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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
THE REGIONS
In this section:
Harpy Eagles of Panama Get Protection
Bosnia’s New One-Stop Shops Speed Delivery of Permits, Documents
Afghan Fighters Exchange Guns for Family Life
Top South African Mushroom Farm Extends Ownership
to Blacks, Women
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Harpy Eagles of Panama Get Protection
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A harpy eagle in the wild in Panama. Its movements
are being tracked by a leg band and radio transmitter
attached to its foot. This bird has been tracked since
2004.
Angel Muela, Peregrine Fund |
PANAMA CITY—Panama’s national bird is the
harpy eagle, a 20-pound bird with a seven-foot wingspan and
talons as large as grizzly bear claws. It is quickly becoming
extinct.
To help protect the earth’s most powerful bird of prey,
USAID works with the Peregrine Fund, an American NGO focused
on bird conservation. The group runs a center in Panama City
where chicks are bred in captivity and then released in the
forest when they become adults. Most of the birds are fitted
with transmitters so they can be tracked.
The Agency also is funding research on the behavioral and
breeding patterns of the harpy eagle, as well as its habitat
requirements.
“Restoration efforts are focused on Central America,
where the population has significantly declined because the
rates of deforestation there are higher than in South America,”
said Cameroon Ellis, assistant director for international
programs with the Peregrine Fund, which is receiving $2.5
million from USAID over six years.
“A few years ago there used to be some harpy eagles
in El Salvador, but it’s unlikely that there are any
left now. In Mexico there might be a few, but no more than
two or four,” he said.
Today, Panama’s pristine rainforests are home to several
thousand harpy eagles. But the number is shrinking as forests
are ravaged by development, logging, and agriculture. Poaching
is also a problem.
Indian communities have long attributed mythical powers
and meaning to the bird, whose deadly talons can exert several
hundred pounds of pressure, crushing the bones of sloths,
monkeys, and other arboreal prey the eagle snatches from the
rainforest canopy. Its victims are often killed instantly.
“Curiosity leads people to capture these birds,”
Ellis said. “They are very striking, so a lot of people
see them near their villages and want a closer look. They
shoot them because they think they can get monetary gain out
of killing the bird or selling it.”
A key part of the USAID-funded project is community education.
The Peregrine Fund works with schools and offers tours, presentations,
games, videos, and educational materials about the harpy eagle.
One factor contributing to the disappearance of harpy eagles
is the slow rate at which it reproduces. In the wild, an eagle
couple produces two chicks per year. But only one will survive.
Once hatched, the stronger chick usually kills the weaker
so it can get all the food.
The breeding project in Panama City works with six eagle
couples. When eggs are laid, they are immediately removed.
“If we can remove the chick before it’s killed,
we double the production of harpy eagles,” Ellis said.
“Or by removing the eggs from the nest, you encourage
the couple to produce more eggs.”
He added: “In the wild, only one chick survives every
two to three years, but we can double or triple that number
in a controlled environment.”
The Peregrine Fund is currently raising 30 harpy eagle chicks.
EUROPE AND EURASIA
Bosnia’s New One-Stop Shops Speed Delivery of Permits,
Documents
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A usual day at the municipal “one-stop shop“
in Zenica, where an average of 6,000 documents—such
as business permits and personal vital record documents—are
issued per month. USAID, through the creation of one-stop
shops, has helped Bosnian municipalities increase efficiency.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
ZENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina—Since the city opened
a new, efficient, “one-stop shop“ to deal with requests
for permits and documents, it takes citizens and businesses
half the time to receive construction or building permits.
Documents such as birth certificates are now provided in
minutes.
The system is much clearer for citizens, said Alma Jeftic,
head of general administration for the one-stop shop.
“The physical structure is nicer for citizens, and
the working conditions are better for our employees,“
she said. “We have air conditioning, better working space,
and we’re using modern equipment.“
Zenica’s one-stop shop is one of 25 built with USAID
support in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Forty more will be built by
next year under a joint contract by the Agency and the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency.
The project equips municipalities with modern technology
to improve efficiency. It also cuts the number of steps to
carry out tasks. Customer service training is provided for
municipal staff to make interactions more pleasant and productive.
And, Jeftic said, new technology allows managers to see how
many cases each municipal employee is working on and whether
any of them are late.
“Before, to get a birth certificate you had to wait
anywhere from two hours to a day,“ she said. “And
especially at this time of year, when school is starting,
it would be full of people here.“
Now getting a copy of a birth certificate takes no longer
than 20 minutes, she said. Obtaining business registrations
and other similar documents has also been streamlined, cutting
waiting time by half.
Possibilities for corruption are diminished through the
use of modern, transparent approval systems.
In July, the Zenica municipality processed a record 9,000
documents—3,000 more than usual. This was possible due
to the new computerized records system, Jeftic said.
“People who have been away are surprised when they
come here how easy it is to get documents,“ she said.
In addition to the one-stop shops, USAID supports NGOs who
work with municipalities, helping them raise funds or carry
out community projects.
In Livno, for instance, the USAID-supported Center for Civic
Cooperation helped a local community organize and present
plans for the construction of a water distribution system
to the local government. Each house was willing to pitch in
$350, so when the municipal government saw how well the project
was organized, it invested several thousand dollars.
The community, Lopatice, built its distribution system last
year. Now children are not getting ill from hepatitis, a common
disease that develops from drinking contaminated water, local
citizens said.
ASIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Afghan Fighters Exchange Guns for Family Life
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Shamaga (last name unknown), right, and his son, Shagha,
center, both fought in the war. They are now happy to
have disarmed under the DDR program and report that
the culture of guns is no longer valid.
Geeta Raj, USAID/Afghanistan |
KABUL, Afghanistan—Miles away from the capital,
in Esarak village in Balkh province, a man who once was a
fighter now leads a simple family life running a small business.
Nik Mohammad fought for years against the Soviet Union.
But when the United Nations started a Disarmament, Demobilization,
and Reintegration (DDR) program in Afghanistan, he joined
it, trading his guns and ammunition for 400 eggs, an incubator
and other equipment, and a day of training on running a poultry
business.
“It takes 21 days to hatch the eggs. The chickens then
lay eggs in five months time, so that I can look after my
family,” he said.
“Before I spent my time in the mountain, hungry, thirsty,
but now I peacefully spend my time with my family and children,”
added Mohammad, who has been telling his former fighter friends
and relatives to give up their guns and join the DDR process.
“Now I can see my children all the time and direct them
to school and the mullah to be educated. My children are happy
in having me at home, too.”
Disarmament and demobilization ended in July 2005, with
approximately 63,000 former officers and soldiers enrolled
in the process. Reintegration efforts through the U.N. program
will continue through June 2006.
The DDR program was conducted under the U.N.’s Afghanistan’s
New Beginnings Program (ANBP), in conjunction with various
partners, including the International Organization for Migration
(IOM).
USAID/Afghanistan, through its Looking Beyond the “R”
Initiative, is providing additional support through programs
designed to complement and sustain the ANBP assistance.
For example, the DDR process offered six-month courses in
literacy and trades such as agriculture, carpentry, welding,
tailoring, carpet weaving, metal work, and poultry farming.
The USAID initiative is designed to follow up on the ANBP
training by helping former combatants to find jobs so they
can apply their training and reintegrate back into civil society
with sustainable livelihoods.
The Agency also began a $4 million loan guarantee program
that aims to employ a former combatant for every $10,000 distributed
through loans. Employment Assistance Centers are being created
in eight provinces to hold job fairs, linking potential employers
with those involved in the DDR program.
In Panjshir Valley, the Looking Beyond the “R”
Initiative provided former combatants with training as mountaineer
tour guides.
Ex-fighters get a $700 package from the U.N. program to
sustain their families, and some receive bicycles to travel
to training centers from their homes, depending on the options
they choose.
As disarmament efforts wound down in August 2005, Mirwis,
30, stepped outside his literacy class in Mazar-i-Sharif,
conducted by IOM, to explain why he is among the 7,800 fighters
in Mazar who have turned in their weapons.
“I am done with fighting,” said Mirwis, who only
uses one name and hopes to learn carpentry. “I personally
could not find any benefit from the fighting except looting
and destruction. I fought for 12 years. Most of my friends
disappeared.”
IOM, using U.S., Japanese, Italian, and other donor funding,
showed former fighters a video thanking them for serving their
country by defending it against communists and then against
the Taliban. It said that, in peace time, they must lay aside
their weapons and join the effort to rebuild their country.
More information on the DDR program and the “Looking
Beyond the R Initiative” is available online.
Geeta Raj contributed to this article.
AFRICA
Top South African Mushroom Farm Extends Ownership to Blacks,
Women
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Peter Nyathi inspects his mushroom crops.
Reverie Zurba, USAID/South Africa
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PRETORIA, South Africa—Peter Nyathi symbolizes
the new face of this country’s commercial farming.
He won Africa’s top award for the best small and medium-sized
agricultural enterprise in 2003 and South Africa’s May
2005 Sanlam3Talk (small or medium enterprise) Business Owner
of the Year Award. The awards recognize Nyathi’s Tropical
Mushrooms, a growing business that sells organic brown and
white mushrooms to local markets and neighboring countries.
A third of the farm’s equity is held by black South Africans,
including women, who have typically been left out of such
opportunities.
Nyathi has a history with USAID assistance. The Zimbabwean
university where he earned his agricultural economics degree
in 1989 received funding from USAID. And when he got a loan
to start a business some years later, Nyathi received help
from USAID to design a computerized control system.
Nyathi bought 19 hectares of land in the Magaliesburg region
in 2000. He erected the buildings and infrastructure necessary
to farm on a commercial scale and began operating as an independent,
privately owned mushroom producer.
Tropical Mushrooms today employs 60 people and supplies
more than five tons of mushrooms per week to southern African
markets. Harvesting inside climate-controlled units allows
mushrooms to grow fast enough to double their size in a day.
Nyathi arranges health education about preventable diseases
and deadly illnesses like HIV/AIDS for his staff. He also
offers training opportunities and a chance to buy shares in
Tropical Mushrooms. Says Nyathi: “This is the first time
they have been able to own land as well as gain equity in
a profitable business venture.”
USAID further assists Nyathi and his workforce through the
South African Agricultural Financial Restructuring and Privatization
Program (SARPP), which was designed to handle transactions
for groups of workers wanting to become shareholders in firms.
A high degree of proficiency is required to maneuver through
the related legal systems and paperwork, and the Agency has
been able to help Nyathi’s employees through the process.
Helping workers buy into commercial farms includes obtaining
local government grants and private sector loans to purchase
equity in the operation as a group. Enterprises that want
to enter into such transactions with their workers provide
detailed financial and management information. USAID’s
project develops a business plan that evaluates the viability
and sustainability for all parties to the transaction.
At Tropical Mushrooms, USAID helped employers and employees
purchase shareholdings in the venture with business strategies,
shareholder trust documents necessary to get land rights grants,
and bank loans.
The project supports South Africa’s Black Economic
Empowerment in Agriculture program, which aims to increase
ownership of agricultural lands and enterprises by historically
disadvantaged individuals, such as black South Africans, people
of mixed race, and women.
Reverie Zurba contributed to this article.
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