Andre Natsios (CAS ’71), the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development discussed ways that the U.S. can provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in a speechWednesday in the ICC Auditorium.

USAID is an agency of the federal government which directs global humanitarian and economic assistance. Since his appointment wo months ago, Natsios has headed America’s humanitarian aid effort to Afghanistan.

Kelly Meeker (SFS ’03) introduced Natsios and spoke about his varied and distinguished career. Natsios served as a legislator in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, vice president of World Vision U.S., occupied other positions at USAID, and was a reserve officer in the U.S. army and a Gulf War veteran. He retired in 1995 after 22 years, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was sworn in as administrator of USAID on May 1, 2001.

Meeker said that when Natsios visited Northern Afghanistan earlier this month, he became the first senior U.S. official to enter Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 attacks. He visited the country to evaluate conditions and facilitate the distribution of $120 million in U.S. aid to Afghanistan toward reconstruction. He has made it clear that the major focus of USAID efforts will be on farming, which constitutes 80 percent of the Afghan economy.

Natsios has also worked with countries bordering Afghanistan to encourage them to open bridges and roads leading into Afghanistan so that humanitarian aid can enter the country.

Natsios’ efforts to bring humanitarian aid to Afghanistan in this time of conflict demonstrate the U.S. commitment to protecting and providing for civilians,” Meeker said.

Natsios began by warning the audience that “this is more of a lecture than it is a speech.”

He gave a quick summary of recent Afghan history, noting that the country has been through 22 or 23 years of civil war in which two or three million Afghans have lost their lives. Making the situation worse is the three years of drought the country has endured, Natsios said.

The fact that the Taliban did not allow non-Arab NGOs to aid its people made it hard, until very recently, for westerners to aid the Afghan people, he said.

According to Natsios, 12 million Afghans are affected by drought, six million of which are being fed by USAID. He said, however, that 1.5 million people are at risk of starvation this winter.

The area most at risk, according to Natsios, is the northern highland. In this area herds have died and crops have failed for the past three years. In addition, the area receives heavy snowfall and includes mountain peaks well above 20,000 feet. Harsh weather conditions and low temperatures increase the likelihood of death for those who do not receive enough nutrition.

One sign of the food crisis, according to Natsios, is that Afghan farmers have been eating the 10 percent of their crops which they would normally be saving for the coming year. This indicates that they do not believe they will survive without eating the seed they normally save to plant the following year.

Natsios described the three “enemies” which USAID faces in fighting the Afghan famine. The first listed was communicable disease. He noted that few people actually starve to death in a famine. Rather, Natsios said, immune systems break down before they die of starvation, leaving them prone to epidemics. He noted that scurvy (due to a lack of vitamin C) has been a problem, as has measles, in the deaths of children.

The second leading cause of death Natsios listed was death by starvation.

Death from hypothermia was the final enemy cited by Natsios. He explained that people living in severe climates, such as Afghanistan’s northern highlands, need additional calorie intake or bodies self-consume. Natsios said that USAID has already sent 70 or 80 thousand blankets to Afghanistan to combat this problem, and intends to send around 300,000 in total. He added that USAID is now paying widows in Afghan villages to make much needed winter clothing for children.

USAID is pursuing five main strategies, according to Natsios, who explained that because 85 percent of the food aid to Afghanistan is coming from the United States, the U.S. has great influence in the way food is allocated.

The first strategy is to drive mortality rates down by getting food into Afghanistan quickly and effectively. Natsios noted that even before the famine, 25 percent of children in Afghanistan died before the age of five and that the country’s maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world.

The second strategy is to minimize population movements. Natsios said as soon as people move into temporary dislocation camps, their chances of survival decrease because of the poor sanitation and epidemic diseases usually found in camps during famines.

He said that USAID plans to distribute 30,000 radios to Afghan villages and begin a radio program in the two main Afghan languages telling people to stay in their villages.

Another problem with leaving villages, according to Natsios, is that when people do so, the family structure collapses and young men are often recruited to join militias from displaced person camps.

The third is to stabilize markets. Natsios said that a market-oriented system of intervention, selling food in markets in order to prevent prices from skyrocketing, would help to do this without creating the dependency that food distribution alone does.

Fourth, Natsios said, is security. He explained that small bands of soldiers with guns are roaming Afghanistan and pose a definite security risk for food distributors, which needs to be addressed.

The final strategy is beginning reconstruction. Natsios plans to focus on the reconstruction of the agricultural system, because 50 percent of the country’s irrigation systems have collapsed and farmers need a larger seed supply. This is because many farmers have eaten their seed supply in order to survive. USAID intend to provide seed and help rebuild and fix irrigation and well systems.

Natsios also emphasized the need to rebuild the road system. He said that a project is already underway to build 60 kilometers of roads by supplying Afghans with food in exchange for work.

Finally, Natsios explained that USAID wants to open schools. This is primarily for security and economic, not educational, purposes.

Natsios explained that the majority of Afghan teachers are women, and that when women are paid even a small salary, they generally ensure that their children are fed. By putting a small amount of money in a large number of people’s hands, especially in cities, USAID intends to get the economy moving, improve child nutrition and get kids off of the streets.

The speech was followed by an extensive question and answer session.

Natsios waxed nostalgic about Georgetown, mentioning that he had lived in New North his first year on the Hilltop and New South his second year, and that the ICC building, where he was speaking, had not yet been built when he attended Georgetown. He remembered the area where ICC now stands as a muddy hill.

His son is now a sophomore in the College.