Recommended Actions

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There are a number of actions that USAID could take in order to improve efforts toward the Agency's goal of a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. Some actions require substantial additional Cuba Program and operating resources while others can be implemented at a limited cost. Continue the Cuba Program. The USAID Cuba Program and its grantees have demonstrated the potential to contribute to a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. While the Program is only a small part of the U.S. Government's approach to Cuba, USAID's encouragement of democratic change in Cuba provides sustenance and information to important actors on the island, within the international community, and to several U.S. civil society organizations that are helping people within Cuba today. Assign a USAID Cuba Program full-time employee to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. The Cuba Program would benefit from the sustained presence of a USAID officer in Havana. Monitoring and evaluation of Program activities taking place within Cuba itself have been sporadic to date. Coordination of activities within Cuba has also been extremely limited. The addition of a USAID officer in Havana would be a step toward more effective programming, communication, and reliable monitoring and evaluation of in-country activities. Assign additional full-time employees at USAID headquarters to manage the Program. This is a complex program with many competing demands from grantees, other U.S. Government agencies, donors, and the international press. Staffing now consists of a Senior Advisor/Coordinator for Cuba supported by a newly hired junior officer. The Program's effectiveness is diminished by its limited staffing. Identify and prepare relevant operating units within USAID for a transition in Cuba. Offices within USAID that would likely play a role in a transition in Cuba should begin preparing themselves now. For instance, the Office of Transition Initiatives within the Bureau for Humanitarian Response should assign an officer to maintain regular contact with the Cuba Program staff in the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. Revise the Program's policy prohibiting funding to groups or individuals within Cuba. The ability of grantees and their partners to operate within Cuba is severely constrained by the policy prohibiting subgranting or provision of even small amounts of funding to people on the island. In addition to Cuba, USAID is working in several other countries such as Serbia where the incumbent government views the pro-democracy forces assisted by USAID as a real or potential threat. Even though there might also be risks to Program partners in these countries, USAID has allowed sub-granting to in-country partners. Open the dialogue between USAID and other donors regarding the promotion of democracy in Cuba. While USAID stays informed of the activities of other donors, senior USAID staff should reach out to those donors who could play a role in the transition in Cuba. Establish a system for information collection, analysis, and sharing among grantees and Program personnel. The Program is constrained by inadequate information collection, analysis, and dissemination concerning the Cuban operational environment and the activities of various grantees, donors, and Cuban actors. The Program would benefit from an increased emphasis on systematically collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information related to the environment within Cuba and the impact of the Cuba Program. Encourage information sharing through more frequent use of grantee meetings, conference calls, and other forms of group communication.15 While respecting the unique needs and activities of each grantee, USAID should create incentives for the sharing of information among all of its partners. USAID should take the lead in establishing an expanded dialogue among grantees and consider the willingness and capacity of individual grantees to share information with others working on Cuban issues in making grants awards and reviewing grantee performance. Continue providing day-to-day guidance to grantees regarding USAID procedures. USAID has recognized that several of the Program grantees require extensive guidance with regard to the USAID regulations related to foreign assistance programs. A continuing emphasis on this type of day-to-day support is necessary as grantees continue their work and as new grantees are brought into the Program. Commission additional political risk analysis and transition studies on Cuba. The Program would be strengthened through additional transition planning and political risk analysis done in cooperation with senior Program staff and appropriate grantees. USAID's capacity to move quickly in the event of a sudden shift in the Cuban situation requires dynamic scenario planning. These analyses and plans should be shared and discussed with Program grantees to ensure that they inform their work. Test all informational products before duplication and dissemination to Cuban audiences. This Program is about information. USAID and its grantees expend considerable resources to develop and deliver informational products to the Cuban people. The products funded by the Program should be test marketed through focus groups with recent arrivals from Cuba or through a similar research methodology to determine the appropriateness, relevance, and potential impact of the message and delivery vehicle. Seek innovative channels for distributing information to Cuba. While many of the materials funded by the Program are reaching people on the island, some are confiscated or go undistributed. USAID and its partners should seek to expand the channels used to deliver their information to the Cuban people. Encourage the cooperation and development of consortia among grantees. Synergies and administrative cost savings could be created among various grantees through consortia and informal grouping of grantees. The knowledge of traditional democracy-promotion groups would be complemented through formal cooperation with Cuban-American groups and other groups with a Cuba-specific focus and vice versa. Adjust the degree of publicity concerning grants in recognition of the potential risks to grantees and their clients in Cuba. While many aspects of the Program lend themselves to wide publicity as part of a public-diplomacy effort, some activities can be jeopardized by inappropriate publicity. USAID, Members of Congress and their staffs, and other personnel involved in the Program should exercise considerable discretion in the publicity they release regarding Program activities. Improve Program performance baselines and measures. The promotion of democracy in Cuba will not be a linear process and does not easily lend itself to strict quantitative analysis. The Government Performance and Results Act allows for the use of qualitative measures as long as there is a consistent and credible methodology employed. The use of qualitative measures would allow the Program to manage activities more effectively and to communicate results to key stakeholders. Grantees should adopt performance measures that relate to the intermediate results to which they contribute and that allow them to report their results to USAID clearly and with limited effort. The evaluation recommends that USAID expand its dialogue with grantees on performance measurement as a step toward the development of new indicators that are more useful for Program management and the communication of results to stakeholders. 15 USAID has held two coordination meetings to date (February 1999 in Washington, DC and May 2000 in Miami). [Return to text]

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