People in the news

Maria Otero

Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs (since June 2009)

Why She Matters

Otero thought she was going to be a literature professor. But a politically minded brother and turmoil in Latin America changed her mind. "I really wanted to bury myself in the bubble of the humanities," Otero said in a 2004 Newsweek interview. "I really wanted to spend my time on something I cared about even more."

Though she was almost halfway through an English Ph.D., Otero decided that she would focus on addressing poverty around the world. "I wanted to focus on helping women empower themselves through work so they can be leaders in their own lives," she said in 2004.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: President and CEO, ACCION, 2000; Vice President, ACCION, 1994l Director of the Washington, D.C., office, ACCION, 1989
Hometown: La Paz, Bolivia
Alma Mater: University of Maryland, B.A.; University of Michigan, M.A.; Johns Hopkins, M.A.

Spouse: Joseph Eldridge.
Office: 202-647-4000
Web site

Path to Power

Otero was born in La Paz, Bolivia, one of nine children. Her father moved the family to Washington when Otero was 12 years old so he could take a position with the Inter-American Development Bank. She struggled to adjust to life in America. "It was difficult when we first moved here. My parents bought a relatively small house; every room became a bedroom," she wrote in Newsweek in 2004.

She studied English Literature at the University of Maryland, hoping to become a literature professor after graduation. But though she scored an M.A. in English literature, one of her politically-minded brothers convinced her to focus on helping others instead.

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Eventually, she decided she wanted to study economics. To do so, she moved to Bolivia to observe poverty on the ground. She returned to the United States to complete graduate work at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where she earned her Masters.

In 1981, Otero became a program officer, the Development Group for Alternative Policies, and the Inter-American Foundation. Otero worked as an economist for Latin America and the Caribbean in the Women in Development Office of USAID.

Otero joined ACCION, one of the first microfinance organizations, in 1986 as country director in Honduras. She returned to the United States in 1989 to start and direct the Washington, D.C., office. In that position, she worked with the U.S. government and nonprofits to develop policies that helped families in the developing world earn money through small businesses. A typical microfinance program extends a small amount of credit, usually with no collateral, to people or organizations that would not normally qualify for loans.

Otero was named ACCION's vice president in 1994, and president and CEO of ACCION International six years later. In 2007, she was named to the U.N. Advisors Group on Inclusive Financial Sectors.

In June 2009, Otero was nominated to serve as undersecretary for Democracy and Global Affairs. In this position, Otero will be responsible for helping shape the State Department's positions on human rights, climate change, global health and women's issues. She will oversee the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; the Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Scientific Affairs; the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration; the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; and the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary.

"The common thread that unites this vast portfolio is that the people who are most directly affected by these issues are those who are among the world's most vulnerable populations," she said at her June 2009 confirmation hearings. "These are all people on the margins of society."

The Issues

Otero brings a strong development background to her new position at the Department of State. But she told Senators at her confirmation that her main focus would be making sure governments follow the tenets set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Democracy and human rights are at the core of our foreign policy goals, and to the values we hold as a nation," she said. "I will work to ensure that they remain central to our decision-making."

Otero is a proponent of making science central to her foreign policy efforts and will advocate for a science envoy to handle climate change issues.

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Microcredit

The largest micro lending organization in the world, ACCION has worked with more than 3.7 million borrowers in 23 countries through its network of parners at the end of 2008. Its network portfolio tops $3.6 billion. The organization emphasizes full financial inclusion of the world's poor, including a wide range of financial services like savings, insurance, housing loans and microcredit. At ACCION, Otero helped open up new markets in places where banks have traditionally been reluctant to operate, such as China and much of Africa.

Microfinance, Otero argues, is one of the best ways to provide capital for the poor. However, to reach all of the world's poor, microfinance will need to provide capital to 500 million people. The current model is too decentralized and localized to allow organizations like ACCION to meet that goal. In order to address this, Otero has lobbied for increased partnerships with insurance companies and mortgage brokers, so that poor families can access financial services that have traditionally been out of reach.

Otero also believes that banks which serve the poor specifically must become commonplace in the developing world. This has opened a new set of concerns, as microfinance organizations struggle to protect the costumer from predatory lending.

As a leader at ACCION, Otero emphasized the importance of building sustainable local banks that lend to the poor and lenders as well as individual loans. She helped oversee the implementation of the first such bank in Bolivia. "I have witnessed thousands of cases where individuals, especially women, were given a chance to realize even their smallest entrepreneurial vision," she said at her June 2009 confirmation hearing. "I bring this importance of institution-building to my nomination."

She also worked to innovate micro lending through iLabs, which created an area in Bolivia to test new microfinance products.

Microlending and Latin America

Latin America lacks microlending opportunities, Otero said in 2008. Only 10 percent of the potential market in Latin America and the Caribbean was being served by microfinance institutions in 2007. In a region with such a huge need of financial services, "we need to create strong and profitable microfinance institutions providing a range of financial services, not only credit but also saving products," Otero said at a 2008 conference.

Fostering Democracy

Otero believes that it is the State Department's responsibility not only to advocate free elections, but also to help create transparent governments and civil societies with free access to information and support for all ideas.

To help governments accomplish these goals, Otero supports providing grants to aid organizations that assist in fostering democracy. "Not-for-profit organizations are doing precisely the kind of work to provide the training, the capacity, reinforce those elements in the civil society and in the institutions of government," she said at her 2009 confirmation hearings.

The Network

At the State Department, Otero will work with such human rights luminaries as Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor-designate Michael Posner; Legal Adviser Harold Koh, and Ambassador at Large for Women's Issues Melanne Verveer.

Otero is old friends with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), whom she met through her husband, and Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

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