PHM-Exch> Paul Farmer to join Obama administration?

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Ted Schrecker tschrecker at sympatico.ca



Paul Farmer Joining the Obama/Clinton Team? We Can Hope...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-kavanagh/paul-farmer-joining-the-o_b_205360.html

In Washington, change can be slow, difficult work or it can come
swiftly when smart leadership and circumstances converge. The
financial crisis has shown just how quickly as sweeping changes to the
US economy--for better or worse--came through quick, far-reaching
actions by the Treasury department.

This year Congress and the administration have signaled their
intention to overhaul US foreign assistance. I've thus far been deeply
skeptical--worried that the process would be long, slow, and fail to
change the paradigm of US-funded development programs (which too often
fail to serve their purposes of lifting people out of poverty and
improving health and education).

But the Obama administration is reportedly on the brink of what could
be a truly game-changing appointment. Friday the Boston Globe reported
that Dr. Paul Farmer, the McArthur "Genius Award" winning physician
and visionary global health pioneer, is being considered to direct
foreign assistance within the administration. The rumors seem to be
true and he seems to have a great deal of support within the
administration--and that reality says a lot about the boldness of
Obama White House and Clinton State Department. It could go a long way
toward healing some of the deep frustration over the 2010 budget.

Dr. Farmer would be a truly inspired choice. He has dedicated his life
to providing healthcare and a higher standard of living to some of the
world's most impoverished populations. He is a visionary thinker, a
bold advocate who has challenged policy-makers, and an expert in
international development who has shown he knows how to transform the
way we fight systemic poverty. I hope he can be convinced to come to
Washington.

For those less familiar with him, Paul Farmer founded Partners in
Health over twenty years ago and he and the organization quickly rose
to prominence by going against most every convention when it comes to
providing for the health of impoverished people. Instead of providing
poor-people medicine, Dr. Farmer has worked to provide world-class
care in places like Haiti, Rwanda, the former Soviet Union, and Peru--
pioneering AIDS treatment in resource-poor settings when many said it
could not be done, providing child-health programs that looked at the
whole child, and providing mothers and women with health services in
communities that had never seen it.

Even more critical for his potential new job, though, has been Dr.
Farmer's revolutionary understanding of just what's included in
"health." Paul Farmer and his team have extended their commitment to
life-changing services far beyond doctors and medicine to include
food, water, shelter and education. Partners in Health has worked with
the World Food Program to distribute food to thousands. They have
worked to install clean water systems for communities, started schools
and education centers, and build simple, decent homes for hundreds of
rural families in places like rural Haiti. They have simultaneously
helped respond to emergencies like hurricanes and build strong long-
term systems.

In short, Paul Farmer has shown that with commitment and smart use of
resources, international development programs can work--can change
lives and make human rights into human realities.

The US Agency for International Development and other US development
initiatives are very much in need of this kind of vision. Mired in
bureaucracy and political calculations, these institutions are too
often serving a myriad of interests but failing to truly address the
needs of those the programs purport to help. The successes--
initiatives like US-supported AIDS programs (which are in need of
change themselves)--succeed when they are focused on clear, measurable
outcomes judged in services provided and lives saved rather than
dollars out the door. This is the kind of vision Farmer has helped
build.

With Congress set to re-write the US Foreign Assistance Act, this year
offers a once-in-a-generation kind of opportunity to actually re-vamp
our development aid. Only bold, visionary leadership will enable this
process to rise above narrow interests to focus on outcomes for
impoverished people and fighting destabilizing global poverty.

With Dr. Farmer, President Obama and Secretary Clinton may just have
found the person who could lead the kind of sweeping change to
Washington that they have so often promised. If they can convince him
to come to DC, they will have shown the kind of political courage and
commitment to bold leadership on international development I worried I
wouldn't see.

Millions around the world have been holding their breath to see the
direction of his administration's foreign aid policy as their lives
literally depend on it. If this Dr. Farmer's appointment comes to
fruition it will be a bold signal that the administration is serious.
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