The Foreign Service Journal, June 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2022 17 USAID Names a Chief Diversity Officer O n March 14, USAID announced its new Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility and appointed Neneh Diallo as chief diver- sity officer. Reporting directly to Administra- tor Samantha Power, Diallo will lead USAID’s efforts to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the agency’s workplace and programs. Diallo began her federal career at the Millennium Challenge Corpora- tion, where she directed public affairs campaigns and served as the corpora- tion’s director of diversity and inclusion, developing a five-year diversity and inclusion plan. Most recently, she served as senior vice president for marketing and communications at pocstock, a global Black-owned media platform that seeks to increase diversity and representation in stock media. At Diallo’s swearing-in ceremony on March 16, Administrator Power spoke of the importance of elevating diversity at USAID: “If we want an agency that reflects the best of what America has to offer—all our dynamism, all our fresh perspectives, all our best thinking—then we must prioritize the hiring and reten- tion of staff that look like America.” In an April 19 interview, Diallo told news program “Government Matters” that USAID is making data-backed improvements and undergoing a barrier analysis to determine where it might be deficient in its diversity efforts. USAID aims to be more intentional with hiring from underserved populations, she said, and is focusing on inclusive develop- ment to ensure the agency’s work is reaching the right people around the world. New Risk Management Regs I n February, the Enterprise Governance Board released updates to the State Department’s risk management policy and principles, spelled out in new regula- tions in the Foreign Affairs Manual (2 FAM 030). The principles outlined there include: being risk aware but not risk averse; determining risk tolerance at the appro- priate leadership level; applying risk management holistically and continu- ously; considering the risk of inaction; and including risk statements in policy documents. The EGB serves as the department’s enterprise risk management council and includes Deputy Secretary Wendy Sher- man, Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources Brian McKeon and all under secretaries. In a letter sent to department staff April 18, Deputy Secretary McKeon noted: “The work we do at the Depart- ment of State … requires us to take smart, considered risks to innovate and achieve mission success. As the Secretary has said, ‘A world of zero risk is not a world in which American diplomacy can deliver.’ We must be risk aware, not risk averse.” The topic of risk management has featured often in this magazine; in the March 2021 FSJ , Ambassador (ret.) Ron- ald Neumann and FSO (ret.) Greg Starr discussed how risk aversion undermines diplomats’ abilities to do their jobs in their article, “Changing a Risk-Averse Paradigm at High-Threat Posts Abroad. ” They proposed several areas for change, stating that the department must identify best practices and new tech- niques on how to operate in high-threat locations, and that the culture of risk aversion in foreign affairs agencies must be addressed. Though the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility was created this spring, it’s not the first office of its kind at USAID. The agen cy’s Office of Civil Rights and Diversity had long been led by a director who served as both equal employment opportunity official and USAID’s chief diversity officer. A June 2020 report by the Govern- ment Accountability Office found that OCRD was understaffed and had achieved “mixed progress” in increas- ing diversity. That office was reorga- nized in February 2022 and renamed the Office of Civil Rights. Some employees have expressed concern that this new chief diversity officer position was not filled by a career USAID person, a step that would have both affirmed the Biden-Harris administration’s support for career federal employees and helped institu- tionalize the new office and role for the long term. In an interview with Government Executive on April 21, Diallo said OCR would continue to help advance DEIA objectives and implement the agency’s equal opportunity responsibilities, including affirmative employment and disability employment. “We’re going to be expanding our DEIA advisors across the agency at the bureau and independent office levels,” Diallo said, “which, together with existing DEIA councils, will help us further activate the network of the DEIA champions and innovators that we have across the agency.” To date, USAID has been challenged to produce timely, accurate DEIA data on its U.S. direct-hire employees (FS and GS), as well as its more opaque personal service contractor and institu- tional support contractor workforce.