The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

36 JULY-AUGUST 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL volunteer diversity councils in WHA were tackling this hard con- versation and seeking to value differences, not just similarities. I knew we had to make a strategic national security case for equity as part of our foreign policy and a business case for DEIA in our workforce. I knew we had to measure progress. I knew we would make mistakes. I knew some changes would be unpopular. I also knew that the COVID-19 pandemic had delivered dis- proportionate tragedy to the people of the Americas, eroding con- fidence in leaders’ ability to deliver and accelerating the demand for more equal, inclusive societies. We had an opportunity on the ground and a clear policy mandate from the top. On his first day in office, President Biden signed Executive Order (EO) 13985 mandating all federal agencies to advance racial equity and sup- port for underserved communities. Six months later, he issued EO 14035 on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce. Racial equity and DEIA were top priorities for the Secretary of State and for several members of Congress. In November 2021 testimony on U.S. policy on democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Assistant Secretary Nichols summed up the challenge: “Close the gap between democracy’s promise and its reality.” He directed the bureau to leverage our diplomatic, information, and economic influence to help build a more equi- table, inclusive region in partnership with democracies. What did we learn during the first years of our efforts on both the internal workforce and foreign policy fronts? As James Baldwin wrote: “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” I offer 10 difficult truths frommy experience in WHA that must be faced before change will take hold. Moving the DEIA Needle in General Difficult Truth #1: The State Department is still at the “facing DEIA” stage, figuring out how to consider race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and disability as more than EEO categories, and how to engage with other countries on racial equity when our own historical record is so poor. This will require more specificity with vocabulary and clarity as to the results we seek fromDEIA in the workforce and from external foreign affairs equity work. Difficult Truth #2: An underfunded policy applied per- sistently can produce some change but is unlikely to create a generational commitment or systemic change. Thus far, the State Department has dedicated relatively few resources to DEIA and equity. In WHA we used existing resources to enhance outreach to marginalized communities, embed equity considerations, and further DEIA via public diplomacy programs, economic support fund projects, training, high-level dialogues, and more. Difficult Truth #3: Identifying and breaking down structural and cultural barriers to inclusion require expertise and con- centrated time. Disproportionately, women and people of color have led the charge on DEIA councils and on the State Depart- ment’s Equity Action Plan and DEIA Strategic Plan. They do this in addition to their full-time jobs, and many are exhausted. Some bureaus have hired DEIA experts, but the bureaucratic inertia to creating high-level DEIA or equity expert positions weakens implementation. The addition of DEIA into the Foreign Service precepts for promotion critically increased the number of people engaged on DEIA and racial equity, but didn’t neces- sarily add needed technical expertise. Advancing Equity in Our Foreign Policy WHA had already built a strong foundation for advancing racial and gender equity in our foreign policy. Established more than a decade ago, WHA’s Race, Ethnicity, and Social Inclu- sion (RESI) Unit pioneered the department’s only bilateral RESI agreements with Colombia, Brazil, and Uruguay. For many years, USAID, public diplomacy, and human rights programs and staff in the Americas have focused on engaging with and promoting opportunities for marginalized communities, such as access to education and health care, entrepreneurship, and civil society empowerment. It is, of course, important to avoid the politicization of these issues, which leads to polarization and reinforcement of the status quo. Since 2021, WHA has reinvigorated the existing bilateral RESI agreements and worked on new ones such as the North Ameri- can Partnership for Equity and Racial Justice with Canada and Mexico (2021) and a new DEIA Memorandum of Understand- ing with Chile (2022). WHA recommitted to working with the Dominican Republic on ending statelessness there. When the U.S. hosted the Ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June 2022 under the theme “Building a Sus- tainable, Resilient, and Equitable Future,” our team negoti- ated action plans in which the heads of state and government pledged “increased attention with respect to members of groups that have been historically marginalized, discriminated against, Identifying and breaking down structural and cultural barriers to inclusion require expertise and concentrated time.