The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 39 overseas, and expected political and economic consequences to affected regions. Through the co-chairmanship of OES and MED, the working group also helps ensure that critical operations and management issues are integrated into policy decision-making. The PHWG formalizes another best practice learned during previous outbreaks: it maintains a network of contacts embedded throughout the State Department to facilitate rapid information sharing and to feed analysis across State’s broad equities into the U.S. government policymaking process. Regular meetings of this group provide a forum to resolve ongoing public health crisis management challenges and to flex the department’s coordina- tion muscles before an outbreak occurs. Mirroring these efforts within the department, the Pandemic Response Team also develops and maintains strong working relations with interagency counterparts (including the National Security Council, CDC, USAID, Department of Defense, Depart- ment of Transportation and Department of Homeland Security), as well as with key allies and the World Health Organization, to support its three mission areas. These working relationships are essential to preparedness training, as well as better communica- tion, coordination and transparency during an emergency. Through these relationships, the Pandemic Response Team monitors global disease outbreaks and local responses to pro- vide senior officials with an early warning when outbreaks may require a U.S. or international response. The team also leverages these relationships to support State’s Bureau of International Organizations in encouraging and monitoring efforts to reform WHO’s emergency response capabilities. More Work Needed The State Department has made demonstrable progress in acting on the lessons learned during the last decade, and there is tremendous opportunity for the new leadership to bolster these achievements. In particular, with stronger structures now in place, the department should take a closer look at the human capital and processes within those structures. • First, networks need to be encouraged at all working levels. The State Department excels at building relationships that bear fruit months or even years down the road, and this is a unique asset that both our Foreign Service and Civil Service colleagues can offer the interagency in times of crisis. Contacts developed with the international health community during the avian influenza effort paid dividends during the Ebola crisis, and Ebola contacts greatly facilitated the response to Zika. Cooperation on Ebola was facilitated by relationships devel- oped among State, USAID, DoD and World Food Programme offi- cials during earlier service together in Nepal. Personal relation- ships, developed over years of working together, greatly assist in breaking down the normal barriers to interagency and interna- tional efforts. These networks may develop organically, but they can also be encouraged through trainings and exercises. • Second, State should maintain a roster of current and retired ambassadors with strong management and team-building skills, who can be called on to head a separate coordination office when the highest level of departmental response becomes necessary. The ambassadorial title is invaluable in interagency and interna- tional arenas during a complex public health and humanitarian crisis such as Ebola, and the need for strong organizational skills far outweighs the need for scientific or health credentials, which should be supplied by other members of the team. Seasoned career ambassadors also bring critical personal rela- tionships to the table. During the Ebola outbreak, for example, Ambassadors Deborah Malac and LindaThomas-Greenfield leveraged personal relationships with Liberia’s senior leaders to enhance our ability to support the government and secure its support for our assistance effort. To date, the department’s response to outbreaks has been largely ad hoc, as evidenced by the hodgepodge of “task force” models that have been established. Nicolette Louissaint (left), Gwen Tobert (center) and Robert Sorenson, the three core staff of the Ebola Coordination Unit, at a February 2015 event where President Barack Obama honored those leading the Ebola response effort. COURTESYOFGWENTOBERT