The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

40 MAY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Short-term consulting gigs with USAID made for a gratifying transition to full retirement for this FSO. BY CHARL ES L L EWE L LYN Setting Sail Life after USAID Charles E. Llewellyn III joined USAID in 1988 as a health and population officer and served overseas in Bolivia, Ghana, Nepal, Bangladesh and Tanzania, in addition to assignments in USAID’s Global Health Bureau and Asia Near East Bureau. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2010 to Beaufort, North Carolina. His daugh- ter, Bronwyn, a Foreign Service officer with USAID, continues the Llewellyn family tradition. FOCUS ON LIFE AFTER THE FOREIGN SERVICE O ne of the benefits of a career in the U.S. Foreign Service is the possibility of early retirement with a federal pension, allow- ing one to pursue a second career or latent dreams. As a USAID health and population officer, I experienced highs and lows. The upside was truly making a difference by working with incredible colleagues to improve the health status of citizens and building the skills of host nationals to develop stronger health systems. There were also trying times working under policies and admin- istrations not in line with my views about development. Some- times I was tempted to resign in protest, but the threat of losing my pension was enough to nudge my cost-benefit calculation in favor of sticking it out to fight the good fight from within instead of running away. Let me share my journey. b I joined USAID relatively late, at age 35, and served in five missions in South America, Africa and South Asia. While I loved my job, my last two tours took their toll on my health. I was the director of USAID Bangladesh’s Population, Health and Nutri- tion Office from 2000 to 2005, including managing the agency’s largest family planning program. I had extended a fifth year to allow my son to graduate from the American International School in Dhaka, and in the last year had the responsibility to report to Congress in 2004 the first-ever violation of the U.S. government’s Mexico City policy that had been reinstated in 2001. The restriction on U.S. federal funding for NGOs that provide abortion counseling or services made continued support of cer- tain organizations offering family planning in Bangladesh very challenging, but was a part of our job. However, the administra- tion’s response to the notification of the violation was extreme and totally consumed our office for a whole year, causing great stress to the program, our staff and to myself. My next posting was as director of the Health and Popula- tion Office in Tanzania. We had a small $12 million portfolio of child survival and family planning activities because the HIV/ AIDS program was managed by a separate office. Between the time I was appointed, and arrived at post in late 2005, it was announced that Tanzania was designated one of the first three