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FY 1997 Development Fund for Africa: . $43,803,513
FY 1997 Economic Support Fund: $10,000,000
FY 1997 PL 480 Title II: . $21,658,000
Introduction.
Sub-Saharan Africa is in the midst of two difficult transformations: (1) moving from centralized, state-run economies to market-based free enterprise economies and (2) moving from authoritarian political systems to liberalized and democratic political systems. For the majority of African countries the commitment to these changes is strong, and much progress has been made. However, there remains a great deal to be done to institutionalize these changes and to make them irreversible. The U.S. has a strong interest in supporting these transformations. A prosperous, free Africa will have a beneficial effect on the U.S. economy, will provide a more effective partner to combat global threats to the environment and international health, and will create greater political stability in an unstable part of the world, a part of the world where instability often results in war, hunger and refugees.
The Development Challenge.
The central development challenge facing sub-Saharan Africa is to mobilize resources for investment in economic infrastructure such as roads and in social infrastructure such as schools. Overseas Development Assistance to Africa, after many years of growth is now on the decline. Increasingly African countries will need to turn to the private sector, both indigenous and foreign, to provide investment funds needed for sustainable growth. But private investment will only be forthcoming in stable and supportive political and economic environments.
At the same time efforts have to continue to increase the efficiency of new investments. There is little doubt that a great deal of the investment made in Africa in the 1975-1985 period was wasted. Better allocation and use of new and existing resources is needed. Some of the solutions are political -- governments have to stop wasting money on inefficient parastatals or on "white elephant" political projects. Much of this change has already taken place. But many of the solutions are based on learning how to do things better and then doing better.
Not only will Africans have to look to themselves for development financing, but they will also have to take more responsibility for designing and managing development programs. Perhaps the most striking change in Africa over the last few years has been the emergence of a strong cadre of sophisticated, well-trained, self-confident professionals. These men and women are taking charge of the development process and are looking at donors as partners rather than as managers and financiers of development.
Finally, there are many new efforts in Africa to move toward greater cooperation among the countries in the region. This cooperation takes several forms. First, there are a number of attempts to reduce barriers to the free flow of goods, capital and labor across national boundaries. This is particularly important as many African countries have markets which are too small to attract international investment. Second, there is the development of specific modes of cooperation within a sector, such as training or agricultural research. Much of this is done through networking which allows regional specialization. For example, not every country needs to do potato research. Rather one country can specialize in potatoes and another in beans and they can share their information. Finally, there has been an exponential growth in the sharing of information of all kinds, and policy makers and technical experts in one country are increasingly learning from their colleagues in other countries.
Other Donors.
Total donor commitment was $20 billion in FY 1994 for development activities in sub-Saharan Africa. While real levels of commitment are dropping in the 1990's, cooperation among donors is increasing. There are a number of multi-donor coordination efforts at the sectoral level, and a number of U.S.-other donor partnerships at the bilateral level. At the multi-donor level, the US is working with the World Bank, Canada, The United Kingdom, Germany, and the Scandinavians and other major donors in policy reform, education operation research, the environment and health. On a bilateral level, the United States is working with the European Union and with Japan on several health initiatives.
FY 1997 Program.
The USAID Africa Regional strategy for helping Africa manage more effectively its transition to sustainable political and economic transformation centers around three sets of activities. First, the program provides policy-relevant information and helps African countries and their partners use this information to improve the policies, programs and strategies required for sustainable development. Second, the regional program builds the capacity of Africa to manage its own development. Third, the regional program assists African countries and institutions to build more effective regional interaction to increase economic and technical cooperation.
Already USAID is seeing the fruits of these activities in a variety of sectors. In the private sector, USAID is supporting networks of African entrepreneurs, and these have resulted in a number of joint investment and trade partnerships across country lines and in changes of government policies that over-regulated business. In health and child survival, USAID is supporting the development of public-private sector partnerships which could lead to more financially sustainable programs. In the environment, USAID helped build an Africa-wide effort to plan and monitor environmental activities based on partnerships with local groups.
Agency Goal: Encouraging Broad-based Economic Growth
The last decade has seen most of the countries in Africa move from negative rates of per capita economic growth to positive rates. However, growth rates of one percent or less will not lead to an appreciable improvement in peoples' lives in any reasonable time-frame. To move Africa into self-sustaining growth, which will have positive impacts on population growth, health, and the environment, as well as lead to greater political stability, will require per capita growth rates of around 3% per year, which means increasing the overall growth in real gross domestic product from the current 4% per year to 6% per year. This is a daunting task.
In the short-run Africa must continue the process of economic liberalization and regional cooperation to encourage private investment. Of particular importance is agriculture and agri-business. In the medium-term Africa must strengthen its capacity to design and implement more effective economic programs. In the long-run Africa must improve the efficiency and equity of its educational system to provide the education and skills that Africa's workforce will need to compete in the twenty-first century.
In the past year, there has been a substantial increase in African capacity to analyze and make policy recommendations in the enabling environment. Some of this analysis has resulted from joint partnerships between USAID's regional program, African research institutions, and African governments. For example, this has been noteworthy in the area of agriculture and food security where regional programs have had a major influence in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mozambique, several countries in the Sahel and elsewhere. In many cases, policy and market reforms have resulted in lower food prices for the poor and higher prices for farmers, as marketing inefficiencies were reduced. There have also been successes through partnerships within the private sector such as the African Business Roundtable which has used its prestige to leverage improvements in such areas as regional banking (providing forimproved mechanisms for foreign currency exchange) and regional trade (removing border taxes, particularly informal taxes on cross-border trade). Finally, there have been successful donor-African partnerships such as in the African Economic Research Consortium which has created a regional masters' degree program in economics, by pooling the resources of nine Eastern and Southern African universities.
In addition, the Leland Initiative has negotiated the liberalization of telecommunication policies in a number of countries, leading to broad-based access to the Internet. As a result, public and private entities in Mali, Benin and Eritrea, for example, will be able to access the information and expertise necessary for sustainable economic and social development.
Of course, these successes are just the beginning of what needs to be achieved. While much has been done, much more remains to be done. In particular, more analysis, dialogue and policy reform must be done to open in the areas of financial markets, in which conservatism and lack of competition seem to be reducing access to financing for good investment ideas, and in labor markets to ensure that opportunity for access to jobs is equitable. Moreover, regional cooperation is in its infancy, and important agendas for cooperation among the countries of specific sub-regions such as Southern Africa, and among sector specialists such as health professionals need to be nurtured.
A tenant of the USAID Africa Bureau's management goal is that Agency resources are budgeted and implemented for specific country and regional programs to the maximum extent possible. However, there are some Africa-wide issues and management needs that transcend national and/or regional boundaries. To this end, the Africa Bureau funds a discrete set of activities which address these problems, issues and needs. Among these activities are: funding for non-country specific program development and support; the USAID Africa Bureau-wide Special Self Help Development Fund to promote small civic endeavors; undergirding support for an enhanced role for U.S. and indigenous private voluntary organizations (PVOs); a limited fund for initiating worthwhile unsolicited proposals which address concerns that go beyond a particular USAID mandate; and a fund to promote economic policy reform.
Agency Goal: Stabilizing World Population Growth and Protecting Human Health
Africa is faced with the highest rate of population growth of any region in the world at any time in its history. Africa also faces the highest rates of child and infant mortality and the lowest life expectancy of any region in the world. There have been important improvements. Fertility levels in many countries (Ghana, Tanzania) are starting to show unprecedented rates of decline, while progress continues in those countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana) which have seen substantial fertility declines. Moreover, for over two decades health indicators have shown slow but steady improvement. However, the HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens to wipe out all these gains and return child survival rates and life expectancy rates to pre-independence levels.
The regional program is aimed at improving the effectiveness and sustainability of population and health programs in Africa. For example, with USAID support, the Africa regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO/AFRO) has developed a new regional immunization strategy that emphasizes sustainable approaches to increasing the coverage and effectiveness of vaccination programs throughout Africa. This strategy has been approved by Ministers of Health from 40 African countries.
While USAID began to see some success in the area of HIV/AIDS, the problem continues to get worse and not better. USAID will be expanding its efforts to try to develop effective strategies and programs to deal with this catastrophe.
Agency Goal: Protecting the Environment
Africa's rapid population growth is putting increased pressure on a limited natural resource base. Forests, soils and biodiversity are in particular danger. For example, our research shows that soil erosion in Rwanda (prior to the civil war) had reduced agricultural productivity to a major extent, reducing food security. Over the past few years, the regional program has supported an approach to this problem which emphasizes (1) local control over local resources, and (2) investments in the development and use of new resource-saving technologies.
USAID is seeing important successes. In Mali, for example, the agricultural research program has transferred over twenty land and water saving technologies to farmers. In Zimbabwe, local control of wildlife has led to more sustainable use of this resource, protecting the biodiversity while at the same time providing an important source of income to local villages. The challenge is to expand these ideas. USAID has just launched a new program, the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment, to make the general idea of local control a reality in the Congo River Basin, the largest remaining relatively unthreatened rain forest in the world.
Agency Goal: Building Democracy
The dramatic transition toward democracy in Africa is both breath-taking and fragile. More than half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa now have or are moving toward real democracy. Free and fair elections are being held, the press is becoming remarkably open, legislatures are gaining independence from the executive, and governmental power is being devolved to local and regional units. In a sense, though, this revolution has been occurring in response to the examples in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as to the frustration at the on-going financial crisis of overextended African governments and their utter failure to deal with corruption and poverty.
The problem is that the institutional base for this change is very weak. Governments are learning, though very slowly, to share power. The press is learning that freedom brings responsibility. Civil society is learning that engaging government is hard work. The people are learning that newly elected governments do not mean overnight wealth. The regional program has been supporting the development of these institutions through (1) building understanding of how to examine what is needed for long-term success in a democratic transition, and (2) providing assistance to a number of local groups to improve their capacity to lobby government in the areas of human rights and governments accountability to the interests of all people, not just a privileged few.
Agency Goal: Providing Humanitarian Assistance
Over the past decade Africa has been beset by humanitarian crises, both those caused by nature and those caused by war and civil unrest. The Regional Program's objective in this area is to help avoid crises where possible and to coordinate the Agency's response in Africa where necessary. It is difficult to see what didn't happen. Over the past years some of USAID's greatest successes have come in disasters avoided -- droughts that didn't lead to famines and grasshopper and locust outbreaks that were nipped before they became major problems. The regional program has been responsible for many of these successes. The program's famine early warning system again proved itself invaluable in helping the donor community and African countries in the Southern Africa Region stave off the consequences of a second drought in three years. Our emergency response program to grasshoppers and locusts worked with the Government of Eritrea and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to help contain a grasshopper outbreak in Eritrea. Our intention is to increasingly transfer this capacity to the governments of Africa, but it will take some time to do so. These programs, while managed by the Africa Bureau's Disaster Response Coordination Office in USAID/W have direct benefits to recipient countries, thus, funding is attributed to the country budget rather than the regional program office.
Other:
USAID has made it a policy to concentrate assistance where it is most likely to have the greatest development impact. Certain small countries with special needs in priority areas such as agriculture and human resources management, stabilizing population growth, protecting the environment and building democracy receive limited assistance without direct-hire staff presence. In addition some bilateral programs which are being phased out will continue to receive limited assistance and oversight from regional programs until these programs are terminated. Included in the Regional Program is funding for P.L. 480 Title II programs in Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Sudan.
|
Encouraging Broad-based Economic Growth |
Stabilizing World Population Growth & Protecting Human Health |
Protecting the Environment |
Building |
Providing Humanitarian Assistance |
TOTALS |
|
|
USAID Strategic Objectives |
||||||
|
1. Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Economic Growth - Dev. Fund for Africa |
6,033,363 |
6,033,363 |
||||
|
2. Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Population & Health - Dev. Fund for Africa II |
3,080,910 |
3,080,910 |
||||
|
3. Improved the Policies. Programs and Strategies in Protecting the Environment - Dev. Fund for Africa |
4,159,520 |
4,159,520 |
||||
|
4. Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Building Democracy - Dev. Funds for Africa |
432,344 |
432,344 |
||||
|
21. An Improved Use of USAID Resources to Prevent, Mitigate and Respond to Humanitarian Crises - Dev. Fund for Africa |
287,327 |
73,286 |
3,504,863 |
|
3,865,476 |
|
|
22. Improved Environmentally Safe Approaches for Agriculture Pest Control -Dev. Fund for Africa |
|
290,950 |
290,950 |
|||
|
31. Broad Based Support for Africa - Dev. Fund for Africa |
5,393,000 |
8,758,000 |
4,233,000 |
1,316,000 |
19,700,000 |
|
|
Other - Dev. Fund for Africa (1) - Economic Support Fund (2) - P.L. 480 Title II (3) |
668,769 10,000,000 |
29,870 |
3,675,907 |
1,866,404 |
21,658,000 |
6,240,950 10,000,000 21,658,000 |
|
Totals - Dev. Fund for Africa - Economic Support Fund - P.L. 480 Title II |
12,382,459 10,000,000 |
11,942,066
|
15,864,240
|
3,614,748
|
21,658,000 |
43,803,513 10,000,000 21,658,000 |
USAID/W AFR/SD Office Director: Jerome Wolgin
Note: The $43,803,513 for Development Fund for Africa for the Africa Regional Program in the table above includes $6,240,950 for various small country programs under $1 million each (listed in footnote (1) below). It excludes $38,287,437 in Africa Regional Program funds which have been attributed to country planning base levels. It also excludes $15,000,000 for the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative and $522,194 for the Sahel Regional Program which are shown in separate narratives.
(1) Includes funding levels for the following countries: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Dijbouti, Gabon, Gambia, Lesotho, Mauritania, Mauritius, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, and Togo.
(2) Economic Support Funds will be distributed to various countries in Africa during the year.
(3) Includes P.L. 480 Title II for Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Sudan.
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Economic Growth in a Sustainable Way, 698-S001
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $12,400,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose: To improve the enabling environment for private sector growth, strengthen policy-analytic capacity and support the development of more effective primary education systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
Background: For Africa to grow, more of the financial resources for growth and more of the intellectual leadership for growth must come from within Africa. To a great extent this depends on African governments and institutions finding ways to make private investment more attractive, and this, in turn, requires policy and regulatory reform, and the strengthening of the institutions that manage the economy. It also requires more and better educated Africans.
USAID Role and Achievement to Date: The USAID Regional Program is strengthening a number of African policy-analytic organizations such as the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the Association for the Development of African Education (DAE). Through the Leland Initiative, USAID is also supporting the linking of researchers and other policy-makers across Africa through the Internet and other electronic communications systems. Finally, it is helping African countries build more effective, more financially sustainable education systems. Thus for example, the Africa regional program has developed the Sustainable Financing initiative in agricultural research. Within education, USAID has leveraged an increasing level of country financing for primary schooling. Given shrinking external resources and the strong need for African institutions to begin controlling their own destiny, we are leading an initiative to develop financing mechanisms that will help break the chain of donor dependency. Following extensive analysis of the "art of the possible", the initiative is now actually helping African institutions put together systematic workplans to this end. Mechanisms being developed include such things as establishing endowments, commercializing technology and arranging debt swaps, as well as the institutional changes needed for these mechanisms to work.
Description: The regional program works catalytically by linking U.S. expertise with African expertise in a mentoring role. African institutions and researchers suggest a set of important activities that need further analysis, and the Regional Program, through a series of grants and contracts, links key expertise in the United States with African counterparts, developing solutions to the problems and at the same time creating greater capacity for Africans to work independently. Moreover, through the process of networking with a variety of partners, including other donors, we act to spread these ideas to various places besides those we are working in. Finally, our African counterparts become champions for policy and strategy change and are often much more effective than outsiders in getting policy makers to "buy into" the new (and hopefully, better) ideas.
Host Country and Other Donors: These are partnership activities. We are working with the World Bank, foundations such as Ford and Rockefeller, and a range of bilateral donors including the French, the Scandinavians and the Canadians. USAID plays a leading role in The Association for the Development of African Education, which provides a multi-donor and host-country framework for addressing regional policy and technical issues.
Beneficiaries: We work primarily through Agency Country Missions. The immediate beneficiaries are African policy-makers and analysts. Improved policies and programs will benefit everyone, particularly the poor, in countries where these programs are implemented.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The Regional program works with a wide variety of U.S. universities and contractors as well as with African institutions, universities, Government ministries, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Among the institutions USAID is working with are Harvard Institute for International Development, Howard University, Michigan State University, Clark-Atlanta, African Economic Research Consortium, and University of Nairobi.
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
Primary Education Systems in 10 Countries
Economic Growth
Baseline Target
- Share of private sector investment 55.4%(1996) 65% (2000)
to total investment (Avg for Africa)
- Macroeconomic stabilization
score 4.9 (1996) 7.0 (2000)
- Structural reforms score 7.8 (1996) 9.0 (2000)
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Population and Health in a Sustainable Way, 698-S002
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $20,200,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose : To improve the delivery of health and family planning programs, with particular emphasis on improving effectiveness, efficiency and creating sustainable financing.
Background: While health care and family planning services have been improving in both quantity and quality, these services are being largely underwritten by the donor community. African public and private health systems have been built to serve the urban middle and upper class communities. To a great extent, rural primary health care has been donor financed. This dichotomy must change, particularly as demands increase with population growth and donor resources shrink. In addition the strains which the HIV/AIDS pandemic will put on existing health systems will destroy their capacity to deliver services more broadly. Interventions to address the program, policy and strategies of African countries for the development of increased efficient and sustainable services are needed.
USAID Role and Achievement to Date: The USAID Regional Program's role is to provide our partners with models for moving to strengthened and sustainable health and family planning systems. USAID has been working to demonstrate how financial partnerships between the public and private sectors can be created, and to develop integrated programs which move from vertical immunization efforts, which falter once donor funding is withdrawn, to systems that deliver a variety of preventive and curative services in an integrated manner. Three bilateral USAID Missions are participating in a new integrated malaria initiative which focuses on integrating malaria control into ongoing primary health program. The results in Malawi have been spectacular, with large reductions in the incidence of malaria in pilot studies.
USAID assistance to the Africa Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO/AFRO), have enabled 88% of the countries in Africa to begin the development of plans of action for the effective treatment and control of malaria and have trained approximately 50 Africans to serve as consultants in malaria activities. USAID work on urban-based family planning services has resulted in Zimbabwe increasing its own funding for urban programs. A USAID-sponsored workshop on "Quality of Care and Reducing Medical Barriers" resulted in over 30 changes in restrictive polices, procedures and strategies in four countries (Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana and Uganda), leading to the improvement of family planning clinical services. A USAID funded study in Uganda on the counseling and testing for HIV determined that significant changes in behavior occurred when HIV positive individuals received counseling versus those persons testing negative.
Description: USAID will be building on these achievements, continuing this work, with special emphasis on building financial sustainability. Lessons learned from several USAID funded HIV/AIDS studies and prevention programs including those on behavior and the role of the private sector will be reviewed to determine how to strengthen these programs and what interventions are most effective. USAID will be examining the effectiveness of programs affecting young adults, including abstinency, particularly in African schools and of broader use of mass media to promote health behavior changes. USAID will also explore ways to implement private sector AIDS policy and intervention programs in the workplace.
Host Country and Other Donors: USAID will continue to work jointly with a number of donor and African institutions including the World Bank, WHO/AFRO, the European Union, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the governments in the region, and regional public health institutions.
Beneficiaries: The immediate beneficiaries are African policy-makers and analysts. Improved policies and programs will benefit everyone, particularly the poor, in countries where these programs are implemented.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The Regional Program works with a wide variety of U.S. universities including Tulane, Morehouse and Johns Hopkins, consulting firms including the Academy for Educational Development, as well as with African institutions including universities, Government ministries, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) (e.g.,Center for Applied Research on Population and Development , University of Zimbabwe, the Commonwealth Secretariat of East, Central and Southern Africa).
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Protecting the Environment in a Sustainable Way, 698-S003
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $11,500,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose : To help build the capacity of African governmental and private institutions to protect their natural resource base while at the same time increasing the productivity of these resources to provide for increased economic welfare.
Background: Africa's environment must be protected if the people of Africa are to be able to improve their well-being. Africa's environment must be protected if we are to avoid a catastrophic loss of unique genetic resources that are currently at risk. This can only happen if development and natural resource management are joined. Increased incomes can reduce pressure on fragile ecosystems and lands. Reduced population growth will do likewise. Both environmental protection and economic growth depend on a mutually respectful approach to sustainable development.
USAID Role and Achievement to Date: The USAID Africa Regional Program has been working with our Private Voluntary Organization Partners and host country governments to develop sustainable models for local management of Africa's resources. The Regional Program has directly influenced USAID mission programs, to the extent that the bulk of USAID's $350 million in investments in NRM and the environment now in place in Africa are either structured around approaches pioneered by the regional program, or are directly supported in ensuring that Mission results in this sector are achieved.
USAID was at the forefront of supporting local empowerment projects to ensure sustainable development in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mali, Senegal, Niger, and Madagascar. Farmers in these countries now have local control over thousands of acres, heretofore being totally managed by the Central government. Village upon village are earning sustainable income through the management of forests and wildlife in Southern and East Africa.
If communities can be shown ways in which the protection of a common resource is important not only in the future, but can improve their welfare today; then they will work out rules and arrangements within the community to ensure that use of this resource base is sustainable.
Description: USAID continues to work with our partners to broaden the understanding of how these programs can be strengthened. USAID has invested in satellite-based monitoring systems, and are encouraging our African government partners to develop environmental management capacity and policies that will protect sustainable use. USAID started a new program in the Central African rain forest, the Central African Regional Program for the Environment, whose purpose is to save that largely protected and invaluable resource before timber interests and the needs of local farmers begin to make major inroads in this largely virgin area.
Host Country and Other Donors: Perhaps in no other area does USAID have as rich an array of partners as in protecting the environment. These collaborative efforts include working with the World Bank and other donors in helping African governments and their partners to develop National Environmental Action Plans. USAID has partnerships with a wide variety of U.S. non-profit organizations - The World Resources Institute, World Wildlife Federation and the New York Zoological Association to name a few. USAID helps non-profits to develop and strengthen African organization to do the same type of work.
Beneficiaries: The immediate beneficiaries are African policy-makers and analysts. Improved policies and programs will benefit everyone, particularly the poor, in countries where these programs areimplemented.
Principle Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The African Regional Program works with American and African non-profits, such as World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society, African Wildlife Service, and institutional contractors to help implement this program. USAID also works with U.S. Agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Agency and the Forest Service to carry out programs.
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Improve the Policies, Programs and Strategies in Building Democracy in a Sustainable Way, 698-S004
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $3,500,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose : To improve the institutional foundations for sustaining the transition to democracy in Africa.
Background: The African people have decided that they want to live in democratic societies. They have also made it clear that they want an end to corruption and to waste in their governments. While elections have occurred in a majority of African countries, the resulting governments have often been weak and ineffective. A few have been overthrown by military regimes. Democracy will survive in Africa over the long term only when the institutions for democracy and democratic culture become so strong that any idea of returning to authoritarianism will be unthinkable.
USAID Role and Achievement to Date: USAID Regional Programs have focused on four major themes: (1) development of improved African analytical capacities for conducting strategic assessments; (2) promoting fair and competitive elections; (3) strengthening civil society groups, particularly human rights groups; and (4) the integration of democratic institutions throughout the Agency's Africa development program with particular emphasis on supporting decentralization and developing the ability of civil society groups to articulate their interests and petition government at all levels for redress. The regional Program has championed the idea, for example, of local control over natural resources. This is a major issue in the Sahel where government foresters were seen as the leaders in stealing natural resources from local populations. Support for reform of forestry codes has resulted in the transfer of control to local users. The USAID Regional Program has also been instrumental in developing local community involvement in education, including the devolution of much authority to local districts and communities.
Description: With democratic consolidation occurring in much of Africa, the regional program will focus renewed attention on improving USAID and African understanding of how to strengthen democratic and good governance, particularly the synergism with other sectors of the economy. A major focus will be on developing African capacity to analyze, accelerate and rationalize the process of decentralization and devolution of authority that is occurring throughout Africa.
Host Country and Other Donors: The Regional program has been working with other donors (particularly the European Union) to better understand the synergism and conflicts between economic and political liberalization.
Beneficiaries: The immediate beneficiaries are African policy-makers and analysts. Improved policies and programs will benefit everyone, particularly the poor, in countries where these programs are implemented.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The Regional Program works with a number of U.S. non-profit institutions such as the National Democratic and the National Republican Institutes (NDI and NRI, respectively), as well as with several consulting firms such as Associates in rural Development and Associates for International resources and development and U.S. universities, such as the Harvard Institute for International Development.
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: An improved use of USAID resources to prevent, mitigate and respond to humanitarian crises in sub-Saharan Africa, 698-S021
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $7,950,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose : To prevent the humanitarian disasters that plague Africa and, where prevention is impossible, to mitigate its effects as quickly as possible.
Background: Africa has seen numerous humanitarian disasters, both natural and man-made. While drought cannot be prevented, famine can, and Africa has not seen in the past decade a major famine that has resulted from drought or other natural disasters. This major success is a result of a combination of improved capacity within and outside Africa to identify drought conditions early and to provide timely, strategic and effective assistance when needed.
USAID Role and Achievement to Date: So far, wherever USAID's famine early warning system (FEWS) has been introduced, famines have never re-occurred. By providing more timely and appropriate information about emerging famine conditions to key decision makers, more appropriate pre-emptive actions can be taken to prevent famine conditions from developing. In 1992 and again in 1995, the combined U.S. response to the Southern Africa drought kept that climatic disaster from becoming a human tragedy. FEWS was instrumental in guiding the donor and African Government response.
Description: The USAID Regional Program has been set up to provide assistance to bilateral missions in responding to and preventing major disasters. The two areas in which the Regional Program is focussed is in predicting and mitigating the effects of drought and in responding quickly to grasshopper and locust outbreaks. The drought-fighting activity FEWS that is located in a large number of drought-prone countries, monitors weather patterns as well as economic and social factors such as food prices, livestock sales and migration. While FEWS is important as an early warning system it also functions to target food assistance to the areas most in need. The African Emergency Locust/Grasshopper Assistance (AELGA) project provides quick and timely assistance to missions and countries where food harvests are threatened by outbreaks of locusts and grasshoppers.
The world has been less effective in preventing man-made disasters, and while ultimately the onus for doing so is in the willingness of the world community to respond to these crises before they occur, USAID intends to improve our understanding of how man-made crises start, and what can be done to mitigate the sources of conflict as part of the development process. The Regional Program will also continue to support efforts to improve the capacity of African governments and regional institutions to manage a conflict resolution process in as timely and effective a manner as possible.
Host Country and Other Donors: The Regional Program works with a large number of African countries as well as with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations.
Beneficiaries: The people of Africa, especially those living in drought/locust prone regions.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: The Regional Program works with several American firms, as well as with U.S. Government Agencies such as the United States Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Improved Environmentally-safe Approaches to Prevent and Mitigate Agricultural Pest Crises Adopted by Host Countries, Regional Institutions, and International Organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, 698-S022
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $600,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: FY 2001
Purpose: Under this SO, AA/AFR/DRC (the operating unit) intends to achieve results that will safeguard the environment and ecosystems and ameliorate and prevent environmental threats to public health.
Background: In the aftermath of the 1985 to 1989 locust plague, it was realized that wide-spread pesticide spraying could have been avoided if an early warning mechanism had been available, and enhanced spraying techniques and biological organisms used instead of hazardous pesticides. The Africa Emergency Locust/Grasshopper Assistance (AELGA) is aimed at helping to achieve this strategic objective.
USAID Role and Achievements to Date: Since 1990, the Africa Bureau has funded biological control research through the AELGA activity. Late last year a biological pesticide was registered through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use on rangeland grasshoppers in the United States. Much of the field work was carried out in Africa under the USAID grant. Other important achievements have been the removal and destruction of out-of-date, banned pesticides in Niger and Zanzibar (50,000 liters and 400 metric tons, respectively). Finally a total of 125,000 liters of pesticide donated by Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were transported at AELGA's expense to other developing countries in Africa to control Desert Locusts.
Description: Safeguarding the environment is the main thrust of this strategic objective. FY 1997 funds under this SO will be used to mitigate environmental hazards through training of host country crop protection staff to decrease their dependency on chemical pesticides through the use of pest management. Research into biological control for locust and grasshoppers has been funded through April 1997 using prior year budgets. No new money will be requested for biological control until the results of large scale testing are known.
Also under this SO, activities will be funded to ameliorate conditions and prevent environmental public health threats by reducing surplus pesticides, enhancing the capability of host country personnel to use pesticides safely, disposing of expired pesticides, and convincing host country partners to accept recommendations from environmental assessments.
Host Country and Other Donors: Donor coordination is essential to encourage host countries to adopt environmentally sound pesticide laws and regulations. Currently, 18 supplementary environmental assessments have been conducted jointly with African countries to ensure that the host countries follow accepted USAID environmental procedures, thus making them eligible for U.S. assistance.
Pesticide disposal has been arranged with host countries (Tanzania and Mauritania) and the Dutch and Germans, i.e., to safely package and ship expired pesticides to the Netherlands to be incinerated. AELGA has worked closely with the governments of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia to promote the donation of excess, viable pesticides to African countries experiencing major locust outbreaks.
In Madagascar, Eritrea, and Mali biological control research is be accomplished in coordination with the host country ministries of agriculture and local universities.
Beneficiaries: The end customers are rural African families who are safeguarded because their environment is protected through proper and timely application of pesticides to control locust and grasshoppers. Rural Africans benefit from the safe application and disposal of U.S. funded pesticides. With a breakthrough in the biological control research, these new pesticides will replace the chemical pesticides, and the potential for improved rural health and improved environment will result.
Principal Contractors and Grantees: Technical assistance is provided through an interagency (RSSA) agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which in turn has contracted with the University of Maryland/Eastern Shore and the University of Missouri/Columbia. Biological control research is being conducted through two grants with Montana State University. The FAO is the grantee providing rapid response, early warning, and locust control services.
Major Results Indicators:
Baseline Target
PROGRAM: AFRICA REGIONAL PROGRAM
TITLE AND NUMBER: Broad Based Support for Africa, 698-S031
STATUS: New
PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE: FY 1997: $19,700,000 DFA
INITIAL OBLIGATION: FY 1997; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: Ongoing
Purpose: To provide support to address Africa-wide issues that are intrinsic to Africa Bureau program management and/or provide support that is broader than that provided to a single bilateral country program or sub-regional program.
Background: A tenant of the USAID Africa Bureau's management goal is that Agency resources are budgeted and implemented for specific country and regional programs to the maximum extent possible. However, there are some Africa-wide issues and management needs that transcend national and/or regional boundaries. To this end, the Africa Bureau funds a discrete set of activities which address these problems, issues and needs. Among these activities are: funding for non-country specific program development and support; the USAID Africa Bureau-wide Special Self Help Development Fund to promote small civic endeavors; undergirding support for an enhanced role for U.S. and indigenous private voluntary organizations (PVOs); a limited fund for initiating worthwhile unsolicited proposals which address concerns that go beyond a particular USAID mandate; and a fund to promote economic policy reform.
USAID Role and Achievements to Date: Though disparate, the activities supported have the common focus of enhancing the way the Africa Bureau manages its development resources. Funding is used to service certain non-country specific needs or where it is premature to budget resources to a specific country or group of countries yet it is known that the need will exist during the later part of the budget cycle. Over the years, funds have been used for similar activities which have been well invested in developing new support mechanisms, strengthening Africa Bureau program management, enhancing U.S. policy interests by building indigenous support and for developing fundamental and far-reaching economic policy reform programs. By the very nature of activities supported, measurable achievements are limited as there is a constant need to continue to invest in new and better ways to play a catalytic role in the enhancement of program management.
Description: The Africa Bureau funds a number of support activities under this strategic objective including: a) Program Development and Support, a small reserve ($300,000-$1,000,000 annually) to design, support and/or evaluate program, projects or activities, including pilot activities, where such activities can not be appropriately charged to an individual project or activity and are not directly related or linked to programs in a particular country or USAID Mission. Recent examples include studies such as an ongoing multi-donor study on aid effectiveness in Africa and program design such as related to the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative and the Leland Initiative for telecommunications linkages in Africa. b) Africa Special Self Help Program ($3-$5 million annually), which enables USAIDs and U.S. Ambassadors (in specifically identified non-USAID presence countries) to respond quickly and with minimal red tape to request from indigenous communities for small (generally $2,000 or less), self-help activities which have an immediate impact and will advance U.S. interests. Following a program initiated in 1963 in Latin America, the concept was introduced in Africa toward the end of FY 1992. Examples abound including providing sewing machines for a community center for adult vocational training; providing a brick-making machine for communities which want to enhance their houses or community buildings; class rooms, books or equipment needed to enable school children to be educated in their communities. c) Support for InterAction, a U.S. PVO consortium which brings together U.S. and African Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and PVOs on a regular basis to discus Africa-wide issues and lessons learned. A grant of a couple hundred thousand dollars annually provides a critical collaborative mechanism between the NGO community and USAID and among U.S. and African PVOs and NGOs. d) Unsolicited Proposal Fund (about $2-3 million annually) for unsolicited development-related proposals which initially may not fall under specific bilateral programs but are supportive of Agency objectives and U.S. national interests. e) Africa Economic Policy Reform Program ($4-8 million annually), subject to availability of funds) which between 1985 and 1994 has funded 36 economic policy reform programs in 23 African countries, programs which helped bring about critical policy changes in important areas such as agricultural marketing, girls' education, and supplemental assistance to offset the impact of the devaluation of the West African franc.
Host Country and Other Donors: By the nature of supporting program management rather than implementing country program, there is little measurable correlation with host country and other donors support, especially where funds are used for precursor activities or program formulation. However, in providing the framework for PVO support, there is the clear expectation that over time the strengthened PVOs will enhance their ability to raise private contributions and to work colloboratively with host country and other donor resources. Likewise, when economic policy reform programs are formulated, at that point other donors and the host country must have an identified and clearly discernable role.
Beneficiaries: The ultimate direct beneficiaries of improved management and well-formulated programs and activities are the millions of people in Africa who receive well-targeted and effectively programmed U.S. assistance.
Principal Contractors, Grantees, or Agencies: In most cases the grantees and/or implementing agencies are to be determined at the time in the future when specific tasks are to be implemented. It is known that local indigenous community-based organizations will implement activities under the aegis of the Ambassador's Special Self Help programs and the Peace Corps is often instrumental in implementing these activities. Strengthening PVOs has been a collaborative process undertaken in cooperation with InterAction, a U.S. PVO, and this symbiotic relationship may warrant continuation. The Overseas Development Council is producing case studies documenting lessons learned and effectiveness of aid in Africa.
Major Results Indicators: Not Applicable