The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

T he fourth annual survey of USAID membership has yielded valuable information not only for AFSA but for USAIDmanagement and others involved in international development. We hope that our new Administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, will use these results to make well-informed decisions about our organizational and personnel needs. MoreWashington-based officers responded this year: 32 per- cent, compared to 21 percent in 2007 and 28 percent in 2008. This is most likely the result of the employment surge of in- coming Development Leadership Initiative officers. The largest response rate (36 percent) was from officers at the FS-4 rank and below. Equalizing benefits among all foreign affairs agencies is the top priority favored by 59 percent of respondents (see p. 56). While the gap between State and USAID benefits is closing, we realize there are still areas that need attention and will continue our negotiations with the agency. This includes such things as the Difficult to Staff Differential and language training for spouses. The top priority in previous surveys was always overseas comparability pay. As you know, AFSA was successful in help- ing convince Congress to phase in this benefit over a three-year period, starting with a 7.7-percent increase that is showing up in your paychecks this fiscal year. Currently, 58 percent of mem- bers surveyed request that AFSA continue lobbying for full im- plementation of overseas comparability pay. After a long battle by AFSA and other organizations, same- sex partners of FSOs are now receiving key benefits. Still, 60 percent of respondents want AFSA to continue to lobby for ad- ditional same-sex partner benefits. (Predictably, we also heard from unmarried opposite-sex couples who want us to help them obtain benefits, as well.) We also received comments ex- pressing a great need for improvedmaternity/paternity benefits. The regulations currently in use force many FS employees into financial hardships unique to overseas service. Regarding agency management, the Human Resources Of- fice continues its downward spiral. In the 2007 survey, 24 per- W hat do you do when you and your col- leagues are barricaded behind steel gates, with a mob of several hundred agitated and possibly armed students threaten- ing you? If you’re John Limbert, you go out and try to reason with them. When that fails, you spend 444 days as a hostage and live to tell the tale. The year was 1979, the students were Iranian, and the workplace-turned-prison was Embassy Tehran. And the tale that Ambassador John Lim- bert has told, 30 years later, is detailed in his book, Negotiating with Iran:Wrestling the Ghosts of His- tory , newly published by the United States Insti- tute of Peace. On Jan. 26, Limbert, who recently returned to the State Department as deputy assistant secre- tary for Iran, was the featured author at a book- signing hosted byAFSA. As a former ambassador to Mauritania and a past AFSA president, Lim- bert believes deeply in the importance of AFSA’s mission. AFSA Executive Director Ian Houston gave a warmwelcome to the large and diverse audience, followed by AFSA President Susan Johnson, who introduced Amb. Limbert. Limbert spoke can- didly of both a policy failure (bringing the de- posed shah to the U.S. for medical treatment, which greatly increased anti-American sentiment in Iran), and what he calls a personal failure: not being able to successfully“talk down”the student A P R I L 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 49 American Foreign Service Association • April 2010 AFSA NEWS USAID AFSA Members Survey Results Morale and Independence Are Key Concerns BY USAID VP FRANCISCO ZAMORA Continued on page 56 Continued on page 59 Amb. John Limbert speaks at AFSA HQ on Jan. 26. FRANCESCA KELLY Iran and the Ghosts of History Limbert Draws Capacity Crowd at Book Signing BY FRANCESCA KELLY