Following is a Web version of a document from USAID's 1997 Congressional Presentation. Please note that some formatting may have been lost in the automated conversion of the original file. This document is also available for download in its original WordPerfect 5.1 format.

FY 1997 Development Fund for Africa: $14,368,774

Introduction.

As USAID prepares for the start of the twenty-first century, West Africa presents the United States with new challenges and the need for a creative and flexible foreign assistance program to meet them. The region's rapidly growing population of over 260 million faces both change and potential while remaining in one of the most desperately poor parts of the world. The countries, sub-regions, and people in the West Africa region confront a range of possibilities that has civil collapse at one extreme and sustainable development at the other. U.S. interests in the region are twofold. First, the United States has an important stake in the region's success as many of the region's problems, including conflict prevention, the struggle towards democratization, threats to the ecosystem, threats to human health and population growth, are global concerns. Second, U.S. firms have important investments in mining, energy, and telecommunications in the region. As USAID's assistance in the West Africa region evolves in the late 1990s, it must be creative and flexible to deal with both the variation in conditions in the region and the changing American political priorities for foreign assistance.

The Development Challenge.

Throughout the economic and political changes in West Africa since independence of the former colonies, countries in West Africa have generally shared the experience of poor internal and sub-regional economic growth. There are many reasons for this generally poor performance including civil disturbances, generally poor education and inappropriate health practices, ineffective governments and immature private sector institutions, weak program planning and management, and a shortage of trained professional and technical personnel. Despite major investments in road infrastructure, reductions in tariff barriers, progress on regional integration, and recent democratic elections, the region has consistently under-performed in comparison with other developing regions of the world. These political and economic trends will be reversed only when new sources of economic growth are established and political institutions promote economic growth. Likely sources of growth will be more diversified mining/energy development and broad-based agricultural growth linked to West African regional trade. These resources will then provide the investments necessary for improving health, education, and environmental management by decentralized government and a stronger private sector.

USAID has learned from experience in the region that many of the most serious development problems in West Africa have regional dimensions that should be faced on a regional basis. For example, demographic profiles for all countries in the Sahelian zones and in the coastal zones are similar, indicating the utility of regional approaches to family planning. HIV/AIDS has become a regional problem owing to the heavy inter-regional and seasonal migration of workers. Consequently, during FY 1995 USAID launched its first strategic objective designed from the beginning with a regional perspective: a $60 million program in family health and AIDS prevention.

During FY 1996 and FY 1997, USAID will be considering how to address other regional problems within an overall strategic plan in West Africa because many other crucial sustainable development problems have important regional dimensions. For example, much of the failure of West Africa to achieve sustainable development can be attributed to the effects of small, cloistered economies which have a high level of effective economic protection. This has prevented the development of regional trade, and also, because of its effect in limiting market potential, discouraged foreign private investment. In addition to increased cooperation in integrating their economies, West African countries need to promote integration through improved regional communications and transportation, including road, rail and air networks. Desertification problems (advancing desert) are similar across the Sahel. Coastal wetlands and the Congo Basin are divided among more than a dozen countries, and their eco-systemscan be preserved only in a regional context. These are the kinds of issues that USAID will be considering for possible consolidation into a West Africa regional framework.

Other Donors.

A large number of multinational and bilateral donors are working in West Africa. The biggest are the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the United Nations Agencies, the European Union, and the French. In addition there are networks of other development agencies, Western and African, working in the region. USAID's staff collaborate directly with many of these donors in providing assistance to the client posts. REDSO also works directly with such donors as the European Union, Germany, Canada, France, United Nations Agencies and the World Bank in furtherance of REDSO's strategic objective in family health and AIDS.

FY 1997 Program.

The USAID program has begun a transition in two ways, both of which reflect the changing nature of U.S. development assistance in the West Africa region:

1. USAID has historically supported the development objectives of USAID's bilateral posts in the West Africa region. At one time USAID provided direct support to 24 client posts. By the end of FY 1996, however, there will be only 10 USAIDs in this region. During FY 1997, REDSO/WCA will continue its technical support to the remaining bilateral posts. In the spirit of USAID's re-engineering, the staff will participate as virtual members of client post teams. At the same time, REDSO will continue ensuring that the activities transferred from close-out posts to REDSO/WCA are effectively managed to full completion. Finally REDSO will oversee activities in those bilateral posts, such as Nigeria, that are reduced to a very small size.

2. There is a growing realization that for USAID to continue to be an effective donor in the West Africa region, new regional approaches for solving regional problems must be developed. As a result, the Africa Bureau gave REDSO/WCA the responsibility for leading the effort to develop a strategy for West Africa. REDSO/WCA has begun this process, which will involve close collaboration with USAID/W, client posts in the West Africa region, potential partners, "customers," and stakeholders, and it will continue to be a major priority through the second quarter of FY 1997.

REDSO/WCA is well positioned to lead the transition to promoting sustainable development through regionally designed and implemented program activities. The strategic objective in family health and AIDS is an important first step in developing other regional solutions to regional development problems. There are other development problems and constraints that can be dealt with cost effectively on a regional basis. For example, additional development interventions in health and population can be delivered regionally, environmental problems cross national boundaries, many democracy and governance issues are common to the region, regional trade expansion is crucial to improved economic performance, and more attention to infrastructure will allow improved communication within the region.
REDSO/WCA's regional strategy is to provide specialized developmental and essential support services to the USAID bilateral field posts in West Africa so that they are better able to formulate strategies, design approaches, implement activities, judge the results and report the impacts. The second element of the strategy is to assist the USAID bilateral field posts in West Africa that have been selected for closure with the necessary specialized services to provide for a timely and controlled ending of activity and departure of staff, followed by the transfer of residual responsibilities to REDSO/WCA for completion.

REDSO/WCA's Strategic Support Objective 1 is "Technical and Management Support Services to Bilateral Field Posts." REDSO/WCA provides a range of development assistance to the West Africa region that includes humanitarian objectives in the short term and promoting sustainable economicdevelopment and democratic governance in the long run. REDSO currently provides technical assistance to 11 USAID posts in West Africa^1/ .

Agency Goal: Encouraging Broad-based Economic Growth

REDSO/WCA's responsibilities are evolving to take account of the growing recognition that many of the most serious development problems in the region require regional solutions. The population and health strategic objective seeks to promote women's health, to minimize the transmission of HIV/AIDS, and to reduce mortality of infants and children in the West Africa region. In concert with other donor and host country efforts, REDSO will build on successful USAID and other donor-funded initiatives in the region to establish appropriate mechanisms that will encourage an integrated approach to low-cost service delivery interventions.

The centerpiece of REDSO's strategic objective is a five-year Family Health and Aids -- West and Central Africa (FHA-WCA) project. USAID will complement the project activities with other kinds of assistance. (For example, a plan on designing a results package under this strategic objective for child survival activities.) Indicators of achievement are increased use of family planning, changes in high risk sexual behavior, and more effective, efficient utilization of indigenous and donor resources.

REDSO/WCA's most active partners will be public and private West African institutions that provide services in the region and their international partners. The ultimate beneficiaries -- children under five years old, their mothers, and sexually active adolescents and adults -- will participate by contributing to the design of services through community involvement, to information, education and communication (IE&C) through focus groups, and to evaluation of program quality through surveys and other studies.