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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
THE PILLARS
In this section:
New Maize, Cowpea Plants Resist Pests
Health Workers Join Forces to Fight AIDS
Small Business Loans Help Angola Economy
Congo Ex-Combatants Transition to Jobs
ECONOMIC GROWTH, AGRICULTURE, AND TRADE
New Maize, Cowpea Plants Resist Pests
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A farmer discusses the performance of a new variety
of maize planted on her farm in Kisumu, Kenya.
African Agricultural Technology Foundation
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The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) is
ready to introduce “striga killer” to farmers in
Kenya after eight years of research to create this variety
of maize that is resistant to the parasitic weed striga.
Striga causes more than $11 million in crop losses each
year in Kenya alone, where it has invaded 200,000 hectares
(494,200 acres) of cropland and threatens the food supply
in the western part of the country where maize is the major
staple. The weed has not spared the rest of Africa either.
One estimate put the crop lost on the continent at $1 billion.
Striga killer maize is the result of new technology developed
by a group of partners—national and international research
institutions, seed companies, and NGOs—that AATF pulled
together.
Scientists breed maize seeds with a maize gene that makes
the plants resistant to herbicides. Then, the seeds are coated
with the herbicide. When striga tries to attack, the herbicide
kills it but has no effect on the maize. The maize continues
to grow as it normally should. The new technique has no impact
on the quality or taste.
Rose Katete, of the Kisumu district in Western Kenya, is
one of 3,000 farmers who have tried the new maize variety
on their farms as part of an initial test group.
“I have been pulling and burying striga on my five-acre
farm for the past 17 years, and the problem has only grown
worse,” she said. “Ua Kayongo [striga killer] has
provided the best crop of maize that I have ever grown.”
AATF expects the new maize variety to become available commercially
in Kenya later this year. There are also plans to launch striga
killer in other affected countries.
Buoyed by its success, last year the AATF, with further
support from USAID, signed a licensing agreement with Monsanto
Company to access the “Bt” gene, which allows the
development of insect-resistant cowpeas.
Grown on more than 12.5 million hectares, cowpea is one
of the most important food grain legumes in Africa and an
important source of protein. But insect pests can cause losses
of up to 90 percent unless pesticides are used. Traditional
breeding cannot create a cowpea resistant to insects. But
a new, bioengineered cowpea will be hardy enough to resist
the pests without the environmental and health risks associated
with pesticides.
“This project is exciting for two reasons,” said
Robert Horsch, an executive at Monsanto. “First, there
is great potential for Bt technology to solve a key problem
in cowpea production for small holder farmers. The second
is the development of the institutional capacity within Africa
to lead a global consortium of public and private organizations
needed to create and deploy this high-tech product. AATF,
with help and support from USAID, is developing both the product
and the African leadership capacity.”
The British Department for International Development recently
announced that it would increase its support for agricultural
biotechnology through the AATF.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Health Workers Join Forces to Fight AIDS
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Wendy Seal, the Barbados national training coordinator
for CHART, left, prepares for a nurses meeting with
fellow nurse MaryAnn Vitiello from I-TECH. I-TECH is
providing technical assistance to the USAID-funded program.
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BARBADOS—Nurses from 20 Caribbean nations met
here last month to create a mission statement to guide them
through the year. They also discussed ways to improve their
work as educators, advocates, and caretakers of HIV/AIDS patients.
The meeting is among the efforts of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS
Regional Training Initiative (CHART), a five-year USAID project
to insure the region builds a cadre of highly trained, committed
professionals to help combat HIV/AIDS. The $6 million project
also trains health practitioners and encourages them to work
together.
The Caribbean has the world’s second highest rate of
HIV prevalence, with 2.3 percent of the population—mostly
women and young girls—infected.
CHART runs five training centers in the Bahamas, Haiti,
Jamaica, and Barbados, which are supported by the regional
coordinating unit in Jamaica. Each center is linked to a health
facility.
At the start of 2006, more than 100 doctors, nurses, and
other health practitioners had been trained to become trainers
and spread their knowledge to other health workers. Another
1,200 healthcare workers have undergone multidisciplinary
training where they discuss case studies, role play, and create
national work plans for addressing HIV/AIDS infection. The
project also holds workshops addressing stigma and discrimination
of HIV patients.
Dr. Brendan Bain, director of the CHART Regional Coordinating
Unit at the University of the West Indies campus in Jamaica,
is optimistic about the project’s development.
“In the midst of ‘birth and teething pains,’
we have succeeded in building alliances with partners within
and outside of the Caribbean to improve the quality and coverage
of care and treatment for persons living with HIV/AIDS,”
he said.
Dr. Bain pointed out that individual countries are backing
the project and magnifying its impact by allocating building
space and providing technical input from their local healthcare
personnel.
As a regional organization, CHART coordinates and shares
HIV/AIDS infection information alongside key medical organizations,
including the Caribbean Network of Seropositives, the Caribbean
Health Research Council, the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre,
and the Coalition of Caribbean National AIDS Program Coordinators.
This has helped the groups share best practices and lessons
learned, which is helping achieve a more standardized and
consistent approach to combating the deadly illness, said
Angela Davis, USAID’s project management specialist in
the Caribbean regional mission.
“Given the changing nature of the HIV epidemic, healthcare
worker burnout, and the outmigration of many Caribbean professionals,
ongoing training is essential to sustaining an HIV/AIDS trained
workforce in the Caribbean,” she said.
A recent survey of CHART training participants found that
the majority now feel more confident, have more compassion,
and are more sensitive to issues of stigma and of discrimination
against HIV patients. They also spend more time counseling
patients. Mainly, participants said, they coordinate with
each other more closely after the training and recognize the
value of a team approach.
“My most important lesson came from interacting with
the people living with HIV/AIDS—this did a lot for me,”
said one health practitioner. “It helped me to understand
more and to be a better counselor. I began to take more time
with [my HIV/AIDS patients.]”
CHART is funded jointly by USAID, the U.S. Health Resources
and Services Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, with additional support from UNAIDS
and, more recently, from a Global Fund grant to Pan-Caribbean
Partnership against HIV/AIDS.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE
Small Business Loans Help Angola Economy
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Celestina Pedro, a salon owner and hairdresser, works
on a customer’s hair. Pedro is one of thousands
of small Angolan entrepreneurs tapping into expansion
loans offered through the Global Development Alliance.
WISHH
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LUANDA, Angola—Celestina Pedro is one of the
5 percent of this country’s 11 million people to run
her own business. A hairdresser, Pedro lacks most required
business documents and did not have a bank account for the
first two years of her enterprise.
This changed after NovoBanco, a small business lender created
through the Global Development Alliance, opened its doors
across the street from Pedro’s salon. For some time she
watched small business owners come in and out. She contemplated
her worn out chairs and washbasin, thought about refurbishing
and expanding her bustling salon, and finally crossed the
street to ask for a loan.
Eight months later, Pedro had paid off her $2,000 loan.
She also had new equipment, and four new salon assistants.
The bulk of money in Angola is made from oil and diamond
extraction, so small businesses have long been overlooked,
said NovoBanco Chairman Koen Wasmus.
“Through our efforts, we hope the government will begin
to realize how important microenterprises can be in creating
a middle class that can be a stabilizing force for a country
in transition,” he said.
Free market principles like this were unheard of in this
former Marxist state, which suffered 22 years of war until
2002. Inadequate and cumbersome business regulations still
hamper small business development. For instance, NGOs can
make small loans but cannot accept deposits or establish accounts.
Meanwhile, traditional banks can provide account services,
but require high minimum deposits.
Angolans face some of the highest business startup costs
in the developing world, averaging $6,000, or more than twice
the nation’s average income per capita of $2,500.
Through the NovoBanco alliance, USAID along with partners
Chevron and ProCredit Holding, an international network of
microfinance banks, is working to make Angola’s business
environment friendly to small entrepreneurs.
To date, NovoBanco has disbursed more than 1,600 small business
loans totaling more than $9.5 million. It has also opened
more than 10,000 deposit accounts worth $2.7 million.
The lender makes its banking services accessible and affordable
to everyone regardless of minimum deposit; earning potential;
or social, gender, ethnic, and financial status. Loans ranging
from $100 to $15,000 are given to minimarkets, wholesalers,
market traders, hairdressers, taxi drivers, and private schools,
among others. The average loans range from $1,000 to $10,000.
One client, Dona Fernando, who along with her husband took
out a loan to expand their pharmacy, said: “I realized
that people can need medication at any hour of the day, so
I decided to open my pharmacy 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. When I’ve finished repaying the current loan, I
hope to get another one because I have more plans for the
future.”
DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
Congo Ex-Combatants Transition to Jobs
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Ex-combatants in the Congo’s east-central Maniema
province participated in a USAID-funded project that
provided bicycles so the community could start a bicycle
taxi business. About 200 ex-combatants participated
and are earning as much as $25 per day, a large salary
for that region..
USAID/Congo |
KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of the Congo—A
USAID program educating and putting to work former combatants
in this war-torn country was so successful that the Agency
is now enlarging the project with support from the World Bank
Multi-Country Demobilization and Reintegration Program (MDRP).
The large nation had been at war for five years, during
which 3 million people died and another 3.2 million were displaced
from their homes.
After a peace agreement signed in late 2002, a transitional
government was formed to put Congo on the road to peace.
One hurdle the new government had to overcome was how to
reintegrate ex-combatants, refugees, and internally displaced
persons into their communities. USAID’s Office of Transition
Initiatives (OTI) took on the task, and over three years worked
with 19,000 people in war-affected communities in two central
and northern regions on
• a youth education and skills program to train war-affected
youth on agriculture, civic education, health, conflict management,
reconciliation, personal values, and basic literacy and numeracy
• a media program supporting access to information about
issues key to the transition
• small grants funding vocational training, kits, and
pay-for-work community rehabilitation projects for ex-combatants
Now the effort is being expanded to reach more than 11,000
ex-combatants and some 5,000 residents of war-affected villages
in the northeast part of the country. Like its predecessor,
the project will combine five-month lifeskills training with
vocational training and community rehabilitation projects
for ex-combatants and the communities to which they are returning.
“I don’t need to pick up a gun to make a living
anymore because I have two hands and two feet and I can work,”
said Dona Mayala, an ex-combatant who participated in the
OTI program. He and fellow ex-combatants are learning how
to make bricks, sew, and manage small businesses.
In the east-central Maniema province, for instance, about
200 youth joined a newly set up bicycle taxi business. In
a region with few cars and poor roads, bicycles are a convenient
form of transportation. Participants are earning up to $25
per day, a large salary for the region.
The scaled-up project will spend $6.4 million and marks
the first time that USAID and the World Bank have combined
resources this way to tackle a critical yet recurrent worldwide
challenge: the reintegration of ex-combatants following civil
war and conflict, said Konrad Huber of OTI. The partnership
results from a collaboration between USAID’s Africa bureau
and the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.
“This partnership paves the way for better use of scarce
resources and future partnerships with USAID’s international
network of partners,” Huber said.
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