Program Performance

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is the agency within the United States Government that provides bilateral economic assistance to other countries. The agency is a critical cog in the U.S. mechanism to implement the International Affairs Strategic Plan (IASP). USAID is the primary agency of the United States helping countries recover from disaster, escape poverty, and become more democratic. The Agency’s mission -- promoting development and saving lives -- is part of the U.S. leadership role, one that has become more important since the Cold War ended.

The fact that much of the world has overcome many of the development problems evident three decades ago is a tribute to the unprecedented achievements made by our foreign assistance program. However, the job is not complete. New challenges of the post-Cold War era require that we help countries move from states of conflict and repression to circumstances of economic and political rebirth. In many countries, democratic institutions remain fragile, while in other countries, endemic poverty persists. If we do not make modest investments now to address these challenges, the U.S. Government may eventually have to bear the much heavier burden of making emergency responses to more complex situations. Such situations often require the presence of peacekeeping forces and massive amounts of humanitarian assistance.

USAID’s Strategic Plan is associated with 16 international affairs strategic objectives, which in turn relate to the following U.S. national interests, as articulated in the International Affairs Strategic Plan:

• Promoting U.S. economic security to create markets abroad for U.S. goods and services through programs that support broad-based and lasting economic growth in developing countries.
• Enhancing prospects for peace and stability in such areas as the Middle East and Eastern Europe by helping build institutions that support democracy, free enterprise, the rule of law and a strengthened civil society.
• Preventing humanitarian and other complex crises before they occur, in an effort to stem the high financial and human costs of peacekeeping, refugee crises, and emergency relief operations.
• Protecting the United States from such specific global threats as unchecked population growth, the loss of biodiversity, global warming, and narcotics trafficking.

USAID's Strategic Plan has seven goals. Five of these relate to specific sector program areas. Two are cross-cutting in nature: (1) humanitarian assistance, and (2) management improvement and leadership. The seven Agency goals are:

• Encouraging broad-based economic growth and agricultural development.
• Strengthening democracy and good governance.
• Building human capacity through education and training.
• Stabilizing the world's population and protecting human health.
• Protecting the world's environment for long-term sustainability.
• Saving lives, reducing suffering associated with disasters, and re-establishing conditions necessary for political and economic development.
• Maintaining USAID as the premier bilateral development agency.

The IASP, the Agency's Strategic Plan and its goals provide a framework for the Agency to design, implement and judge the performance of its programs. USAID is involved in nearly every sphere of development, including democracy, economic growth, education, environment, emergency relief, and health and family planning. The agency’s programs reflect the needs and priorities of the countries receiving assistance. USAID considers the interests and work of other donors and development partners, such as private voluntary organizations. The programs embody the priorities of the U.S. Government, as expressed by the Executive and Legislative Branches.

Much of this presentation deals with the status, performance and plans for individual operating unit or country programs. In this section, we will summarize actual and planned performance in USAID's goals and relate the budget request to the goals. Many performance results described here are from the final draft of the 1998 Agency Performance Report, which will be available in March 1999.

Goal 1: Promoting Broad-based Economic Growth and Agricultural Development

USAID helps developing and transitional countries achieve broad-based, rapid and sustainable economic growth. Broad-based economic growth reduces poverty, increases household incomes, and enhances food security. There is strong empirical evidence indicating that even moderate rates of economic growth can be expected to achieve substantial reductions in poverty in poor countries. Economic growth creates jobs and provides the increased revenue governments need to expand and improve education, health, and other social services. Restoring economic growth is an essential element of successful transition.

Open markets and healthy economic growth in USAID recipient countries directly promote U.S. trade and investment. Continuing a trend that began in the 1980s, U.S. exports to developing countries in the 1990s are expanding by more than 11% per year, almost double the export growth rate to industrial countries. Broad-based economic growth reinforces other U.S. national interests and foreign policy goals, including crisis prevention, democratic development, and environmental sustainability.

USAID fosters broad-based economic growth by pursuing three interrelated objectives: (1) strengthening critical private markets; (2) promoting agricultural development; and (3) expanding access and opportunity for the poor.

Compared with the baselines established in USAID's 1997 strategic plan and first performance plan, economic performance improved significantly in most regions in recent years. For 2000, USAID programs are expected to contribute to consolidating these improvements and accelerating economic growth and poverty reduction. In Asia, USAID hopes to help sustain the largely positive growth performance of the past decade as the current difficult financial crisis eases. In most (85%) of our low-income recipient countries (mainly in Africa), agricultural growth now exceeds population growth. This represents a marked improvement over earlier years, and USAID will endeavor to maintain and build on this progress. USAID programs will contribute to a continuation of the positive trends for economic freedom, with at least half of the countries in each region showing clear improvements in scores for economic freedom. In advanced developing countries and most transitional countries, USAID will also help achieve significantly diminished reliance on foreign aid.

A sampling of the considerable progress achieved includes:

• Twenty-seven USAID-assisted countries (including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Peru, Brazil, Hungary, and Poland) -- accounting for more than 1.9 billion people -- achieved rapid average annual growth in per capita income (2.5% or better) during the 1994-97 period.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, USAID promoted growth in agricultural production and non-traditional exports. More than 85% of USAID recipients achieved agricultural growth at least as fast as population growth in 1994-96, compared with only 33% for 1990-95. Export growth rates are also up in most countries, with Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ghana, and Kenya achieving double-digit growth rates in recent years.
• In microenterprise lending in Africa, Asia, the Near East, and Latin America, USAID-supported programs reached 1.4 million borrowers in 1997, compared with a baseline of 331,000 active low-income borrowers in 1994. Two-thirds of total borrowers are women, and two-thirds of the loans were "poverty" loans at or below $300.
• USAID efforts to strengthen institutions and support policy reforms have contributed to improvements in economic freedom in roughly two-thirds or more of countries in each region, including Ghana, Uganda, Egypt, Indonesia, El Salvador, Peru, Romania and Russia. Empirical evidence indicates that improvements in economic freedom have strong direct impacts on growth in trade and investment.
• Internal USAID appraisals indicate that performance for USAID programs in economic growth and agricultural development has been relatively good. For developing countries -- where USAID has a long track record, a good body of lessons learned, and extensive field presence -- performance exceeded expectations for 26% of programs; met expectations for 64% of programs; and fell short of expectations for only 10%.
• In countries making the transition from communism -- where the challenges are somewhat different, USAID's track record is shorter, lessons learned are more limited, and the agency has less of a field presence -- performance was less impressive but still arguably good. Thirteen per cent of programs exceeded expectations; 64% met expectations; and 23% fell short of expectations.

Goal 2: Strengthened Democracies and Good Governance

USAID is promoting democracy and good governance in order to meet its goals of sustainable development as well as to reinforce critical U.S. foreign policy initiatives. The Agency believes that promotion of democracy is essential for sustainable development. Accountable and transparent political institutions, representing and responding to citizens' needs, help consolidate the social and economic gains of development. Democracy-building thus positively influences USAID's programming across sectors.

USAID's goal of strengthening democracy and good governance supports the transition and consolidation of democratic regimes. This, in turn, serves to mitigate the potential for conflict and to establish a foundation for recovery should conflict occur. Democracy offers citizens advantages and opportunities that no other form of government can provide. It protects human rights, encourages informed participation, and promotes public-sector accountability. USAID supports development of democratic institutions, an informed and educated populace, a vibrant civil society, and a relationship between state and society that encourages pluralism, inclusion, and peaceful conflict resolution.

The Agency's democracy strategy has four aims: (1) strengthening rule of law and respect for human rights; (2) developing more genuine and competitive political processes; (3) fostering development of a politically active civil society; and (4) promoting more transparent and accountable government institutions. Recent results include:

• In the Dominican Republic, USAID funded and helped organize public events that highlighted the importance of a transparent, non-politicized selection of Supreme Court justices. Civil society organizations formed a coalition that worked with major newspapers and television stations to press the National Judicial Council to publicly solicit nominations for the new Supreme Court. In response, the Judicial Council held public hearings live on national television and broadcast live the Council's vote on the 16 new justices.
• In Bangladesh, USAID provided assistance and funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in target communities working to increase voter awareness through group meetings, mass rallies, radio, television, and village theater productions. As a result of these efforts, 306 members of village-based associations of the poor won seats on local elected bodies (union councils) in the December 1997 elections.
• In Kyrgyzstan, during 1997, the agency worked closely with the electoral commission, encouraging it to sponsor the first-ever televised debate between candidates competing in an election. Six candidates vying for one seat participated in a 90-minute debate broadcast on television and radio throughout the country. Televising the debate raised citizens' awareness of the issues at hand and the electoral process. Candidates described the event as a "real" example of democracy in action and called for similar debates in future elections.
• In Nigeria, USAID promoted coalitions, networks and partnerships among NGOs. In 1997, local citizens' organizations formed a coalition to advocate against traditional practices degrading to women. Efforts by the coalition brought about a reduction in the compulsory mourning period for widows from one year to six months in one state and a ruling that widows could inherit their late husband's estate in another. Public awareness campaigns and the activities of legal clinics established under USAID's democracy and governance program led to a landmark judgment in favor of women's inheritance.
• In El Salvador, in 1997, the National Association of Mayors achieved its first major policy success. A broad-based coalition of mayors lobbied to secure passage of a law granting a fixed 6% budget transfer from the central government to municipalities.

Goal 3: Building Human Capacity through Education and Training

USAID programs in human capacity development address critical gaps at both ends of the educational spectrum. The agency's primary focus is on expanding access to quality basic education for under-served populations, especially for girls and women. Expanded and improved basic education contributes to sustainable development in many ways: promoting faster and more equitable economic growth; a reduction in the incidence of poverty; and the growth of political democracy and civil liberties. In addition, expanded and improved basic education of girls and women contributes to improved family health, lower fertility, and the enhanced status of women.

At the primary-school level, USAID basic education programs encourage full enrollment, increased school completion, and reductions in grade repetition. They also promote elimination of gender gaps in primary school enrollment ratios.

In addition, the agency works to strengthen the contribution of host-country institutions of higher education to the development process and to the transition to market-based economies. Emphasis is placed upon such vital areas as training the next generation of political and professional leaders, conducting research on scientific and social problems and providing access to the world’s rapidly expanding store of scientific and technological knowledge. To support this transformation, USAID creates partnerships among host-country colleges and universities and local businesses, governments, and the U.S. higher education community.

USAID support for human capacity development promotes the U.S. national interest by helping the people of developing and transitional countries become better able to address local and national problems through the application of their own abilities, skills, and resources. Education is essential to preventing and mitigating crises, achieving post-crisis transition to sustainable development, reducing fertility rates, ensuring good health and child development, and achieving fuller participation in the global economy.

A few examples of the impact of USAID programs in basic and higher education follow:

• In Mali and Malawi, USAID helped local communities in remote areas establish primary schools where none existed before. Communities select the teachers in these schools from among their own members. The teachers benefit from in-service training provided by the project. Instruction is tailored to local needs, much of it provided in the local language. In both countries, villagers pay for school construction. In Mali, villagers must pay teachers salaries, too. Children in targeted schools performed as well or better in all subjects than children in schools run by the central government. Repetition and dropout rates in targeted schools were lower than in government schools, and promotion rates were higher.
• In Bolivia, USAID's Food for Education Program (P.L. 480 Title II) supported a school feeding program designed to encourage poor rural families to keep their children in school rather than allowing them to drop out before graduation. Grade completion rates for boys and girls rose from 84% in 1996 to 89% in 1997 in USAID-targeted schools. For girls alone, the completion rate rose from 86% to 90%, while the dropout rate for both genders fell from 11% to 7%, well below the target of 9% in 1997.
• In Honduras, USAID supported a program using distance learning techniques to help out-of-school youth and adults complete their basic education. These techniques included the use of radio or cassette instruction supported with texts and volunteer facilitators. Local municipalities and the private sector have provided impressive support. The program provided some 53,000 student-years of basic education in 1997. An evaluation concluded that students earned an extra $40 a year for each year of the program completed, achieving a financial rate of return greater than 200%.
• USAID-supported cooperation between Carnegie-Mellon University and the International Management Institute in Ukraine has helped strengthen faculty capabilities in areas such as executive education and financial management. Faculty has also provided consulting services to local private businesses. The institute’s reputation is so good that it must turn away applicants, even with tuition costs of $5,000 per year.
• A $500,000 USAID grant supported collaboration between Clemson University and Bogor Agricultural University in Indonesia, contributing to the development of an integrated pest management system to combat infestations of local shallot and cabbage crops. The new system reduced farmer’s risk of pesticide poisoning as well as their production costs. If applied to all 14,000 hectares growing these crops, the new pest management system is expected to yield $80 million per year in net benefits through increased production and reduced pesticide costs. There will also be reduced pesticide poisoning and improved local water and food quality.

Goal 4: Stabilizing the World’s Population and Protecting Human Health

The agency emphasizes population, health and nutrition because it recognized that population pressures, low how health status of the population, and human agony can undermine its entire development agenda. Success in this goal area effects ecological, economic, political and social stability as well as social transformations. Stabilization of the world’s population supports U.S. national interests and the strategic goals of U.S. foreign policy. Protecting health can save lives, improve the quality of life, help prevent humanitarian crises, and increase economic productivity, essential components of USAID’s sustainable development agenda. Likewise, it gives families the ability to choose the number and spacing of their children, making tremendous contributions to maternal and child survival, and empowerment of women and their families. Decreasing the incidence of new HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases will protect hard-won gains in development and reduce the threat of epidemics that can directly affect all citizens of the world.

In an integrated manner, USAID uses cost-effective interventions that aim to stabilize the world’s population and protect human health. USAID’s program strives to reduce: (1) unintended and mistimed pregnancies; (2) childhood deaths and illnesses; (3) maternal deaths and the disabilities associated with pregnancy and childbirth; (4) the number of new annual HIV infections; and (5) the threat of infectious diseases of major public health importance. The agency expects to achieve results toward these objectives through country, regional and global programs.

USAID is a technical leader and the largest bilateral donor in the health sector. As such, the agency can claim significant credit for impressive achievements both in improving health conditions in developing countries and in stabilizing world population. While population growth still places the world at risk, growth rates have plunged in the last two decades. Had they continued unabated at the 1975 levels, there would be 174 million more people in developing countries (excluding China). Reduction in infant mortality over the same 20-year period translates into more than 48 million infants saved. USAID has taken on the challenges of reducing maternal mortality--for when a mother dies, her children are five times as likely to die as well. USAID also has launched a concerted effort to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and infectious diseases. Specific achievements are as follows:

• In 1998 alone, USAID helped save the lives of five million children in 33 countries. In a decade, mortality for children under five years in developing countries dropped 13%--from 145 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1985 to 126 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1995.
• Presently, an average of 80% (up from 5% in 1975) of the world’s children in developing countries are immunized against measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and tuberculosis. In this time, measles deaths dropped by 50%, and polio was virtually eliminated from the Western Hemisphere and may be eradicated globally in the next decade. At the country level, Honduras, for example, has shown remarkable vaccination coverage rates--at or above 95% since 1993.
• In 1998, USAID enabled more that 11 million couples in 36 countries to adopt family planning for the first time and provided information and access to many millions more to continue the use of a family planning method. Currently, more than 375 million couples in the developing world (excluding China) use contraception to avoid unwanted births. In USAID-assisted countries, the fertility rate over the last decade has decreased by one child per woman, from 4.4 in 1985 to 3.3 in 1997.
• At the country level, Indonesia experienced a steady decline in average family size over the past 25 years: from 5.6 children per woman in 1971, to 4.7 in 1980, to 3.3 in 1990, to 2.8 in 1997. In Kenya, for example, average family size fell from nearly 8.0 in the early 1980s to 6.7 in 1989, to 4.7 to 1998.
• Strides are being made to reduce deaths and adverse health outcomes of pregnancy and childbirth through improvements in maternal nutrition, birth preparedness, management of complications, attended deliveries and post-partum care. Although the increased emphasis in this area for USAID is at a nascent stage, initial success is encouraging. In Morocco, for example, in three years (1995-1997) maternal mortality fell from 332 to 228 per 100,000 births.
• USAID played a critical role developing international standards of practice for prevention of HIV transmission. Since 1991, in over 45 countries, USAID-supported programs reached nearly 25 million vulnerable men and women with comprehensive HIV education to prevent infection and change behavior away from high-risk activities. USAID also provided intensive training to nearly 200,000 counselors and educators; distributed over 1 billion condoms; and improved the clinical management of sexually transmitted infections. Because of these programs in Uganda, HIV prevalence fell by 35% among young people aged 15-24. In the Dominican Republic, the percentage of sexually active youth declined from 73% in 1993 to 30% in 1996. In Bali, Indonesia, USAID's peer education project with sexually active 15 to 25 year olds led to an increase in consistent condom use from 22% to 74%.
• This year, USAID launched a new initiative to help combat infectious diseases, concentrating on those of public health concern. The agency expects to have a significant impact on the control and spread of infectious diseases by combating anti-microbial resistance, prevention and control of tuberculosis and malaria, and improving disease surveillance and response capacities.

Goal 5: Protecting the World's Environment for Long-term Sustainability

Environmental degradation in the developing world can endanger human health, undermine long-term economic growth, and threaten ecological systems in the countries and regions of origin -- and in the United States. The United States is affected directly by the loss of biological diversity worldwide, changes in global climate, the spread of pollutants, the careless use of toxic chemicals, and the decline of natural fish populations. The United States’ own ability to produce new life-saving drugs, to maximize agricultural production, and to breathe clean air may be adversely affected by poor natural resource stewardship abroad. Struggles over land, water, and other natural resources in the developing world lead to instability and conflict, which often threaten U.S. security and trade interests. Such situations also divert scarce resources and create avoidable human tragedies such as starvation, disease, and war. Strong U.S. leadership and combined public and private partnerships are essential to resolving many global environmental problems and promoting sustainable economic growth and a better quality of life for those in developing countries.

USAID promotes better environmental management to sustain the world's natural resources. Agency programs help people manage their activities in ways that enable the natural environment to continue to produce -- now and in the future -- the goods and services necessary for survival.

The agency focuses on five areas under the environmental goal: (1) conserving biological diversity; (2) reducing the threat of global climate change; (3) promoting sustainable urbanization and increasing pollution management; (4) increasing the provision of environmentally sound energy services; and (5) expanding sustainable natural resource management.

In FY 2000, USAID begins its third year of the $1 billion, five-year Global Climate Change (GCC) Initiative. The initiative will assist developing and transition countries to address the causes and results of climate change. Programs will focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy production, forest protection, and other carbon sequestration practices. In addition, in FY 2000, USAID will continue to expand the highly successful U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership into other regions. This pioneering program mobilizes U.S. environmental experience, technology and services to promote a "clean revolution" by helping countries adopt ever less-polluting and more resource-efficient products, processes, and services.

The following are examples of current activities that USAID intends to continue, expand, or replicate during FY 2000:

• USAID is supporting Madagascar's efforts in conserving its globally recognized biodiversity. By FY 2000, the area in protected status is expected to increase by approximately 700,000 hectares, to 1.75 million hectares, or 10% of all forests in Madagascar. By the year 2000, protected areas should include 100% of the country's ecosystem types. To date, only 70% are represented. USAID’s biodiversity goals in Madagascar routinely exceed expectations, but much more needs to be done.
• Brazil is an essential global climate change country. It produces approximately 10% of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, primarily from deforestation, habitat conversion and burning. Brazil's GCC program aims at reducing deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical regions, and at promoting the use of "clean" energy technologies. USAID's program directly supports efforts to protect forests covering an area larger than Israel, and to replicate "reduced impact" sustainable logging measures on 500,000 hectares of private lands.
• USAID launched the Eurasian-American Partnership for Environmentally Sustainable Economies (EcoLinks) in FY 1999 to promote partnerships among Central and Eastern Europe and New Independent States businesses, local governments and associations, and their U.S. counterparts. These partnerships will benefit countless individuals by helping developing and transitioning countries identify and begin to remedy environmental problems, adopt best practices, and increase trade and investment in environmental goods and services.
• USAID supports significant water resource management programs in India, Indonesia, and the Middle East, where the degradation and depletion of water resources pose the most critical challenges to sustainable urban development. In Egypt, 5.5 million people will directly benefit from USAID-funded urban sewage and wastewater treatment, and over 1 billion liters of water per day will be treated to design standards in FY 2000.
• USAID supports energy sector reform programs in most countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States regions. FY 2000 plans include further development of independent regulatory bodies; support for power restructuring in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania; reform of the natural gas system in Ukraine; and initiation of energy sector privatization in Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kyrgyz Republic. These efforts are focused on improved environmental management, adoption of more rational energy policies, and better use of scarce natural resources to help their citizens live healthier, more productive lives.
• USAID has significant natural resource management programs in Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. In Indonesia, for example, USAID is working toward stabilizing and improving natural resource management through community-based efforts. In FY 2000, over 13 million hectares are expected to be improved or stabilized, a major increase over just 17,000 hectares that were confirmed as improved in FY 1997. Community-based stewardship empowers citizens to improve the care of their natural resources over the long run and to boost their involvement in civil society, governance and respect for rule of law.
• USAID's natural resource management efforts also emphasize sustainable agriculture and coastal zone management. Key examples include: (1) in Haiti, FY 2000 funds will be used to promote sustainable small-farmer agriculture, increasing the total area under sustainable agro-forestry systems to 150,000 hectares; and (2) in Jamaica, USAID is providing assistance to improve and maintain coastal water quality in key coastal ecosystems -- now used by over 400,000 tourists per year.

Goal 6: Saving Lives, Reducing Suffering, and Re-establishing Conditions for Political and Economic Development

The humanitarian assistance goal is a cross-cutting one in which the agency is using a combination of central and regional bureau resources and programs to save lives, alleviate suffering and support economic and political transitions. There are two parts to the goal which are: (1) to meet urgent needs in times of crisis; and (2) to contribute to the re-establishment of personal security and basic institutions which meet critical intermediate needs and protect human rights following emergency situations.

Several USAID regional bureaus are integrating development assistance and other resources with agency disaster assistance to prevent or mitigate crises and to support economic and political transitions. The integration of these agency resources and programs will help ensure a smooth transition from an emergency to stability and longer-term development.

Recognizing the human and financial costs, and lost development momentum caused by crises, USAID plans to improve its performance in preventing international conflicts. It will do this by improving in-country analysis of root causes of conflicts. This will be followed by experimentation with directly applying relevant USAID development programs to address applicable nascent instabilities before they erupt into deadly conflicts, costly economic crises, destabilizing political chaos or complex emergencies.

Information on specific results of the agency's humanitarian assistance program follows:

• Responding to natural and man-made disasters and complex emergencies in 1997, USAID provided emergency food aid through P.L. 480 to more than 11.5 million people in 28 African, Asian and European countries. The program provided 780,000 metric tons of Title II food aid, valued at $400 million.
• USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance provided emergency assistance primarily in health, sanitation, shelter and water, totaling $140 million, to help 18 million victims of 48 officially declared disasters in 46 countries.
• In 1997, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives worked to put in place critical political processes needed to foster enduring economic, political and social progress in five countries: Angola, Bosnia, Guatemala, Liberia and Rwanda.

Goal 7: USAID Remains the Premier Bilateral Development Agency

An efficiently and effectively managed international development program is critically important to the achievement of U.S. international affairs and USAID strategic objectives. USAID's influence on the development community far exceeds the scale of its development funding. Certainly, this disproportionate influence reflects, in part, the undeniable preeminence of U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic power in the post-Cold War era. That stems from USAID's continued efforts to improve the quality and relevance of programs, the cost-effectiveness of delivery, and overall achievement of performance objectives. This not only includes USAID's continued leadership in research and technology development, policy, partnering, performance measurement and evaluation, but also USAID's ability to effectively manage the resources with which the agency has been entrusted. The following "Management Improvements" section discusses the management and management systems aspects of this goal.

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