SEED Assistance Summary 2004
SEED Act
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2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004
U.S. Assistance Priorities
In FY 2004, the lion's share of U.S. assistance went to the Czech military to help it continue its transformation to a professional, deployable force. Some very limited funds were also spent in the area of democratic reform.
Sectoral Assessments
It is now 15 years since the revolution that ended the rule of a one-party state with a centrally planned economy. The Czech Republic joined the European Union in FY 2004. Many of the donors that contributed funds to the democratic transformation have ended their activities here. Many nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are therefore increasingly dependent upon government funds, a situation that threatens the independence of many groups, especially the advocacy NGOs working in the areas of human rights, anti-corruption, and rule of law. The political and social environment for cultivating advocacy and public policy is weak. The legacy of political indifference that marked life under communism still persists, to a certain extent. Moreover, NGOs lack the mechanisms and media support to expose corruption, conflicts of interest, and other practices that threaten democracy and civil society. The legislative, fiscal, and philanthropic environment also is not favorable for NGO development, due to the murky legal framework for public participation, as well as the lack of appropriate tax legislation to improve incentives for corporate and individual giving.
Democratic Reform
The biggest grant in this sector was $675,000, the last tranche of a multi-year grant that USAID gave to the American Bar Association's (ABA) Prague-based Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) Institute. The CEELI Institute used the funds to train judges and prosecutors from Central Asia, Iraq, and Southeastern Europe. CEELI will train 200 Iraqi judges in FY 2005. It is difficult for Embassy Prague to assess the results of CEELI's work, as no Czechs were trained in FY 2004.
The last SEED funds were disbursed in calendar year 2003. In FY 2004, the Embassy gave out $70,000 in small grants to NGOs working on public access to information, disclosure laws for assets held by officials, codes of conduct for judges and prosecutors, and training for community organizers. With only a fraction of the former financial resources available for civil society development, USG assistance in this area in FY 2004 was largely symbolic. The focus was on supporting and facilitating programs aimed at improving the legislative and fiscal infrastructure for NGOs, finding alternate sources of funding for NGOs through the development of corporate philanthropy and volunteerism, and strengthening professional ties between U.S. and Czech NGOs. Some small grants were given to follow up on earlier programs that had successfully used SEED funds, particularly in human rights and public access to information.
Economic and Social Sector Reform
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) gave only one grant in FY 2004, a $175,000 grant for a waste heat recovery project. The Czechs are among the least efficient users of energy in the EU. This project, not yet completed, is designed to increase energy efficiency and help the nation meet its environmental and energy goals. The Foreign Agricultural Service sent nine Czechs from government, the media, and the private sector to the U.S. under the Cochrane program to open up markets for U.S. agricultural products, introduce new American foods to the Czech Republic, and favorably to influence Czech agricultural policy.
Security, Regional Stability, and Law Enforcement
In 2004, the Czechs received $7.95 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance and $2.2 million in International Military Education and Training (IMET) funds. These two programs account for just over 90 percent of all U.S. assistance funds. The Czech Republic is in the process of reforming its military from a large, conscripted, static defensive force to a professional, modern, flexible, and deployable military. Drawing in large part on NATO's recommendations for lighter, more specialized forces, the Czechs have used a major portion of their FMF assistance to meet the capabilities commitments pledged at the Prague Summit in 2002. In 2004, 86 Czechs received IMET training in the United States.
In the law enforcement arena, the USG donated a mobile x-ray van, worth $185,000, through the State Department's program on Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS). The van will be used primarily at Prague's International Airport, the country's only international customs border now that it has joined the EU.
The U.S. Department of Justice funded an international meeting on seizing the assets of gangs trafficking in persons. In addition, SEED funds administered by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) that had been obligated in FY 2002 were spent in FY 2004 on drug enforcement training, drug prevention, and combating the financing of terrorism. The U.S. Embassy expects to use up the last of these remaining SEED funds in calendar year 2005.
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