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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
INSIDE DEVELOPMENT
In this section:
Aid Pours into Philippines Village Devastated
by Mudslide
Election Aid to Haiti Tops $31M
MCC Sets $60 Million Threshold Funding to
Fight Corruption in Tanzania, Albania, and Paraguay
Liberia Bridge Part of Post-War U.S. Aid
New Foreign Aid Director Will Improve Coordination,
Bush Official Tells ACVFA Meeting
Online Food Safety and Marketing Course Reaches
Developing Countries
U.S. Trade Agency Gives $360,000 to New Partnership
for Africa’s Development
Aid Pours into Philippines Village Devastated by Mudslide
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U.S. Marines help Philippine villagers dig out of a
mudslide that struck Guinsaugon Feb. 16.
USMC Cpl. Will Lathrop
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GUINSAUGON, Philippines—Emergency aid poured
in for a mudslide-devastated village in the eastern Philippines
as rescuers desperately searched for survivors after a mudslide
struck Feb. 17.
At least 84 people have been confirmed killed in the village,
which is about 435 miles southeast of Manila, but officials
said the death toll could be much higher. All 1,500 residents
have been affected.
As of Feb. 21, nearly 1,000 people were missing, including
253 students and staff of an elementary school that was buried
under tons of soft mud and debris, according to the National
Disaster Coordinating Council.
An advance team of U.S. Marines arrived at the area Feb.
18 to help in the frantic rescue operations. Rescuers from
Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and other countries, as well as international
agencies, were also on their way.
The United States has also dispatched two Navy ships and
17 helicopters to the area to boost the delivery of relief
goods and other supplies needed for the rescue.
The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) disbursed
$100,000 in aid for emergency relief supplies immediately
after the disaster. In later days it added another $150,000
for additional relief supplies and to cover transportation
costs.
USAID/OFDA provided emergency relief commodities, including
100 rolls of plastic sheeting, 1,000 water containers, 1,000
blankets, and 400 body bags. U.S. Marine helicopters transported
these commodities from Tacloban to the affected area Feb.
21. Philippine authorities say that about 2,900 villagers
are being cared for in temporary evacuation sites, including
about 450 survivors from the surrounding area, as a precaution.
OFDA estimates that water, blankets, medicine, and food
are needed for more than 1,600 people from the affected villages,
as well as for potential additional evacuees from neighboring
villages. Rubber boots and earthmoving equipment are required
immediately for relief and recovery operations.
According to the Philippines Geosciences Bureau, the landslide
area is 13 feet deep and covers approximately 2.5 square miles,
making the area unstable and difficult to traverse.
Election Aid to Haiti Tops $31M
René Préval is expected to be sworn in as
Haiti’s new president March 29, after besting more than
30 candidates in the nation’s February elections that
came off without major bloodshed.
That alone may be considered a small victory by international
election observers in the Caribbean nation, which has been
plagued with conflict for much of its history. USAID spent
$31 million over the last two years to support the electoral
process.
In addition to contributing to the costs of voter registration
and elections oversight carried out by the UN and the Organization
of American States, USAID fielded national and international
observer teams; conducted political polling; provided technical
assistance to the country’s Provisional Electoral Council;
and helped train journalists.
The Agency also helped strengthen the ability of political
parties to compete, including help with office and communications
equipment; and helped conduct voter education drives. Election
officials and international observers put the number of voters
at 2.2 million—out of 3.5 million registered voters.
International observers have called the elections free and
fair. However, protesters challenged the early results of
the election—including supporters of Préval—and
the country’s electoral chief fled the country after
receiving death threats. Préval, who is considered
a champion of the poor, won just over 51 percent of votes
cast.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the new president
provides a “chance for a country that has had too few
chances. I think you will see that we will be looking at what
resource needs we have for Haiti as this new government gets
up and running.”
Donors are now looking for ways to extend assistance to
the new administration. Since July 2004, the international
donor community has provided over $780 million to Haiti. Of
that, the United States contributed $277 million.
Currently, USAID/Haiti supports programs focused on public
healthcare, community revitalization and empowerment, job
creation, local government partnerships, education services,
judicial system reforms, independent media, and agribusiness.
Haiti is also one of the targeted countries under President
Bush’s Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS relief.
With the inauguration of the new government, USAID will
look for additional opportunities to introduce new programs
to strengthen the parliament and local governments, the mission
said. The local governance program will be carried out in
conjunction with continuing stabilization activities, including
short-term job creation activities. The jobs programs increase
citizen participation in local decisionmaking, provide useful
public works, and offer a monthly source of income to some
of Haiti’s citizens, the mission said.
The country remains the poorest in the Western Hemisphere,
and today the annual per capita income is less than $400.
The life expectancy is 53 years, and an estimated 163,000
children are AIDS orphans. Just over half of the population
can read.
MCC Sets $60 Million Threshold Funding to Fight Corruption
in Tanzania, Albania, and Paraguay
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved Threshold
Program funding packages in January for three countries—Tanzania,
Albania, and Paraguay—to tackle corruption over the next
two years.
Tanzania will receive $11 million to help civil society
monitor the government’s fight against corruption. It
aims to strengthen the rule of law so corruption cases can
be successfully tried and offenders convicted, establish a
financial intelligence unit to detect financial crime, and
increase the transparency of public procurement.
Albania will receive $14 million to reduce corruption through
reforms in tax administration, public procurement, and business
registration over two years.
The MCC approved $35 million for Paraguay to reduce corruption
by strengthening the rule of law and fostering conditions
for economic growth and poverty reduction.
The Threshold Program is designed to assist countries committed
to reforms but that need help to reach a certain level before
qualifying for funds from the Millennium Challenge Account
(MCA), which is administered by the MCC.
The announcement increases the number of threshold countries
to five. Previously, MCC approved aid for Burkina Faso, which
is trying to improve education for girls in 10 provinces that
have the lowest girls’ primary education completion rates;
and Malawi, which is fighting corruption and improving fiscal
management.
USAID, with its partners, is carrying out all threshhold
efforts in the five countries.
MCC Chief Executive Officer John Danilovich issued a statement
congratulating the governments of Paraguay, Albania, and Tanzania
“for their results-oriented program to root out corruption
and improve the economic environment that leads to poverty
reduction and private sector led growth.” He also thanked
USAID for carrying out anticorruption projects in those countries.
Threshold Program assistance is designed to help countries
address specific policy weaknesses indicated by country scores
on 16 policy indicators central to MCA eligibility.
Liberia Bridge Part of Post-War U.S. Aid
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USAID helped train teachers who are taking part in
Liberia’s Accelerated Learning Program.
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MONROVIA, Liberia—Once it is reconstructed,
the Barclayville Bridge will open up areas in the southeastern
region of Liberia that had recently only been accessible by
helicopter.
The bridge is part of a package of quick impact projects
slated for the West African country by USAID after the democratically
elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office Jan. 16.
The bridge repair is expected to be among the more symbolic
and tangible results of the “quick and visible progress”
Sirleaf called for in the first 150 days of her presidency.
Other projects include work to enhance infrastructure, healthcare,
education, job creation, and government efficiency.
“With the commitment of the new Liberian government,
and the ongoing support of the international community, a
brighter future for the population of all West Africa is within
our reach,” Assistant Administrator Lloyd Pierson told
the House subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and
International Operations at a hearing in February, where he
also outlined some of USAID’s continued efforts in the
country.
He called Sirleaf’s election a “hopeful sign”
for Liberia and the region.
Civil war broke out in Liberia in 1989 after rumblings of
discord that began earlier that decade. Despite a change in
the administration—rebel leader Charles Taylor became
president—fighting continued. More than 200,000 people
were killed and about a million people left the country. After
a ceasefire in 2003, Taylor was forced to resign and went
into exile. A transitional government held power until Sirleaf’s
victory.
Much work lies ahead. Liberia’s economy is in shambles
with the unemployment rate hovering around 70 percent. The
literacy rate is 20 percent, and the country’s youth
has barely any formal education.
The U.S. government committed more than $880 million for
Liberia’s reconstruction over the past two years. Funding
for 2006 is expected to top $94 million, and a request for
2007 should top $72 million.
Much has been spent providing humanitarian assistance, such
as food aid and sanitation for 200,000 refugees and more than
270,000 internally displaced persons. The United States also
spent $10.4 million to support the October 2005 elections,
including helping to register 1.3 million voters, 75 percent
of whom showed up at the polls.
USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), whose
mandate is to quickly deploy high-impact programs, began the
Liberia Transition Initiative in 2004. Now, with Sirleaf’s
election, OTI is revising its strategy to better respond to
the new political environment on the ground now that the transitional
government’s mandate and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement
of 2003 have expired.
Among its successes so far has been an accelerated learning
program, which helps youths catch up on their education by
compressing six years of primary education into three years.
About 6,300 students in more than 110 schools are participating.
The Liberia mission took over funding the program in February,
said John Gattorn, a program manager in the OTI. “There’s
a lot of positive energy,” he said.
USAID is spending $6 million on improving governance, fighting
corruption, and promoting sound economic management. And an
infrastructure project will repair several schools, a hospital,
roads, and other public facilities, while providing work to
more than 1,500 people.
New Foreign Aid Director Will Improve Coordination, Bush
Official Tells ACVFA Meeting
The Bush administration decision to combine the next administrator
of USAID with the new State Department position of director
of foreign assistance aims to improve coordination of U.S.
aid now spread over more than 15 federal agencies, says one
White House official.
“We need more policy coordination and cohesion,”
said Faryar Shirzad, who is a deputy assistant to the president
for international economic affairs and deputy national security
advisor. “It’s an ongoing process.”
Shirzad, speaking at the Feb. 22 Advisory Committee on Voluntary
Foreign Aid (ACVFA) meeting, said that to promote development—which
is part of his job at the National Security Council—the
administration is focused on
• opening markets to promote growth
• working with international financial institutions and
bilaterally with other countries to stabilize economic policies
and prevent great shocks from energy prices and other issues
• promoting the global economy through a rules-based
trading system
The ACVFA meeting, held in Washington, D.C., also included
talks on the U.S. foreign assistance budget, potential pandemic
outbreaks, and USAID’s work in Africa.
Shirzad said that “the president increased aid more
than any president since Harry Truman,” and noted that
34 percent of foreign aid by the G-7 industrial nations comes
from the United States.
Bush intends to leave his mark on foreign assistance and
to make sure that a development agenda “takes hold”
through sound policies rather than throwing money at chronic
problems, he said.
One step in that direction was the attempt by Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice to move State and USAID closer through
the creation of the new director of foreign assistance position,
which will oversee and coordinate the foreign assistance programs
at State and USAID, he said.
The administration also created, some years ago, a special
directorate at the National Security Council headed by former
USAID official John Simon to tackle the development agenda.
Bush also created special programs with billions in funding
such as the Millennium Challenge Account for well-performing
poor countries, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS
Relief, and the Malaria Initiative.
In addition, the administration is working through the Doha
agenda of international trade talks to improve trade opportunities
for poor countries through tariff cuts and technical assistance.
However, Shirzad warned that trade deals also require support
at home where U.S. producers may lobby for their own interests.
The Bush aide noted that the president asked the private
sector to mobilize assistance by U.S. corporations. Those
donations often go through U.S. nongovernmental organizations,
whose leaders were in the audience at the ACVFA meeting.
He noted that former presidents Clinton and Bush were among
those asked to mobilize donations to the 2004 tsunami, the
Pakistan earthquake, and Central American flooding.
Shirzad said that a major change in the way USAID, State,
and other agencies share their work is upsetting to some:
“We all panic about boxes being shifted and turf lines
moved,” he said.
“But we all got into this [assistance work] to have
a job, but also a calling and to make a difference.
“I’d ask that you understand that [at the White
House] you have got a group of people very, very, very committed
to the development agenda that will leave a legacy you can
be proud of.”
Online Food Safety and Marketing Course Reaches Developing
Countries
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Maintaining production standards is critical for successful
vegetable export programs. A distance learning program
sponsored by USAID and the World Bank is tackling this
issue in developing countries.
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USAID and the World Bank have launched a distance learning
course that is bringing together a virtual community of as
many as 400 people to talk about ways developing countries
can meet food safety standards and successfully sell products
in international markets.
The classes began Jan. 30 and run through the end of March.
Public officials and representatives from the private sector
and NGOs are among the participants, and the vast majority
of them already deal with food and marketing standards on
a day-to-day basis. Among them are representatives from 30
countries, including Laos, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Ghana, and
Honduras.
There has been “significant e-discussion on the chat
forums, and the curriculum content—in terms of readings—is
excellent,” said David Soroko, an agricultural economist
in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade’s
(EGAT) Office of Agriculture.
“The level of interest illustrates a growing developing
country realization that product standards, and specifically
food standards, will have a tremendous impact on farm, firm,
and country competitiveness, government policy, employment,
and individual professional careers,” Soroko added.
Product standards are becoming more important in determining
whether a country’s agricultural producers can compete
and make a profit. But meeting specific standards in agricultural,
food, and other exports presents challenges in developing
countries.
EGAT and the World Bank already provide technical assistance
in developing countries to improve product standards and competitiveness.
They say that strengthening quality, sanitation, environmental
management, and other aspects of the production process can
spur economic growth.
Take fresh fruit and vegetables: Their global trade value
has exploded over the last decade, Soroko explained. “If
a country with the right production conditions and location
can create a food-standard regulatory environment that supports
profitable farm and firm participation in global markets,
the investment and employment impact may be unlimited,”
he said.
The virtual course, named “Standards and Trade: Challenges
and Opportunities for Developing Country Exports,” invited
facilitators from international organizations, governments,
the private sector, NGOs, and universities to lead the virtual
classrooms and e-discussions over seven weeks. There are also
course materials and case studies available online.
Internet access and language barriers have been challenging,
but not insurmountable. In Zambia, the World Bank created
a bank of computers for course participants who do not have
internet access.
Following the course, participants are expected to join
with others from their country to come up with an action plan
highlighting some of their specific problems and potential
solutions.
The classes mark the first time the Office of Agriculture
has implemented a distance learning course. The office is
spending about $70,000 on the effort.
U.S. Trade Agency Gives $360,000 to New Partnership for
Africa’s Development
Washington File staff
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Women pick green beans in a field in Ethiopia. The
beans are about to be graded, packed, and shipped to
Europe where they will be sold at supermarkets. This
is just one example of a project USAID runs helping
farmers improve and export their produce.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
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Washington—Reflecting President Bush’s
commitment to expand U.S. cooperation with the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the U.S. Trade and
Development Agency (USTDA) announced Feb. 13 it would award
a $360,000 grant to the NEPAD Secretariat to help it prepare
a guide for investors in Africa and move three regional infrastructure
projects toward implementation.
USTDA Director Thelma J. Askey and Chief Executive Firmino
Mucavele signed the grant agreement in Johannesburg, South
Africa, on behalf of the U.S. government and NEPAD, respectively.
NEPAD is an initiative spearheaded by African leaders in 2001
to create a new vision and an integrated socioeconomic development
framework for renewal of the continent.
The USTDA grant award follows a June 2005 meeting between
President Bush and South African President Thabo Mbeki in
which Bush committed U.S. support to advance NEPAD’s
vision of improved governance, better economic management,
and regional integration.
These strategies, a USTDA press release notes, are consistent
with the economic development goals of the African Growth
and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which provides beneficiary countries
in sub-Saharan Africa with preferential access to the U.S.
market. USAID is working with NEPAD to help strengthen Africa’s
agricultural development, and is a major player in AGOA efforts
to spur trade and economic development.
NEPAD has selected AfricaGlobal Partners LLC of Washington
to deliver the USTDA-funded technical assistance. In addition
to the preparation of a NEPAD guide for investors, the technical
assistance program will provide project promotion services
related to three priority projects: the Benin/Togo/Ghana Power
Interconnect Project, the COMESA Telecom Project, and the
Addis Ababa Dry Port Project.
If implemented, the USTDA document added, these projects
will help establish essential infrastructure in sub-Saharan
Africa to further the objectives of AGOA.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency advances economic
development and U.S. commercial interests in developing and
middle-income countries. The agency funds various forms of
technical assistance, feasibility studies, training, orientation
visits, and business workshops that support the development
of a modern infrastructure and a fair and open trading environment.
USTDA’s strategic use of foreign assistance funds to
support sound investment policy and decisionmaking in host
countries creates an enabling environment for trade, investment,
and sustainable economic development. In carrying out its
mission, USTDA gives emphasis to economic sectors that could
benefit from U.S. exports of goods and services.
Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. FrontLines
also contributed to this article.
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