababa late June to assume his position.

Stall’s appointment replaces Glenn Anders, a former mission director who left Ethiopia early this month after nearly three years in the position. While Anders will retire in just six months times, Stall will assume the role of managing US aids and cooperation projects in Ethiopia which has recently reached one billion dollars.

Anders is one of the US diplomats who strongly voiced concerns to the latest CSOs bill during various stakeholders’ meetings. “We don’t know yet how the implementation of the law will work out,” he had commented to Capital after the passage of the controversial legislation, also showing optimism that the implementation would not affect ongoing USAID projects much.

Anders had called on the federal government to look at NGOs more positively. “Instead of seeing them as a sign of dependency and threat, the Federal Government and the party’s leadership could see NGOs as valuable partners. We have many NGOs in the US which help us with our city problems, and in remote areas where the government is not able to reach. That was a debate I have had almost since I have arrived here,” Anders was quoted in one of his last interviews before departing on April 4.

In his latest quarterly briefing held late in February, US Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto had explained that the US still expects NGO that receive funds from the US to be considered as local NGOs.

“Over 60-70% of the assistance we provide to Ethiopia is given through CSOs and NGOs. The money we give them exceeds the 10%, so are they considered foreign? Or are they considered domestic? We consider them domestic because they are Ethiopian run,” Yamamoto had said.

Staal, the coming USAID boss, will take on the challenge to both adhere to the law and keep assistance projects running.

Staal’s public profile in USAID outlets explains that he is quite familiar with USAID missions in Africa. He worked for the agency since 1988, beginning in Sudan as an Emergency Program Officer. In the early 1990s he worked in the USAID regional office in Kenya, managing food aid and doing project development throughout eastern and southern Africa. Lately he worked in USAID Iraq.

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