THE PILLARS
In this section:
Forestry Reform Begins in Liberia
Alliance Promotes Health through Soy
Bednets Take the Bite Out of Malaria
After 20 Years, the Rule of Law Takes Root
ECONOMIC GROWTH, AGRICULTURE, AND TRADE
Forestry Reform Begins in Liberia
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USAID is helping to ensure that the Sapo National Park—Liberia’s
only national park—and other forested areas in
the country are well managed.
ReneeHubee@arthouse2002 |
Liberia’s forests have long played a vital role in
its economy but have suffered from years of mismanagement
under the former regime of Charles Taylor. Timber revenues
were used to enrich government officials and fund armed conflict
in the region.
A civil war led to the overthrow of Taylor in 2003. Then
the U.S. Congress committed $4 million to help reform the
forest sector. With these funds, USAID joined with the State
Department, U.S. Forest Service, World Bank, United Nations,
and several NGOs to launch the Liberia Forest Initiative (LFI)
to ensure that forests are managed sustainably and for the
benefit of all Liberians.
The LFI had to meet the needs of commercial forestry, community
forestry, and forest conservation together. As recently as
2002, forestry generated up to 60 percent of the nation’s
foreign exchange.
In the commercial component, the LFI is trying to establish
a viable system of granting concessions, or legal permissions
to extract timber, in a fair,
competitive, and transparent manner. Revenues from concessions
are to be invested in public services such as roads, schools,
and clinics.
In the community forestry component, the initiative is increasing
community involvement in decisions regarding the management
of forests and helping communities use forest resources to
improve their lives. And, in the conservation component, LFI
is working to save strategic forested areas for future generations.
Liberia’s forests constitute the largest remaining blocks
of the Upper Guinean Forest Ecosystem, a threatened global
hotspot for biodiversity that is home to the critically endangered
western chimpanzee.
In the last two years, LFI reviewed 70 forestry concessions
and recommended they all be canceled for failure to meet contractual
obligations, nonpayment of taxes and fees, or other reasons.
If the recommendation is accepted by Liberia’s government,
it may help lift UN sanctions on timber from the country.
LFI also helped secure Sapo National Park by removing illegal
loggers, miners, and squatters, and by working with communities
to create economic livelihood opportunities near park boundaries.
“LFI is about much more than saving forests,”
says Erik Streed, a forestry advisor with the Bureau of Economic
Growth, Agriculture, and Trade. “In fact, the success
of LFI will be critical to the success of other multilateral
initiatives, such as the Governance and Economic Management
Assistance Program, which is an umbrella effort to improve
financial and fiscal administration, transparency, and accountability
in Liberia’s new government.”
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE
Alliance Promotes Health through Soy
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Doña Tita Zúniga (right) and daughter,
Glenda Valladares, owners of Eben-Ezer Bakery, are including
soy flour in their semitas, a traditional breakfast
bun popular in Honduras. They found that the soy flour
helps lengthen the shelf-life of the semitas, and they
are now exporting them to Honduran communities in Miami
and Houston.
WISHH
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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras—Glenda Valladares, owner
and manager of Eben-Ezer Bakery here, is adding nutritious
soy flour to her traditional breakfast buns, known as semitas,
and has begun exporting them to Honduran communities in the
United States.
Her use of soy-fortified products is part of a USAID effort
to add nutritional value to food, particularly staples like
breads and cereals. Fortification—with soy, vitamins,
minerals, and other substances—can improve the health
of millions of people in the developing world, expand local
markets, and grow small businesses, according to health experts
from the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH).
USAID—through the Office of Global Development Alliance
and the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade—partnered
with WISHH in 2004 to urge farmers in numerous countries to
grow and use soy beans.
An estimated 800 million people worldwide suffer from malnutrition,
which is often caused by insufficient amounts of protein and
micronutrients. Malnutrition plays a role in half of the more
than 10 million annual child deaths in the developing world,
and maims, cripples, and blinds on a massive scale.
Soybeans are an abundant and a complete source of protein
that are affordable, easy to consume, and can be used without
changing the taste or the physical property of foods to which
they are added.
In Honduras, Valladares is among 160 people to receive food
technology training and use soy in their products. The Healthy
Schools Office of the Honduran Government—along with
the Honduran Bakers Association, WISHH, and the Illinois Soybean
Association—produced a high-protein cookie that is now
handed out to thousands of Honduran school children along
with their lunches. The cookies are a source of up to 10 grams
of daily protein.
“Many in Honduras are protein deficient, so we are
getting a very positive response from Honduran bakers who
can expand their businesses by adding high-protein soy into
foods that are already popular,” said Phil Bradshaw,
a soybean farmer from Illinois who serves on the WISHH board
of directors.
The project is also working with bakers in Kenya. Devkan
Enterprises, one of the companies that participates in WISHH,
recently began selling soy products in 12 stores in Nairobi,
Mombasa, and Kisumu.
“What is most encouraging is the awareness and interest
that Kenyan millers and bakers have in product improvement,”
says Dwight Alan Smith, USAID assistant mission director in
Kenya. “This bodes well for developing market opportunities
and the expansion of therapeutic feeding programs that improve
the quality of peoples’ lives.”
WISHH, an NGO created by U.S. soybean grower organizations
to fight hunger and malnutrition, has worked to improve diets
and health in over 23 countries around the world.
USAID invested $400,000 in this project. Another $750,000
came from WISHH and other private partners, including the
American Soybean Association, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Cargill,
The Cutting Edge nutritional consulting firm, and the University
of Illinois.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Bednets Take the Bite Out of Malaria
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Zanzibar President Abeid Amani Karume hands out free
insecticide-treated bednets to mothers at the launch
of a U.S. funded antimalaria campaign, known locally
as Kataa Malaria. U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires
Daniel Delly stands to right of Karume.
Chris Thomas, USAID
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ZANZIBAR, Tanzania—Thousands of residents here
braved the scorching sun for hours in mid-December to receive
locally produced, free insecticide-treated bednets to protect
their families from malaria.
The distribution of the nets is the first Tanzanian activity
under the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a $1.2
billion U.S. government commitment over five years to combat
the disease in 15 sub-Saharan countries. Efforts—in collaboration
with the Zanzibar Malaria Control Program—include distributing
bednets, indoor insecticide spraying, and improved treatment
and diagnostics.
Malaria kills about 1 million people worldwide each year.
In Tanzania, it is the leading cause of death in children
under age 5. The mosquito-transmitted illness kills 125,000
people annually, and nearly 80,000 of those are children.
Overall, 93 percent of Tanzanians are considered at risk of
infection.
Zanzibar, the second most densely populated region of the
country, is PMI’s first target because 20 percent of
the population is under age 5 and about 4 percent of the population
is made up of pregnant women—another high-risk group.
An estimated 3.5 percent—or about $121 million—of
the country’s GDP is consumed by malaria costs.
Last year, USAID gave a Tanzanian company, A to Z Textiles,
the technology to produce long-lasting, insecticide-treated
bednets, which are sold cheaply or given free to the most
vulnerable populations. The company is the only African bednet
producer equipped with such technology.
Through PMI, the Agency is also making available a new drug,
artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), which has proven effective
in fighting the drug-resistant malaria that has become a growing
problem in recent years.
USAID will also provide additional support for the purchase
and distribution of nets for at least 130,000 children and
pregnant women. The Zanzibar Malaria Control Program will
aid in raising awareness about the disease and ways to prevent
it. It will also support the distribution of 240,000 nets
to pregnant women and families with young children.
“The provision of free nets to the most vulnerable
people—those at highest risk from malaria-associated
death and illness, pregnant women, and children under 5—is
one of our most important commitments to families in Africa,”
said Kent R. Hill, assistant administrator for the Global
Health bureau. “The fact that the nets are supplied by
A to Z Textiles in Tanzania, from Tanzanians to Tanzanians,
is especially significant.”
DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
After 20 Years, the Rule of Law Takes Root
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Salvadoran law students compete in a mock criminal
trial. Two decades ago, before rule of law programs
began in El Salvador, legal training was inadequate.
National Council of the Judiciary, El Salvador |
Two decades ago, Central America was plagued by civil conflict,
human rights abuses, and corrupt judicial systems beholden
to political and economic elites. Laws were antiquated, legal
training was inadequate, and the poor lacked access to justice.
It was in this volatile environment—which included
the 1980 murders in El Salvador of four American women missionaries—that
USAID, in cooperation with the State Department, launched
a regional rule of law (ROL) program focused on human rights
and criminal justice. Today, there are ROL programs in more
than 50 countries.
“There was a great deal of skepticism within the Agency
and the human rights community about our getting involved
in this highly politicized issue,” recalled Fay Armstrong,
then coordinator for Administration of Justice in the Western
Hemisphere at the State Department. “We were starting
from ground zero, and few realized how truly dysfunctional
these judiciaries were.”
Over time, USAID’s ROL programs became a key element
in democratic consolidation throughout the region.
“For Salvadorans, corruption and impunity in the justice
system are no longer considered acceptable or inevitable,”
said Mauricio Herrera, a USAID democracy specialist in El
Salvador.
“Public awareness and advocacy for reforms on justice
system transparency are now common among civil society organizations.”
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, USAID expanded its ROL
programs, assisting postcommunist states to restructure judiciaries.
“Not only did these countries lack democratic traditions,
but they had no history of sovereignty,” said Paul Bonicelli,
deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy,
Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA). “We had
to help change mindsets, in addition to forging independent
institutions and helping to draft constitutions and laws to
enhance due process and secure citizens’ rights.”
Despite resistance from entrenched interests, there has
been meaningful progress.
In Ukraine, the 2004 Orange Revolution gained renewed strength
when the Supreme Court ruled that presidential elections were
stolen and ordered a new vote, paving the way for victory
of prodemocracy candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Several of the
court justices had participated in a USAID-supported training
program on election dispute resolution.
In the 1990s, USAID started programs in Africa, Asia, and
the Near East. The Agency helped rebuild Rwanda’s shattered
judiciary after the 1994 genocide. In both Bangladesh and
the Philippines, USAID worked with NGOs on innovative social
justice programs. Since 2001 in Afghanistan and 2002 in Iraq,
USAID assisted with new constitutions, built courthouses,
and trained judges and lawyers.
“USAID’s ROL programs have a rich history,”
said Gerald Hyman, director of DCHA’s Office of Democracy
and Governance. “Now, our primary focus must be to assist
fragile states rebuild the rule of law and transition to democracy,
just as El Salvador has done over the past 20 years.”
Speaking before the American Bar Association’s International
Rule of Law Symposium in November 2005, then-Administrator
Andrew S. Natsios said: “We know that our development
goals postcommunist—whether addressing poverty, economic
growth, health, … [the] environment, or democracy—cannot
be realized in the absence of rule of law.”
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