|
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
INSIDE DEVELOPMENT
In this section:
Orange, Rose, Cedar Revolutions Signal Democratic
Advance
Burkina Faso Gets ‘Threshold’ Aid for
Girls’ Education
Aid to Strengthen African Trade Unveiled at Senegal
Conference
7 More West African Countries Cut Tariffs, Boost
Trade Pact
Reflections: Former Official and Others Tell
Tales of 1950s Afghanistan
Disaster Information Center Funnels Private
Aid to Victims
Orange, Rose, Cedar Revolutions Signal Democratic Advance
 |
|
Peaceful protest in Kiev, Ukraine, during the November
2004 Orange Revolution.
USAID/Ukraine |
A new wave of democratic change has been sweeping former
Soviet republics and parts of the Muslim world in the past
two years, much of it supported by USAID programs that have
trained journalists, judges, and political leaders.
In September, the Agency plans to publish Democracy Rising,
a magazine that chronicles some of these changes. It tells
the stories of people who accepted help and advice from established
democracies and seized the chance to reform and improve their
own societies.
Stories in the magazine include Georgia’s Rose Revolution,
Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution,
and Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution, where hundreds of
thousands took to the streets demanding democracy. In those
former Soviet republics, people accused the repressive postcommunist
regimes of running fraudulent elections.
For a decade, U.S. assistance had supported independent
polls, civil society NGOs, and the training of people on how
local and national governments should operate on behalf of
citizens. Now that aid was coming to the fore.
In the Middle East and West Asia, millions more defied threats
by terrorists and lined up to cast their democratic votes
in Kabul, Baghdad, and Ramallah. In all three, new elections
were scheduled in the coming months.
One picture summed it up: in the cold dark night of Tblisi,
Georgia, as people marched toward the seat of government to
protest a fraudulent election, one person in the crowd held
up a miniature Statue of Liberty. He and millions of others
marching for democracy asked for the rights that the statue
represents: a free vote, free press, free speech, and freedom
to worship as they choose.
The newly elected governments face an enormous burden. They
must respond to the needs of the people and provide the services
of the modern nation, such as roads, electricity, healthcare,
education, and security. Governments must eliminate the corruption
and nepotism that drain economies. They must be accountable
to the public for the money they spend and the things they
do. In a word, governments must learn to govern justly.
USAID’s assistance to these countries continues, helping
smooth and guide their democratic reforms.
U.S. aid for democracy grew from $100 million a year in
1990 to $1.2 billion in 2005, distributed among more than
110 countries.
Democracy Rising is scheduled to be available online
in September.
Burkina Faso Gets ‘Threshold’ Aid for Girls’
Education
Burkina Faso signed the first “threshold country plan”
with USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)
in July for aid worth $12.9 million over two years to help
girls in 10 provinces complete their primary education.
“Increasing girls’ education improves the ability
of women to contribute to a developing economy and is a critical
component of fighting poverty,” Paul Applegarth, the
MCC’s former CEO, said in a statement when the threshold
plan was announced.
USAID is administering the program out of the Ghana-based
West Africa Regional Program (WARP), which worked with Burkina
Faso’s Ministry of Basic Education, MCC, the U.S. Embassy,
NGOs, and other donor groups to design the program, said Bryan
Kurtz, USAID’s threshold program coordinator under the
Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination’s Millennium
Challenge Account Secretariat.
The threshold program is part of the MCC, a year-and-a-half-old
entity created by the Bush administration that awards grants
to developing countries that rule justly, invest in their
people, and encourage economic freedom.
The MCC has signed compacts with Cape Verde, Honduras, Madagascar,
and Nicaragua.
Countries such as Burkina Faso that need help to meet all
the qualifications for MCC compacts—16 policy indicators
linked to poverty reduction and development—are eligible
for the threshold agreements funded by MCC.
USAID and other U.S. government agencies will implement
the threshold plans proposed by the countries themselves.
Twelve other countries have also applied for assistance
through the threshold program. Each had to submit a five-page
paper saying “what policy, regulatory, or institutional
reforms would they commit to undertake for which we could
provide assistance,” Kurtz said.
Burkina Faso scored well on 15 of the 16 policy indicators.
“The goal is to help them improve significantly on their
relative score on one of the 16 mcc indicators that they had
scored quite poorly on. That fits in nicely with this concept
of threshold countries,” Kurtz said.
“They had already made some commitments of their own
(to basic education for girls) within the past few years,
so this was not a brand new commitment,” he added, “but
there was a tremendous shortage of resources to devote to
it, so this was just an ideal fit.”
Burkina Faso, a landlocked country, has a population of
just under 14 million. Some 36.9 percent of men but just 16.6
percent of women are literate.
Close to 70 percent of the threshold award will be used
to build 132 new, “girl-friendly” schools. They
will include onsite canteens, daycare centers, and separate
bathrooms for boys and girls—amenities designed to address
some of the reasons girls drop out of school. For example,
girls who must care for younger children will be able to drop
them at daycare while attending class. Take-home rations will
go to girls who maintain a 90 percent attendance rate, an
incentive to parents to continue sending their daughters to
school.
The threshold grant will also be used to pay for teacher
education, literacy training for mothers, mentoring services,
and management costs.
MCC says it hopes to enroll 1,650 new girls within the first
year of the program. These kinds of programs will be expanded
countrywide if they prove effective in the 10 test locations.
Aid to Strengthen African Trade Unveiled at Senegal Conference
By Charles W. Corey
Washington File staff writer
DAKAR, Senegal—At the outset of the African
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) conference here July 18–20,
President Bush announced a new initiative that will provide
as much as $200 million over the next five years to help Africa
participate more fully in trade. The African Global Competitiveness
Initiative will include USAID help to open a fourth trade
hub office—in Dakar—to help businesses connect.
To close the conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice announced another new initiative—the African Growth
and Opportunity Act Diversification Fund.
The diversification fund will enable several U.S. agencies
to help African governments diversify their economies, Rice
said.
Both announcements are expected to build on the trade ties
between the United States and the continent. AGOA exports
to the United States hit $26.6 billion in 2004, an increase
of 88 percent from 2003.
Africa, Rice said, is “a continent of overwhelming
promise. All human beings possess the dignity and the capacity
to flourish in freedom. And AGOA is helping talented men and
women of Africa to realize their natural potential for prosperity.”
One project, run by the U.S. Trade and Development Agency,
will provide grants to help West African nations improve air
safety and plan a new railway to better integrate the region.
“Without trade, there can be no sustained economic
growth,” said Administrator Andrew S. Natsios at the
forum. “Unless foreign aid contributes to economic growth,
it is failing to achieve its primary mission.
“We at USAID do not believe that sustainable growth
can simply be built on handouts from benevolent donors, no
matter how large the amount or how well they coordinate their
efforts. On the contrary, we have come to see that achieving
sustainable growth is fundamentally a matter of governance.
It requires, first and foremost, the building of democratic
institutions responsive to the people and capable of helping
them effectively meet their needs.”
The competitiveness initiative announced by Bush will expand
the three U.S.-Africa trade hubs that are currently operational:
Gaborone, Botswana; Nairobi, Kenya; and Accra, Ghana, said
Lloyd O. Pierson, USAID’s assistant administrator for
Africa.
As part of the initiative, information technology will be
enhanced and expanded so that all of the trade hubs will be
more closely linked and “individuals can find out a lot
more about economic development, investment opportunities,
export opportunities in Africa,” he said.
The initiative will begin in 2006 and run for five years.
Discussing the significance of the initiative, Pierson said,
“The program announced by the president today is one
of the most important that we have and reflects the president’s
commitment, the administration’s commitment, USAID’s
commitment to economic development in Africa.” He reminded
the press that President Bush has a number of initiatives
underway in Africa in the fields of education, health, and
malaria.
Washington File is a product of the U.S. Department of
State. FrontLines staff also contributed to this report.
7 More West African Countries Cut Tariffs, Boost Trade Pact
Many countries in West Africa used to levy more than 100
different levels of tariffs on imports, a holdover from the
colonial era. The levy could be miniscule, double the value
of the product, or some amount in between. But now the number
of tariffs and their value are declining under new policies
supported by USAID trade advisors.
In late May, the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) approved a plan to progressively implement a common
external tariff (CET). The agreement will increase the number
of West African countries in the CET from eight to 15. The
plan will lower tariffs and reduce costs for importers.
The Agency helped ECOWAS adopt the CET through the ECOTrade
Project, which boosts the business climate. Along with freer
intraregional trade, the CET is laying the foundation for
a 15-country West African customs union and places ECOWAS
among only a dozen customs unions in the world.
“The implementation of the CET for West Africa will
increase economic regional integration and is a critical step
for establishing a free trade area in the region,” said
Jeremy Strauss, the trade and investment advisor with USAID’s
West Africa Regional Program (WARP).
“While the benefits of free trade areas are the subject
of continued debate, the work has resulted in unprecedented
cooperation in trade, fiscal, and customs policy by ECOWAS
members. Such collaboration is critical to removing obstacles
to doing business in the region.”
Implementation of the ECOWAS treaty had been stalled for
years. Beginning in 2000, however, the competitive global
economy spurred country leaders to act.
The European Union had also announced that it would negotiate
future aid and trade agreements only with customs unions,
not individual developing countries. The ECOWAS heads of state
moved to expand the CET.
The CET simplifies the structure of tariffs, with a top
bracket of 20 percent on finished goods, 10 percent on intermediate
inputs, 5 percent on basic necessities and raw materials,
and no tariff on social goods such as medicines and publications.
The CET should also provide cost certainty for traders,
speed customs clearance, reduce fraud and bribery, and promote
greater transparency. Bridging the French-English divide in
West Africa will be another tangible benefit of the ECOWAS
CET.
“The result of our efforts will be that enterprises
will take advantage of increased opportunities in the region
and beyond,” Strauss said. ”It will also strengthen
the ECOWAS member states’ negotiation skills for agreements
among themselves and with third parties such as the European
Union and WTO [World Trade Organization].”
The tariffs should be fully harmonized by the end of 2007
so that goods entering any of the 15 ECOWAS countries will
be assessed at the same rate.
ECOTrade is implemented through a cooperative agreement
with USAID partners IBI-International Business Initiatives
and the Associates for International Resources and Development
(AIRD).
Reflections: Former Official and Others Tell Tales of 1950s
Afghanistan
 |
|
USAID retiree James Cudney (left), his wife Margaret
Cudney, and businessman James Richie spoke at the Agency’s
first Reflections Seminar about living in Afghanistan
in the 1950s and 1960s..
Barney Popkin, USAID |
James Cudney, who was a program officer with one of USAID’s
forerunners—the International Cooperation Administration
(ICA)—collected a bundle of photographs during his years
in Afghanistan and shared them at a meeting in the Ronald
Reagan Building.
His wife, Margaret Cudney, was a young mother and wife when
she landed in Afghanistan in the 1950s with her husband and
began teaching English. “Everyone’s own country
is cashmere to him,” she said, reciting one of the Afghan
proverbs she learned during her years in the country.
James Richie, who spent part of his youth in Afghanistan
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, found a hospitable, tribal
society where elders were well respected and one of the worst
things in the culture was to be a bad host.
The Cudneys and Richie talked about their half-century-old
memories of the country at USAID’s Washington headquarters
April 21. This was the Agency’s first Reflections Seminar,
linking USAID’s past and present missions by bringing
back retired officers to share their experiences.
The Cudneys displayed dozens of photographs and rugs from
Afghanistan. James Cudney, who retired from USAID in 1975,
went to the country to teach electrical engineering at a university,
but later joined ICA. He spoke about the dune-like Kandahar
International Airport and the Helmand Valley Development.
After her overseas experience, Margaret Cudney founded Women
to the World, a small, nonprofit organization that works to
improve the lives of poor women and children in developing
countries. The group has had resettlement programs in Peru,
Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. “We connect women of resource
with women in need,” she said.
Richie, who was profiled on 60 Minutes II shortly
after U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, heads International
Foundation of Hope, which receives USAID support for its agricultural
rehabilitation programs in Afghanistan. He talked about the
barriers to development in Afghanistan, including corruption,
inflation, and the high-cash rewards of poppy cultivation.
Alternative crops such as almonds, pomegranates, and grapes,
can take five to 10 years to turn a profit.
Afghan shura, or councils, can apply pressure to poppy growers
to plant alternative crops, he said. Though no one can ever
replace poppies in Afghanistan, Richie said much can be done
to produce alternative agricultural livelihoods if there is
follow-through and support for the long haul.
Barney Popkin contributed to this article.
Disaster Information Center Funnels Private Aid to Victims
 |
|
Dump trucks begin work on a USAID project repairing
the road between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh in Sumatra,
which was badly damaged in the December 2004 tsunami.
USAID |
During the height of the world response to the Dec. 26,
2004, tsunami, the Center for International Disaster Information
(CIDI) was in demand. Its staff received requests for more
than 100 print, radio, and television interviews, and its
name was passed out by organizations such as CNN and People
magazine.
But this was not the first time CIDI, a USAID-funded program
that responds to public questions on international emergencies,
was on the public’s radar.
“The crisis in Rwanda, Hurricane Mitch, Kosovo, and
others have generated a greater volume of calls and for a
longer duration,” said Suzanne H. Brooks, director of
the Virginia-based contractor.
Since 1988, CIDI has handled tens of thousands of inquiries
from the public and it has guided individuals, groups, and
corporations eager to send humanitarian aid to devastated
regions.
In the last decade, large-scale emergencies have brought
out large-scale—but sometimes inappropriate—responses.
Unaffiliated volunteers who head for devastated regions almost
always find barriers to their attempts to lend a hand. And
people sometimes ship inappropriate donations—boxes that
included winter jackets, stiletto shoes, and embroidered curtains
landed in Sri Lanka after the tsunami.
CIDI educates people about the realities of disasters and
how they can respond in useful ways. The primary message:
Cash is the best donation, because it allows relief agencies
to buy exactly what is needed and—unlike donations of
food or clothing—involves no transportation costs to
get to those in need.
“We want to capture the energy and emotion of their
charity and channel that into activities that will provide
real benefit to disaster victims,” Brooks said.
Once a disaster is declared, CIDI and USAID put their post-disaster
outreach program into action. Communities in the United States
with cultural, social, professional, or educational ties to
the affected areas are contacted. Members of Congress who
represent these communities are also alerted. CIDI sends out
information packets with guidelines on how to respond and
other contacts to assist people who want to help.
CIDI also keeps a database of offers of commodities and
volunteer services. This information helps match up the goods
and services with organizations that can use them.
Back to Top ^
|
RSS Feed for Recent HIV/AIDS WebSource Articles
