Rajiv Shah discusses his work in the Obama administration, in which he served as chief scientist and undersecretary of agriculture for research, education and economics from 2009 to 2010 and administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2010 to 2015. Reflecting on his tenure at the United States Department of Agriculture, Shah focuses on his efforts to moderni ze agricultural research and food and nutrition policy, and he describes initiatives including the creation of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture and Feed the Future, the Obama administration's initiative for global food security. Shah considers the role of USAID in the Obama administration's foreign policy, and provides details about notable efforts and issues including the elevation of USAID's position in the National Security Council (NSC) system; the administration's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti; USAID operations in Afghanistan; the State Department's Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review; and the international response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Also discussed are the importance of effective coordination of interagency resources in disaster response efforts, Shah's work at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation prior to the Obama years, and the relationship between government and private philanthropy
Presidents--United States; Agriculture--Research--United States; Nutrition policy--United States; Food security; Haiti Earthquake, Haiti, 2010; Shah, Rajiv Janardan, 1973-; Obama, Barack; National Institute of Food and Agriculture (U.S.); Feed the Future Initiative (U.S.); National Security Council (U.S.); United States. Agency for International Development; United States. Department of Agriculture
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
55 pages
Note (Biographical)
Rajiv Shah is a government official, physician, and health economist. Shah was appointed undersecretary of the Department of Agriculture in 2009. He then served as USAID administrator from 2010 to 2015. At the time of the interview, Shah was president of the Rockefeller Foundation
Note
Interviewed by by Mary Marshall Clark on November 2, 2020, and January 11, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Rajiv J. Shah, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023