THE REGIONS
In this section:
Spicy Chilies Brighten Bolivian Harvest
Combatants Disarm to Rejoin Communities in Congo
Shrinking Forests in Bangladesh Get Protection
Kosovo Cities Improve Finances, Build Roads,
Parks
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Spicy Chilies Brighten Bolivian Harvest
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A Bolivian farmer shows a sample of his hot chili pepper
lot, which was sold in the Padilla business table.
USAID/Bolivia |
PADILLA, Bolivia—July 8 began spicier than usual
in this rural southern town. It was the start of the Fourth
Annual International Red Chili Pepper Festival.
Some 317 tons of red chili peppers were sold at the fair,
three times more than at last year’s event. Domestic
and foreign buyers from Peru and Argentina wanted to buy even
larger amounts of the fiery vegetable.
The variety that grows in Padilla, one of the country’s
poorest regions, is particularly flavorful and sought after.
Bolivians consume 4,000 tons of hot chili peppers per year.
Demand is much higher than production.
This makes red chili peppers a perfect crop for local farmers,
said Jorge Calvo, agricultural specialist with USAID/Bolivia,
which has been working with red chili pepper farmers through
the Market Access and Poverty Alleviation Project (MAPA).
“The average local annual family income from agriculture
is about $350. Our hot chili pepper growers have experienced
a 120 percent increase in agricultural income, on average,
by working with USAID to improve their production,” said
Calvo.
Much of the red chili pepper harvests were previously lost
due to inadequate handling, excessive use of chemical fertilizers,
and poor marketing skills. But MAPA helped farmers get improved
seeds, trained them in the proper use of pesticides, and taught
them how to produce clean plant material through controlled
sanitation in seedbeds.
Additional training was provided in post-harvest management,
particularly the drying process, to reduce insect damage,
loss due to mold, and unsanitary drying methods.
“In the past, we used to sell our products to intermediaries
who used to pay us lower amounts than the ones of the markets,”
said Mario Ávila, 37, who has increased production
and grown his income by about 50 percent in recent years.
MAPA relies on experienced growers like Ávila to
pass on their newly acquired and improved farming knowledge
to other hot chili pepper farmers.
“I’m teaching everything I learned to some 14
families here,” he said. “At the beginning, some
neighbors did not have confidence in the project. But now
they are convinced.”
MAPA—which works with tea, coffee, anise, cumin, and
oregano, as well as chilies—also helps farmers to get
microcredit loans to finance tools, seeds, and additional
workers.
AFRICA
Combatants Disarm to Rejoin Communities in Congo
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Jean Kavira Vawite, 51, received an official certificate
of disarmament from a USAID reintegration program. Vawite
joined the old Zairian army in 1995 and lived in the
bush for many years.
Leslie Rose |
BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo—The war
ended here two years ago, but the challenges have not stopped
for thousands of former fighters.
“These are people who had nothing and had nothing to
do,” says Toby Vaughan, who is chief of party for Development
Alternatives Inc., a USAID partner working in the Democratic
Republic of Congo on disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration
(DDR). “We need to give them something to do so that
they become positive members of society.”
Without something to do, these fighters prey on the local
community in order to survive.
USAID-funded reintegration projects have employed 750 ex-combatants
in Butembo and its surrounding territories to build a 45-mile
road. They have worked on rebuilding and erecting new bridges.
Electrical capacity is being expanded, and 47 aquaculture
ponds were built in collaboration with the University of Graben’s
research center in Butembo.
Butembo, a city of 450,000, is home to more than 1,000 ex-members
of the Maï-Maï militia, and that number could grow
to 6,000 if all active militia members around Butembo decided
to demobilize.
Though it is considered an economic and cultural hub, the
city did not escape the war undamaged. Local infrastructure
was decimated and cattle herds stolen. The coffee plantations
have been obliterated by disease.
“It is not as easy to make a life here as in the bush,”
said Muhindo Kanzala, 23, who joined the Maï-Maï
when he was 19.
“In the bush, we had guns. What we needed, we took.
What we wanted, we grabbed. Many of us are still living that
way in the bush, and many nights I think about rejoining the
militia,” he added.
But there are also people like Jean Kavira Vawite, 51, who
has fought and lived in the bush since 1995 and now wants
change.
“My wife and I are getting too old for the bush,”
Vawite said. “We just did not know how to leave that
life. Now we will.”
Butembo is home to a soft-drink bottling plant, brick factories,
foam mattress production, and agricultural processing facilities,
all of which could provide employment for ex-combatants, said
Vaughan.
Trucks transporting fuel and goods regularly travel to the
city along routes that cross through Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
USAID is also sponsoring conflict resolution efforts helping
former combatants return to their communities. Through this
program, 115 families have opened their homes to ex-combatants
working on the roads project.
“There was never any question of sending them away,”
said Abbé Jean Marie Paluku Kahisiryo, vice rector
of Catholic University of Graben, who was key in opening negotiations
with the Maï-Maï. “These are not really violent
people. They are not complicated. They are basically good
men and women who had been easily manipulated in the past
and very vulnerable.”
Established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the Republic of
the Congo gained its independence in 1960. Joseph Mobutu took
power in 1965, renamed the country Zaire, and ruled with an
iron fist until 1997. At that time, a rebellion led by Laurent
Kabila toppled Mobutu’s regime. Civil war was touched
off by a massive inflow of refugees from fighting in Rwanda
and Burundi.
Kabila renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo.
His regime was supported and then later challenged by an insurrection
backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Troops from five neighboring
countries supported Kabila. A ceasefire was signed in July
1999 by the Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda, Namibia, Rwanda,
and Congolese armed rebel groups, but sporadic fighting continued.
Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 and replaced by
his son, Joseph. A transitional government was set up in July
2003, following peace accords. National elections are planned
for 2006.
ASIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Shrinking Forests in Bangladesh Get Protection
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A member of the Teknaf Reserve looks over tree seedlings.
A USAID-funded project helps train community members
around Lawachara National Park to produce a variety
of seedlings used to restock home gardens and increase
local supplies for fuelwood, poles, and nontimber forest
products. The seedlings also serve to restore and rehabilitate
the park’s degraded areas.
International Resource Group |
DHAKA, Bangladesh—The Lawachara National Park
northeast of this capital is dying—its sambar deer and
Kebu bagh leopard have already disappeared—but a new
project aims to change that trend.
Bangladesh has extended land protection rules to a large
portion of Lawachara, where land encroachment has been killing
the habitat and its ecosystems.
Lawachara is not the only shrinking forest in Bangladesh.
More than half of the country’s forest cover has disappeared
in the last 30 years, and today even the forests in sanctuaries
and national parks are threatened. Land encroachment, mainly
for rice fields, is to blame, as is illegal logging for fuelwood
and bamboo and cane collection.
Now the forest is gaining protection through a U.S.-funded
land management program, the Nishorgo Support Project, in
newly protected areas.
A recent report in The Daily Star in Dhaka said that
forest cover has shrunk by about 15 percent and forest density
and abundance of tall trees by 60 percent in recent years.
Wildlife species—from small deer to parrots and wild
fowl—are endangered.
The Nishorgo project, aiming to halt this destruction, has
helped increase the number of staff at Lawachara to halt poaching
and illegal logging. The project is providing specialized
training in biodiversity conservation to Forest Department
field managers and helping them develop management plans.
To meet the needs of nearby villagers for food, fuel, and
other necessities, the project is also working with the Forest
Department and local communities to improve and manage the
working forests that surround Lawachara’s protected area.
New policies ensure that revenues and other fees from tourism
in the protected forests are shared with local communities,
said Philip DeCosse of International Resources Group, which
is working on the project through a USAID contract.
To further reduce dependence on forests, USAID is developing
alternative income-generating activities, such as cattle rearing,
fish culture, ecotourism, and tree nurseries.
“I knew nothing about running a nursery, but I received
the Nishorgo training, and now, when I sell my tree plants,
I will get cash,” said one recently trained Lawachara
nursery farmer. “Now I have an income source, my family
will be better off, and I can train others—my son, his
wife, some of my neighbors.”
Shamol Dev Barma was among the first to receive training
as an ecotour guide in the Lawachara protected area. “Now
I realize that the forests can be a source of income for us.
We will live happily only if we can save the protected areas,”
he said.
Through the Nishorgo project, an international hotel chain
was persuaded to invest in conservation awareness campaigns.
The Bangladesh Scouts are also working with the Forest Department
to promote hiking, birding, and a greater appreciation of
conservation among young people.
EUROPE AND EURASIA
Kosovo Cities Improve Finances, Build Roads, Parks
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Arvent Demiri, 10, and Ardit Xharra, 9, bike around
a newly built park in Prizren. With paved lanes that
run along a creek, the park was built with new income
the municipality generated by collecting property taxes
through a USAID project.
Patricia Orlowitz, USAID/Kosovo
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KACANIC, Kosovo—A new road connects this city
near the Macedonian border to several nearby villages. A freshly
paved sidewalk runs along the river, and a site nearby has
been cordoned off and will soon become a park and children’s
playground.
These changes took place thanks to property tax collection,
a practice that did not exist here before 2002. Since then,
a USAID-funded project created the position of a property
tax manager and taught municipal personnel how to survey properties,
issue tax bills, and collect the money.
Kacanic collects about 65 percent of the estimated potential
property taxes, more than most Kosovar municipalities.
“Our citizens are starting to see the benefits of paying
taxes,” said Kacanic’s property tax manager, Xhelal
Dema. “Only by paying can we have better roads, schools,
or water systems.”
Prizren, about 43 miles away, is held up as a model of good
use of tax collections. The city’s large park, with manicured
lawns, is just one of the benefits reaped from instituting
property tax collection. A campaign now informs all visitors
about how and why the city has built more roads, renovated
schools, and started a new park.
Helping cities collect taxes is one way in which U.S. funding
for financial governance is moving Kosovo closer to financial
self-sufficiency.
On a larger scale, the Agency in 2002 helped set up Kosovo’s
Ministry of Economy and Finance, which tackles budget development,
treasury management, macroeconomic policy, and tax administration.
Advisors provided by USAID have helped the ministry understand
its functions. Training and workshops are constantly held
for officials, and technical assistance helps the ministry
draft and carry out new legislation.
A significant USAID-driven change has been this year’s
switch from a commitment-based to a cash-based budget.
Before, funds for building a new school in Pristina, for
instance, were budgeted for one year, even if the actual construction
would take two or three years. This led to financial shortages
and mismanagement. Now, the budget allots a specific amount
per year toward building a school until the project is finished.
“This allows for strategic budgeting,” said Hasan
Isufaj, deputy director of the Consolidated Budget Department
at the ministry. “This is very important for Kosovo,
because last year, for the first time, the budget moved to
a deficit, so we spent more than we collected in revenues.”
Because Kosovo is not a sovereign country, it cannot apply
for international financial institution loans. Having a balanced
budget is the only way that Kosovo can cover its expenses,
said Kris Kaufmann, a U.S.-funded advisor working on tax reform.
“We have developed transparency at a high level, accountability,
and fiscal discipline,” Isufaj said. “Also, it’s
very important to us to have learned to prioritize, because
we didn’t do this in the past. Projects are now evaluated
with more detail, and are selected based on the government’s
priorities.”
USAID invested $18 million over the past three years improving
the institutions and staff of the ministry, which is now on
sure footing, Kaufmann said.
“The project really covers a lot of layers of government,
so it’s very coherent,” he said.
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