 |
Performance Challenges
During FY 2005 USAID faced many challenges. These challenges varied and included such things as U.S government restrictions as to who can receive aid and limited Mission resources. Some of these challenges can be rectified through sound management practices and oversight. Some challenges, however, are out of USAID control, such as fluctuations in exchange rates which reduce USAID's purchasing power or changes in the country tax legislation that affect USAID funded programs. Highlights of some of the challenges that USAID faces are shown below and arrayed by USAID's strategic goals:
Continuing Challenges
Regional Stability
- Strengthening the management skills and capacity of local administrations, local interim representative bodies, and civic institutions to improve the delivery of essential municipal services, such as water, health, public sanitation, and economic development in Iraq.
- Factionalism, ongoing violence, and lingering pockets of terrorism continue to threaten the viability and stability of Afghanistan's central government and make it difficult to cement democratic institutions.
- In many countries where USAID works, violence and instability continue to hamper USAID's efforts to catalyze democratic transformations and remove sources of conflict.
Counterterrorism
- The two goals of countering terrorism and expanding Muslim outreach to support moderates create a real dilemma for the U.S. government. Security requirements restrict exchanges and limit the non-governmental organizations (NGO) with whom USAID can work, in effect, limiting its outreach. Survey data show that negative views of the United States pervasive throughout the Muslim world are due to U.S. policies as well as perceived maltreatment of Muslims in the United States.
- The ability of USAID and USAID front-line staff to effectively develop, oversee, and monitor projects is severely hampered by the
security situation in the crisis areas where it operates.
- Regional pockets continue to harbor terrorists and radicals who pose a significant risk to those countries, as well as to the United States.
International Crime and Drugs
- Despite bold efforts by Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru to combat narcotrafficking, the lack of state presence in some areas has allowed
illegal narcotics production and armed terrorist organizations to continue to flourish.
- Drug related spillover criminal activity brings threats of violence and instability to communities along Ecuador's northern border with Colombia.
- Afghanistan is the source of three-quarters of the world's opium. Persistent poverty, high opium prices, and loans from traffickers were all reasons for high opium production in 2005. Farmers are aware of the government ban on opium production, but the short-term benefits of the activity outweigh the potential risks from law enforcement measures.
Democracy and Human Rights
- Eastern European countries need continued assistance to make their democratic institutions more stable, robust, and mature in preparation for broader political and economic integration with Europe. In both Europe and Eurasia (E&E), continued efforts are needed to
promote a culture of democratic values, while working against ethnic and religious extremism, separatism, and intolerance.
- Since the fall of Paraguay's dictatorship 15 years ago, challenges to the country's democracy include several coup attempts, the assassination of a vice president, and the resignation of a president. In El Salvador, the declining share of national income for the poor undercuts the significant progress the country has made over the past decade and poses a serious threat to an emerging democracy.
- In Sudan, intermittent conflict and related human rights abuses (especially in the western Sudan region of Darfur) and deep ethnic and
religious rifts will make reconciliation and a transition to peace difficult. Uganda's progress toward a vigorous and representative multi-party democracy requires permitting political parties to operate freely and constructively, as well as building institutions and systems which can check and correct abuse of authority and corruption.
- One major challenge faced by USAID has been how to provide guidance to missions seeking to do anti-corruption activities in assisted countries. Based on state-of-the-art research, USAID has developed a new "Anti-Corruption Strategy." This has led to a very large
number of requests for program design (including Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) threshold country programs) and mission- and region-level training. If USAID adequately responds to these requests, it should position itself for a more active, explicit focus on fighting the corruption that has undermined its social and economic development effort.
Economic Propserity and Security
- A large number of Iraqis are still unemployed, and many of those with jobs are underemployed, working part-time or for small income. This is a particularly alarming figure, given that some 70 percent of the Iraqi population is under 25—a large labor pool with need for economic opportunity.
- High unemployment rates, a ballooning youth population, and graduates without employable skills contribute to growing dissatisfaction and potential instability in many countries.
- The shifting of food markets from "markets with public faces" of the parastatal 1960s and 1970s, to "faceless markets" of the liberalized 1980s and 1990s, to "markets with private sector faces" of today have forced producers to develop complex relationships with the
private sector or face exclusion from the markets.
Social and Environmental Issues
- The adult HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the Caribbean is surpassed only by Sub-Saharan Africa. Social patterns of early sexual initiation and multiple partners increase the risk. In Asia and the Near East (ANE) eight million people are HIV positive, and each year hundreds of thousands die from HIV/AIDs-related illnesses. This could increase exponentially if the epidemic is allowed to spread from high-risk groups to the general population in countries like India, China, Indonesia, and Thailand.
- Recent detailed analyses of Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data indicate that in some countries the use of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) – one of the oldest and most basic child survival interventions – may be starting to decline. This may be the result of countries having integrated diarrheal disease control programs into larger, less focused, and underfunded health systems in poor countries. In response, USAID is working with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and other partners to revitalize ORT, using the new improved formulation of oral rehydration solution and newly available zinc treatment as entry points.
- Spurred by growing global demand for timber and paper, illegal and destructive logging remains one of the key threats to the world's oldest forests in Bolivia. Only a small portion of all forests are under ecologically-sound management as certified by independent international certification bodies. Land degradation also is a serious impediment to maintaining the quantity and quality of water. With 60 percent of the world's population depending upon only one-third of the world's land area, Asia will need to confront and reverse the land degradation trends to meet the needs of its population.
- Rural and poor populations, often the majority in many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), face many obstacles to
quality education. Language barriers, long distances to schools, and poorly trained teachers contribute to very high drop-out rates. In some countries, fewer than 60 percent of the children who start school reach the fifth grade. Access to education, low enrollment, and high illiteracy are continuing concerns for the ANE region. Over half the world's illiterate population lives in this region, and 69 percent of the world's illiterate females. Enrollment for girls is a large problem.
Humanitarian Response
- Food is often identified as the most immediate and critical need of people living with HIV/AIDS and households affected by HIV/AIDS in the countries where PL480 Title II programs are implemented. In addition, households affected by HIV/AIDS are more vulnerable to food insecurity. Clearly, interventions focusing on food insecurity and nutritional status should take into account the impact of HIV/AIDS, and HIV/AIDS strategies and interventions should consider the nutrition and food security problems facing individuals infected by HIV and communities and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Title II resources however, have not increased in response to this heightened awareness. Although the attempt is made to seize opportunities to link HIV/AIDS and food assisted programs, it is clear that current Title II levels may preclude any increases in resources provided in support of HIV/AIDS programming objectives.
Back to Top ^ | < Previous Page | Next Page >
|
