Remarks Prepared for Delivery by Brad Minnick Director, Office of International Visitors U.S. Department of State 2008 NCIV Western Regional Meeting Reno, Nevada June 12, 2008
Good morning. It is both an honor and a pleasure to be back in the Littlest City in the World, Reno, Nevada for this Western Regional Meeting. Thank you Carina Black, Rebecca and everyone at the Northern Nevada International Council for your outstanding hospitality and for all that you have done to make us feel welcome and right at home here. Let me also say thank you to Sherry Mueller, Mark Rebstock and their team at NCIV, for the wonderful job they have done organizing this meeting and the exceptional work that they do all year long. And a most sincere and heartfelt thank you to Carmen Marrero, Marcie Cossa , Ella Butler, Erica Ginsberg, Robin Neilson and Ava Smith from my office, for their many contributions to the success of this meeting. Just a couple of weeks from now I will celebrate the one year anniversary of my appointment as Director of the Office of International Visitors, and what a year it has been.
Last week alone we had 129 visitors here in the US on 19 projects. This included 12 government, NGO, and community leaders from across Africa looking at “Conflict Resolution,” six Turks studying “Energy Management and Security,” three South Koreans observing “Grassroots Democracy, 5 Russians investigating how we deal with Port Security, 13 visitors from South and Central Asia focusing on “Water Resource Management,” and 20 visitors from all over the world exploring “Clean Energy and Alternative Fuel Solutions.” And that’s just one week! Right now, in addition to hosting all of us and organizing this meeting, the NNIC is also somehow managing to host three IV projects: a group from Turkmenistan looking at Emergency Management, a global project focused on international crime, and some Japanese officials studying current US trends in Education and the Environment. And I just came from Chicago where I was accompanying probably our highest profile delegation of the past year, a joint delegation of Sunni and Shi’a tribal leaders from Iraq. Since joining the State Department last July, with the help of all of you, we have undertaken over 830 projects for more than 4,300 Visitors from virtually every country in the world. That’s something to be very proud of! But what else have we accomplished? Well, we held our largest and arguably most successful National Meeting ever in Washington in February. We have expanded our programs for women, religious leaders and young people.
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We have seen more high level engagement with our visitors from top government officials. Last October, in the same week, President Bush and the First Lady met with separate IV delegations at the White House. Just last week, the President, Vice President and Secretary of State, five US Senators and a dozen Congressmen met with my delegation of Tribal leaders from Iraq. We have successfully maintained our overall number of visitors despite budget uncertainties and rising costs. While some of the CIVs attending this meeting saw your visitor count go down in 2007 compared to 2006, a majority saw your numbers go up. We also have a new Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Goli Ameri, the 1st Iranian American to hold this post and the highest ranking Iranian American in the Administration. And we are proud that prior to joining us at the State Department, she was a member of the board of directors of the Oregon World Affairs Council, our CIV in Portland, so she was already very familiar with the IVLP and its important role in America’s public diplomacy efforts. In assuming her new role Assistant Secretary Ameri has targeted three areas she intends to focus on which I want to share with you this morning. First, she is committed to increased engagement with IVLP alumni around the world. And among the most impressive pool of alumni the State Department has are those who participated in the IVLP!
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Second, she is focused on exploiting new technology to more effectively reach and stay connected with broader audiences, especially young people not accessible through traditional or mainstream communications methods. By harnessing the power of the web, she is working to amplify the impact of our exchanges; create virtual exchanges and communities that enhance mutual international understanding; Third, she is committed to expand and amplify the scope and impact of the Bureau’s public-private partnerships. I am proud that in many ways, the IVLP is in the vanguard of this effort. In addition to our longstanding partnerships with our NPAs and the CIV network, we will again partner with 12 prestigious schools of journalism across the country this year to organize our third annual Edward R. Murrow Journalism program. And in November, we will partner with Harvard’s Kennedy School on our I-VOTE 2008 election study program. We also have new leadership in my office. One of my proudest decisions since assuming this role was the selection of Carol Grabauskas as the new Deputy Director of the Office of International Visitors. While in graduate school some 25 years ago, Carol was inspired by one of her professors, a teacher by the name of Sherry Mueller, to become involved with the IVLP. She has been associated with the program ever since in a variety of capacities from an NPA program officer to a division chief in the Office of International Visitors. Carol brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to my our office. I’m proud to have her on board in this new role and I’m proud that she was about to join us here in Reno for this meeting.
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I came into this role as Director of the Office of International Visitors last July with four priorities of my own and I’m proud to say we have made progress in all of them. My first priority has been to maintain and strengthen the partnership between my office, our national program agencies, NCIV and “the network”. Toward this end, we are holding regular meetings with our NPA partners. We have established a job shadowing program that lets NPA program staff shadow program staffers in my office for a day, and vice versa. And, at their request, we are starting to provide program agencies with quarterly feedback on their performance rather than just annually. Through the Community Partnership Grant we are working to direct additional resources into the Network, something that I know is critical to the financial future of our CIVS, and I hope to have good news on that front very soon. And I have personally been pleased in recent months to visit our network colleagues in Miami, Tucson, Atlanta, Freeport and Chicago, and will be stopping in Tulsa on my way back to Washington. This being a national election year my second priority has been to identify creative ways to integrate our great democratic tradition into every program we do this year. This has produced some dramatic results. In mid-May, twelve visitors from Africa. attended a get-outthe-vote rally in Louisville, Kentucky for Hillary Clinton. Positioned directly behind the stage, they had the opportunity to shake hands with Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton. And they even got autographs!
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Meanwhile, some Azerbaijanis attended a John McCain speech in Jacksonville, Florida. And some of our voluntary visitors from Italy got into the Barak Obama rally in Washington, DC where he was endorsed by Caroline and Teddy Kennedy. Speaking of Obama, some of you who were at the national meeting in February heard me tell the story about the British MPs who visited his phone bank in St. Louis on the eve of the primary. One of the volunteers who was hosting the visitors was an Obama volunteer and told them he was going to be working at the get-out-the-vote phone bank on primary eve and asked if any of them would like to see it. They all wanted to go, so that night, off we went. We were greeted at the door by a young twentysomething Obama staffer who thanked us for coming, and then explained that she hadn’t seen her family or her apartment in over a year because she had been on the road organizing phone banks all over the country for Obama. “I am very appreciative that you’re here she said and I only have one question for you, are you here to watch or are you here to work??” My visitors ended up on the phones! On primary night in Eugene, Oregon the city set up tents at the fairgrounds for the community to come out and see the returns. Among those attending was a visitor group from Guatemala. Everywhere I have travelled internationally over the past few months – in Australia and Hong Kong, Jordan, and the UAE, South Africa and Namibia, the people there have told me how closely they’re following this election.
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The whole world is indeed watching and that’s why it is so important that every single international visitor, regardless of the focus of his or her program, has the opportunity to witness some aspect of our election process up close and personal during their visit. What I have been asking is that one time block – morning, afternoon or evening, on one day during each IV program, we plug in an election component. For those of you looking for ideas as to how to fulfill this request, I encourage you to attend the panel I am moderating on this topic this afternoon. Meanwhile, let me extent a sincere thank you all for your ongoing efforts to showcase our political process to our visitors. In addition to building in an election component to every IV program, we’re conducting 35 projects this year specifically on the elections, grassroots democracy, and leadership in politics. All of this focus on American democracy will wrap up with a major initiative we are undertaking in late October called IVOTE 2008 – our signature project on the U.S. elections. This initiative will bring 100 “Election Fellows” hand-picked by our US Ambassadors worldwide to the US for the closing days of the 2008 campaign. After starting in Washington, DC, the Fellows will visit battleground states and then split into pairs and fan out across the country to be hosted for election day and evening by 50 CIVs. The Thursday after the election they will reconvene as a group for a closing symposium at Harvard to analyze what it all meant I know that 14 of the CIVs here will be involved with I-VOTE 2008 and I thank you for that.
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My third priority this year has been to put even more of an emphasis on home hospitality and home stays. In my view, this is one of the most important elements of the program. Some of the most meaningful conversations occur and some of the deepest and longest lasting relationships develop when local “citizen diplomats” open their homes to our visitors or invite them to experience a part of American life. I was in Namibia just a few weeks ago where I had an opportunity to personally debrief a recent international visitor about her program. When I asked what was most meaningful and useful to her, without hesitation she said the contacts she made during her home hospitality. “Those are the people I know I will stay in touch with” she said. And recently we had the mayor of Karachi, Pakistan here on an individual program during which he was to participate in home hospitality. He was very nervous about this and asked why he was going to someone’s home that he’d never met. After arriving and engaging in some initial pleasantries, the young son of the host couple, not even yet two years old, came down the stairs stark naked to say goodnight to his parents. Mayor Kamal too has kids, and that broke the ice for what he said turned out to be a terrific evening! Finally, my fourth priority has been to continue reminding all of us that hosting and meeting with international visitors are learning opportunities for the visitors but they are also learning opportunities for us. So let me do it again right now. Let’s be sure to ask our visitors as many questions about their country, culture and people as we expect them to ask of us. After all, the IVL program is all about mutual understanding. It should be a dialogue, not a monologue. What can I tell you about the future?
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Well, you will see continued emphasis on some key constituencies, in terms of the types of visitors who will be coming, including educators, young professionals, students, journalists, women and religious leaders. In addition to key influencers, you will see more visitors from North Africa, the Near East and South and Central Asia. In 2009, we are offering a record total of 106 Regional Programs in the six world regions and 41 multiregional programs. Some of our new project themes will include: Energy Security: a focus on strengthening international cooperation in diversifying and expanding energy supply, sound public policy and clean and efficient energy use; Education Today: a key initiative worldwide, designed for primary and secondary school teachers to examine the role education plays in strengthening the democratic principles that are the foundation of U.S. society, and The Transition of Power: a series of regional projects that will allow participants to observe the Presidential Inauguration and the American tradition of a smooth and peaceful transfer of authority. In FY’09 we will continue our highly successful program with Iran which we built from scratch starting in late 2006, and which now is one of our largest program, despite having no embassy on the ground in Tehran to nominate participants and coordinate the logistics of their program.
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And we will be expanding upon the highly successful program we did this year on Breast Cancer Awareness and Outreach for visitors from the Middle East, by launching similar programs for visitors from Latin America and Europe And what about the FY 09 Budget? Well, anyone who tells you they know what’s going to happen really doesn’t. This being an election year, the FY ’09 budget probably won’t be finalized until after we have a new president. Until then, we will be operating under a continuing resolution, holding us to the same amount we received this year. Now it’s not rocket science to figure out that if the budget stays about the same yet costs continue to escalate, that is going to make it difficult to maintain our visitor numbers. That new policy of charging passengers for a 2nd checked bag, we estimate that that alone will cost the IV program a half a million dollar next year. To help keep costs down, we will have to continue reducing the length of some of our programs and number of stops included in some of our other programs. This is not our preference, and certainly not what you want to hear, but we have to be realistic. I know you are already doing your part as well to help control costs and I really appreciate it. It is essential that together we do everything possible in this regard, and clearly if there ever was a time to make sure that your members of Congress appreciate the value of the IVLP, this is it! And what can we tell those who make the funding decisions? That this is important work and it really does make a difference.
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Just a few weeks ago a very significant event happened in Damascus, Syria. It involved a crowd of people, attracted some media coverage and even garnered some private sector support. What was it? The first ever walk for Breast Cancer in Syrian history, organized by two IVLP alumni! Where did they get the idea? From participating in a “Race for a cure” during their International Visitor program last October in San Diego. The San Diego walk was an inspiration to them. They tried to copy it as closely as possible, right down to the T-shirts and the pink balloons. And because of what they witnessed, they were inspired to return home and to make a difference. Their success should inspire all of us, because what they accomplished was a direct, tangible result of their participation in our program! In Namibia, a mobile van is currently travelling the country to test citizens for HIV/AIDS. It is modeled after a similar testing program some Namibians saw during their IV program last year. Two Argentine IV alums recently launched a Hemispheric On-line Journalism Forum to promote journalistic integrity, freedom and responsibility through technology and professional development and exchange, based on what they experienced during their IV program. A group of youth leaders from Africa didn’t even wait for their program on the “Role of Youth in the U.S. Political Process” to finish before they took action. Literally by the end of their first week in the US, they decided to form an organization called the “Congress for African Democracy and Development.”
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The visitors, from all over Africa, are all officers in this Congress. They proceeded to hit up everyone they met during the remainder of their IV program to help with this initiative in some way. And they succeeded! The University of Denver, the Democratic Youth Strategy Group, the head of the Africa program at the Woodrow Wilson Institute – they are now all helping. The group is convening its first Congress in Africa this month, with the support of the President of Mali, to be attended by young political leaders from throughout Africa. And they are organizing a conference on US-African relations in Denver in September. Yes, the work we do does have an impact. Remember that voter referendum in Venezuela last December which rejected the Chavez Administration’s proposed changes in the country’s constitution? Well one of the reasons it lost is because of an IV alum who organized young students from every Venezuelan state to oppose the changes. Just within the past couple of week one of our Thai alums from a 2007 voluntary visitor program on “the Constitution and Good Governance” was in the news. He is leading what is called the “Democratic Network” of civic organizations in Thailand. The Network is urging the public to wear white, the color of peace, as a way of telling the government and the leading opposition figures to refrain from violence. Speaking of alumni, now here is an amazing statistic: roughly one fourth of all United National member countries have an IVLP alumnus or alumna as their head of state or government! None of the other 60 some exchange programs funded by the Department of State can make that claim!
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Last week, the delegation of tribal leaders from Iraq asked me to arrange for them to visit wounded US soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center. It was a private visit, no press, just to say thank you for their sacrifice. We went to a rehabilitation center for soldiers, all of whom had lost limbs in Iraq. Following the visit one of the Iraqi leaders told me how inspiring it was to him, how seeing these soldiers had lifted his morale. “How,” I asked, “could speaking with a triple amputee lift your morale and inspire you?” “Because despite their sacrifices” he said, “they were all in good spirits and were optimistic about the future. And they were being well cared for. No other country in the world provides such good care to its soldiers, and seeing that really inspired me.” Seeing the impact that visit had on that Iraqi delegation, and knowing that it was because they were here on our program, well, that was an inspiration to me and should be an inspiration to all of us. What an inspiration all of you are to me, for the wonderful work you do to help the world better understand America and better understand Americans. The work we do is important. It does make a difference. It does have an impact. So on behalf of the US Department of State, thank you for being here at this meeting, to exchange ideas, to network, to learn from each other. The world is a better place because of all that you do to make the International Visitor Leadership Program the success that it is. Thank you.
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