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: $2,591,186

Introduction.

Burundi, a small central African country of 6.2 million people, is in a political crisis and a state of ethnic civil war. With an annual income per capita of $94 (1994), it is among the world's poorest countries and, after Rwanda, is the most densely populated country in Africa. A military coup attempt by the Tutsi minority in 1993 resulted in the assassination of the newly-elected President in October 1993, and the untimely death of his successor in a suspicious plane crash in April 1994. The coup attempt triggered inter-ethnic massacres, displaced large populations, and threatened the democratically-elected government. An interim ethnic/political power-sharing agreement, the Convention of Government, was negotiated in October 1994 to stem the escalation of violence and to avoid what some feared might be a repetition of the genocide experienced in April 1994 in Rwanda. Through continued political harassment and assassinations during 1995, the Convention of Government has been eroded in favor of the Tutsi minority, leaving the government largely dysfunctional. Civil disobedience has become endemic in the absence of functioning institutions of law and justice. Burundi represents a potential destabilizing force in the Great Lakes Region (Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zaire), a region already weakened by the 1994 Rwanda genocide and large refugee populations. This sub-region is part of the Greater Horn of Africa Initiative (GHAI) where USAID, the Department of State and African governments have made a joint commitment to engage cooperatively in preventive diplomacy and coordinated assistance in an effort to prevent or mitigate the repetition of costly natural and man-made disasters.

The Development Challenge.

The population of Burundi is 93% rural, largely employed in the traditional agricultural sector and economically dependent on a functioning subsistence agriculture. Armed political conflict by the military and civilians has created a state of insecurity throughout the country. Cultivation and harvesting processes are regularly interrupted. During 1995, violence in the interior, along with sabotage of electrical power systems, has led to significant losses to production facilities, infrastructure, levels of production and income. Coffee production, the largest export, was down 50% in 1994-95. Employment rates have also fallen by 50%. Many homes have been totally or partially destroyed. Internally displaced and refugee camps in northern Burundi have resulted in extensive deforestation. Foreign assistance expenditures for non-humanitarian development efforts are down by 80%. In sum, all economic indicators have plummeted.

Social indicators in 1992 ranked Burundi among the least advanced countries, with a life expectancy of 50.2 years, a literacy rate among adults at 32.9%, 102 per 1000 infant mortality, and 31% school attendance. While insecurity has prevented detailed survey-taking, all signs indicate that these conditions have significantly worsened during 1993-95. Eighty percent of the population is now estimated to live below the absolute poverty line. Infant mortality rates are aggravated by spread of diarrheal and respiratory infection. All progress realized in primary health care during 1986-92 has been wiped out. Although many hospitals and rural clinics are still operating, they are grossly under-staffed and under-supplied. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic, exacerbated by continuing disturbances and movements of displaced people and refugees, has registered alarming growth in seroprevalence levels. In some towns and semi-urban areas, the incidence of HIV/AIDS has tripled. The national educational system has been disrupted with a 30% reduction in teachers and destruction of schools. An estimated 535,000 Burundians, mainly women and children affected by violence, have been displaced and are dependent on extended family support or are wandering aimlessly in search of a means to survive. During 1995, 220,000 Rwandan refugees in Burundi have added to this burden.

Prior to the crisis, Burundi was moving forward on economic reforms. With USAID assistance, Burundi had implemented new economic policies which created a legal framework for encouraging private businessdevelopment. USAID was assisting Burundians in modernizing research and methods for small farming systems and in analyzing the difficult land tenure and allocation problems of its over-populated arable land base. In the public sector, with USAID funds, the country had started major reforms to decentralize public health services. USAID was training participants in fields of study critical to the country's future development. With the progressive intensification of civil war and insecurity since 1993, traditional medium-/long-term development programs have been suspended or stopped by USAID and other donors because of difficulties of implementation and insecurity for personnel. USAID's development assistance resources from conventional assistance projects are being redirected into focussed, shorter-term activities designed to assist the country's transition out of its current crisis. The assistance challenge for USAID has changed its focus from development to relief and rehabilitation for vulnerable populations and victims of war. If current pacification efforts both within and outside Burundi are successful, USAID will direct assistance back into post-war reconstruction and development. The development challenge will be to convert the program from almost a pure relief effort toward rehabilitation and lesser dependency of local populations on relief aid. The historic trend of repeated outbreaks of random violence around the country may hinder results by keeping the social and economic situation unstable and therefore making rehabilitation difficult. Although its pre-crisis performance was promising, Burundi is not an early candidate for rapid graduation from traditional development assistance. The country will have much rebuilding to do once such assistance is reinstated under stable social, political, economic and operating conditions. Burundi has no external debts with the United States.

Other Donors.

In 1995, the donor community pledged an estimated $155 million to Burundi, including $90 million in development aid and $65 million in humanitarian assistance. The European Union has been the largest donor of development assistance (DA), while the United States has led in commitment of humanitarian assistance. In 1995, the United States was one of the largest bilateral donors ($32 million humanitarian aid, $5 million DA) together with France, Belgium and Germany. The United Nations has by far the largest active presence with the United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General (UNSRSG), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Human Rights Center (UNHRC), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). During 1995, all donors have significantly reduced disbursement of development assistance and numbers of associated personnel. Humanitarian assistance continues, but activities have been slowed and jeopardized by harassment of international and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). An air of skepticism or a wait-and-see attitude pervades the assistance community until signs of political reconciliation and concrete evidence of improvements to security become evident.

FY 1997 Program.

The environment of instability and insecurity demands a USAID strategy relevant to the priorities created by the crisis and one that can operate in a manner that does not unduly burden a reduced American presence in the country. It is in the U.S. national interest to lower the relief costs by promoting stability within the Great Lakes Region and ending human rights abuses. USAID will maintain an effective pro-active and re-active assistance presence to support ethnic/political conflict resolution while mitigating acts of social destabilization. The program will focus on human rights protection, consensus-building and ethnic/political conflict resolution from grassroots groups to significant political players.

Agency Goal: Building Democracy

Since the assassinations of Burundian leaders in 1993 and 1994, both the government and its institutions have been dissolving under inter-ethnic conflict, civilian and military violence, and mounting mortality rates. In October 1994, the Burundian political protagonists negotiated and signed the Convention of Government to serve as an interim power-sharing arrangement. This arrangement was to permit time for reviewing and developing renewed national consensus on a democratic process and institutions of governance for a multi-ethnic society. During the past year, the Convention of Government has remained in place. The power-sharing intent of the Convention of Government, however, has been compromised due to ethnic minority dominance of government institutions including the military, and official civilian positions at national and local levels. Political positions have hardened, with moderates and consensus-builders pushed more toward one ethnic extreme or the other.

The USAID strategy works to reconstruct a civil society and to evolve indigenous institutions capable of governing fairly and providing minimal standards of security and services to all citizens. USAID has directly financed program activities and provided indirect support, especially to the Office of the U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary General, for conflict mitigation efforts and consensus-building. These include such activities as: peace radio programming through independent radio, exchanges with South Africa and other countries to understand conflict resolution models; creation of a national network of women's groups and a women's center in Bujumbura to support a nascent women's peace movement; and publication and distribution of a primer as part of the national education curriculum on how to live in a democracy. USAID has also supported regional mediation initiatives such as The Cairo Summit (November 1995) and subsequent actions to promote reconciliation.

The problems of social and political conflict are severe in Burundi and their resolution will take time. USAID activities, in collaboration with other donor programs, have a moderating influence and are the only hope in of helping Burundi return to peace and stability. USAID proposes continuation of these and similar activities, including strengthening local grassroots organizations in mediation, and providing supplemental support to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, as necessary, to take the initial steps necessary toward ending the pervasive sense of impunity.

In addition to Democracy and Governance, Burundi will benefit from $85,612 worth of Africa Regionally-funded environmental activities.