The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

A F S A N E W S 2010 AFSA CONSTRUCTIVE DISSENT AWARD WINNERS Y ou could say that Dr. Diana Briton Putman grew up in the African bush. The daughter of a development work- er specializing in livestock, Putman spent her childhood with the Tuareg people in what is now Burkina Faso and Niger, and later with the Maasai in Tanzania. Her early curiosity about how societies live, and how they can be improved, has never left her. As director for humanitarian and health activities for the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Putman is able to put her consid- erable talents to good use toward a region she understands well. It was for the people of that region, particularly for the many women who have been the victims of violent sexual crimes, that Putman challenged the entire hierarchy at the U.S. African Com- mand last year over its proposed interventions in the area of sexu- al and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Putman had greeted the news of Hillary RodhamClinton’s appointment as Secretary of State with elation. Long a proponent of women’s rights, she knew that the new Secretary had global women’s issues very much at heart. Indeed, at his initial meeting with AFRICOMCommander General William “Kip”Ward in June 2009, State Department Assistant Secretary for Africa Jonnie Carson announced that Sec. Clinton was committed to finding solutions to the problems of SGBV in the DRC. As a result of this meeting, Gen. Ward, before returning to Stuttgart, suggested that AFRICOM and Special Forces Africa come up with some sort of arrangement that would provide medical treatment interventions. As Ambassador Anthony Holmes, who nominated Putman for the Rivkin Award, explains, “A request ‘to look into the matter’ from a four-star general at a U.S. military joint command translates as ‘do something’ in the minds of his subordinates.” The result was a proposal to undertake several short medical engagements in the DRC to provide fistula repairs for SGBV survivors.” (A fistula is a permanent abnormal passageway in the body. In the DRC, reproductive fistulas occur due to complications in childbirth or violent sexual assault. Women or girls suffering this affliction are usually ostracized.) Another proposal tasked military with providing psychosocial counseling for SGBV survivors. Dr. Putman, the only USAID development profes- sional at AFRICOM at the time, was approached to see if she could provide funding. “There was no capability anywhere within the U.S. armed forces to do fistula repair,” Putman remembers. “And several of us made the case that psychosocial counseling across linguistic and cultural barriers, and for one or two weeks at a time—by people who understood nothing about Africa—was not sensible.” When Putman moved higher up in the ranks to make her arguments, she continued to meet with resistance. She wondered how “to turn around a system that had understood medical engagements to be what Amb. Carson requested.” She convinced the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to allocate additional funds to allow her to propose an alternative: humanitarian assistance to construct or rehabilitate infrastructure used by the government of the DRC or nongovernmental organi- zations to provide health, legal, psychosocial counseling or voca- tional training to SGBV survivors. Although her superiors at post could see the merit of her ideas, they still did not want to go against what they took to be a direc- tive from the AFRICOM commander. Putman saw only one course left: to go all the way up the hier- archy to Gen. Ward himself. At the next senior staff meeting at which he was present, she stood up and explained her position. The general asked a lot of questions about her proposal, but ultimately appeared satisfied with the alternative plan. Commander Bob “Major” Barbee lauds Putman for her “unique perspective ... that comes from her extensive field work of more than 20 years.” Richard “Carl” Paschall, for- eign policy adviser to the Commander, Special Operations Command – Africa, points to Putman’s ability “to bridge the differences between the military and the development/diplomatic cultures.” “Dr. Putman was willing to go public with her dissent and offer a constructive alternative,” says Holmes. “The peer and cul- tural pressures in a military context against doing this are formi- dable, indeed.” ❏ GeneralWilliam“Kip”Ward, Commander U.S. Africa Command, andDiana B. Putman at the Kelley Club in Stuttgart, May 6. Putmanwith her husband, Dr. AdamMesser, Stuttgart, May 6. LTC STEVE PARKER. LTC STEVE PARKER. J U L Y - A UGU S T 2 0 1 0 / F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L 65 William R. Rivkin Award FOR A MID-LEVEL FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER Dr. Diana Briton Putman