USAID's Gloria Diño-Steele: Back to lend a helping hand

MANILA, Philippines - “When I left the Philippines, I was 27 years old, and it was martial law,” Gloria Diño-Steele recalls. Now, thirty years later, she has finally returned to her country of birth as the new mission director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“When left the Philippines thirty years ago, I never imagined I would be returning in this capacity and I’m very excited about it,” she says. “I’m still euphoric over the fact that I’m here.”

An alumna of Maryknoll (now Miriam) College in Quezon City, Steele has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. She also has a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University. With studies both in business and agriculture, Steele was able to apply her knowledge in these fields in the various posts she has held.

Before leaving for the US, she was a management consultant at the Ministry of Agriculture and taught business statistics at Letran Graduate School for Business in Manila.

Steele worked in Washington DC as technical analyst, women and development officer, agricultural economist, project development officer, making her way up to management and leadership positions. Steele served the USAID as part of the Bureau for Africa and the Bureau for Science and Technology.

She was also the senior deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, a post she held when the Berlin wall was torn down. “I learned a lot about how a country moves from communism to democracy,” she says of that historic time.

Steele’s most recent assignment was at the Global Health Bureau, tackling health issues around the world as its senior deputy assistant administrator.

“The program of this mission puts together a lot of the learnings that I have made in those posts,” she says, noting her work with different countries, governments, and people. She also hopes to bring her management and leadership skills to the fore.

After serving countries all over the world and helping numerous people through her work, Steele has come full circle, returning to the Philippines.

Being away for so many years, Steele has noticed many positive changes in the country. “The Philippines is back, very strong, and with a very good government in place,” she notes. “Another major change in the positive sense is just watching how the Philippines has grown economically. There’s a lot of growing to do still, if you use the standards of countries around the Philippines and the potential of the country, but nonetheless there’s been a lot of growth.”

Coming from the US, a place hit hard by the recent recession, she adds, “The strength of the country’s economy to weather the global recession was quite impressive.”

Most importantly, she has noticed the growth of the non-governmental sector. Steele notes that before, the only active non-governmental sector was the church and private universities. “Now they are a very strong force,” she says. “Any democracy needs to have the three sectors – the public, the private and the non-governmental sector. The Philippines has all of that. It’s really living up to its name as the oldest democracy.”

USAID, Steele explains, is the development arm of the US government. The agency’s activities and programs include peace and security assistance in conflict-affected areas, promotion of economic growth, managing energy and the environment, governing justly and democratically, taking care of family health, and education. Sixty percent of the agency’s programs for the Philippines are in Mindanao. “That’s where the need is greatest,” says Steele.

Initiatives such as the Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM), Mindanao Assistance Program (MAP), Livelihood Enhancement and Peace (LEAP), and many more have been established in the previous years. According to USAID Philippines, $87 million was made available for bilateral assistance programs in 2009, while for 2010 the figure requested is almost $100 million.

“The US government’s goal in the Philippines is to promote prosperity and stability,” says Steele, something that can be achieved in collaboration with Filipinos. As the new director, Steele says, “The first thing for me personally is to understand better the situation and not come in with my own assumptions about how things are or should be.” Among her first priorities are learning and understanding the areas of concern and identifying the gaps and issues that need to be addressed.

Back in the country for less than a month so far, Steele is also reacquainting herself with the culture and catching up with family and friends. She has hit the ground running with briefings on emerging issues, meeting with department secretaries and representatives of the private and non-government sectors, seeing how the USAID can align with their concerns.

“It’s a really good start for us because we’re beginning with a clean slate,” says Steele. “There is still a lot to do in health and education, but there has been a lot of progress.”

Steele says that she was inspired by stories her mother used to tell her of the days the Americans were in the Philippines and how they left behind an education system and democratic institutions. “The idea that she will see me leading USAID’s effort to build upon those legacies that she remembers very fondly is something I cherish, something very important personally and professionally.”

It is also important for Steele that she has finally returned to serve her country of birth. “I’d do this anywhere, but doing it in my country of birth… is just unbelievable,” she says.

As she assumes her post, Steele says she is motivated by “doing good for other people and sharing what the Americans have – sharing the ability to have access to education, to health.”

She adds that through USAID she can promote “goodwill between the Philippines and the US, my country of birth and my adoptive country.”

Ultimately, Steele hopes that the presence of USAID reminds Filipinos “that we are here to help, but that the most important thing is for the country itself to want, to participate in and to lead the development it deserves to achieve. It is something that is so close to becoming a reality.”

She adds, “We’ve seen other countries achieve that and the Philippines has far more in terms of natural resources, human resources. We just need to want to do it. It starts from the very top, and President Aquino has committed to getting the country there. We would like to be partners with the Philippine government in getting the Philippines there.”