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Pleading2L6oGHeader for numbered pleading paper*(O2E<wx   ,#x  @;X@# X  y*dddyy*dddy HH1 HH2 HH3 HH4 HH5 HH6 HH7 HH8 HH9 H10 H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H16 H17 H18 H19 H20 H21 H22 H23 H24 H25 H26 H27 H28   ӼDefault Para6oGDefault Paragraph Font2@Q*(O2E=yza1Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(>8{|@   2/?8-@-Aw.B$/a2Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(?A}~@` `  ` ` ` a3Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(@J` ` @  ` `  a4Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(AS` `  @  a5Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(B\` `  @hh# hhh 23C 0D0E1d2a6Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(Ce` `  hh#@( hh# a7Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(Dn` `  hh#(@- ( a8Right Par+(ORight-Aligned Paragraph Numbers(2@^*(Ew` `  hh#(-@pp2 -ppp X0Í ÍX0Í Í2J;0D3x  @;X@<  9`("Courier 10cpiXx  @;X@<  9`("Courier 10cpiXixP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)ixP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)TxP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)ixP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)x  @;X@<  9`("Courier 10cpiXixP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)TxP7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)x  @ ;X@<  9`("Courier 10cpiXx  @ ;X@<  9`("Courier 10cpiXTxP 7P,xA`&Univers (Scalable)2|;;#|9 #ixP7P#!LAC REGIONAL PROGRAM FY 1997 Development Assistance: $32,350,000 FY 1997 Economic Support Funds: $35,000,000 Introduction . The Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region has experienced dramatic, positive changes over the past 15 years. Democracy, economic growth and regional integration, and advances in education and health, characterize the region's rapid progress. United States foreign policy is firmly committed to reinforcing and emphasizing these trends, to increasing sustainability of regional development efforts, and to helping LAC countries ensure reductions in poverty with special attention to the least welloff 20% of the region's population, including indigenous groups. It is in the U.S. national interest to care about what happens in this neighboring region. Experience shows that the United States benefits from the LAC region's progress. Trade increases when populations are better able to purchase U.S. goods and services, and when new technologies are introduced to an expanding and bettereducated LAC market. Migration to the United States tends to decrease if LAC populations are politically and economically more secure in their own countries. The need for U.S. peacekeeping diminishes if democracy is strengthened, and democratic institutions are created, supported until strong, and guided to involve local communities and the poor. The United States is less likely to be affected by disease outbreaks, when health services improve and sanitary practices in the LAC region become more widespread. The primary focus of the LAC regional program is development issues that are best addressed through multicountry cooperation and mutuallybeneficial collaborative relationships between the United States and subgroupings of interested LAC countries. USAID's LAC Regional program implements a carefullydesigned portfolio of uniquely regional or hemispheric development initiatives. These initiative have the greatest effect when managed in close collaboration with or by regional institutions and organizations. The program also provides rigorous analytical support for USAID strategic planning, policy development, program design, implementation and evaluation concerning the LAC region, and focuses on indigenous groups and the poorest segment of the region's population. The Development Challenge . One of the grestest challenges in the LAC region is to increase opportunities for the poor, particularly small entrepreneurs and agricultural producers, to participate in environmentallysound economic growth. The 1994 Summit of the Americas recognized that free trade and increased economic integration are key factors in raising standards of living, improving working conditions, and protecting the environment. The LAC Regional program works with LAC countries which do not yet meet hemispherewide standards and conditions essential for trade, either with the United States or in subregional LAC trade groupings. Education is a high economicreturn investment, which directly enhances the productivity of individuals, and enables them to increase earnings and purchase more sophisticated goods and services within the hemisphere. Education is also the foundation of full participation in democratic, stable societies. Expanding the benefits of highquality basic education is a major, desired, policy outcome. The LAC Regional program helps countries make better human resource investments and establishes a basis for countries to devote a larger proportion of their gross domestic product (GDP) to higher quality basic education. In spite of encouraging progress in the LAC region in lowering infant mortality and deaths among children under five (measles cases in 1994 were down by 99% from levels in the early 1990s; polio transmission ceased in 1991 through out the hemisphere), extending life expectancy at birth, and decreasing fertility, the rate of preventable deaths each year is almost five times the rate in the developed world. Fertility among women under 20 has remained constant over the last 30 years, and fully onehalf of all births are unwanted or mistimed. Clearly, the need for continued improvements in family planning and other basic health services is great. Equitable access to basic health services, and public and private sector reforms in health management and financing are required. While the region is endowed with a rich natural resource base, including more than half of the globe's remaining forests and biodiversity, it is also experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization. Therefore, USAID's LAC Regional program has expanded its traditional focus on sustainable forestry, agriculture, and biodiversityrelated issues to address urban and industrial environmental and pollution prevention issues. Among countries and within subregions, there is a need for exchanges of knowledge and experience with policy reforms, strengthening of both public and private environmental institutions, and on transfer of technologies appropriate to the unique requirements of the region. A decade ago, citizens in the LAC region had few opportunities to participate freely in elections or in decisionmaking in their municipalities and communities. National governmental institutions had little cause to seek internal reform, and dialogue between governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in allocation and use of public revenues was rare. Today, democratic processes are taking hold but the institutional framework to support them remains fragile. Additional efforts are required to strengthen rule of law and judicial reform, to improve the administrative efficiency of the justice system, and to extend justice to citizens, including: (1) building institutions and mechanisms to encourage citizen participation at municipal and community levels of society, (2) opening up to public scrutiny and making more effective government institutions at all levels, and (3) promoting dialogue between government and NGOs. Other Donors . Following the World Bank and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), USAID is the third largest donor in the region. USAID is wellrespected in the LAC region and exercises considerable influence with governments, the private sector, and other donors. USAID regularly coordinates specific countrylevel, regionallevel and global assistance with other donors. Much regional donor coordination centers around initiatives under the 1994 Summit of the Americas. Other donors, such as the multinational banks and the Ford Foundation, are keenly interested in the Summit initiative for educational policy reform in the region. The Organization of American States (OAS) works on Summit human rights initiatives. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is the responsible regional institution for the Summit's "equitable access" initiative, monitoring country implementation of health reforms in response to that initiative. Similar consultations between USAID and other donors occur regularly within all sectors. To implement environmental objectives, LAC regional program staff work with the World Bank's Global Environmental Facility, the United Nation's Development Program, the Food and Agricultural Organization, bilateral donors, and private foundations (MacArthur, Mellon). In addition to the United States, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, the European Union, Canada, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries play key leadership or funding roles in strengthening democracy. In the area of accountability of democratic institutions, limited LAC regional resources have leveraged millions of dollars of technical assistance loans to Latin American ministries of finance and national audit institutions. A donor consultative group for financial management coordinates all regionwide anticorruption and accountability activities. FY 1997 Program. As one of 34 nations in the hemisphere which committed itself to achieving the 1994 Summit of the Americas' Plan of Action, the United States has made essential contributions to institutionalize democracy and promote economic growth with equity. USAID programs, with resources available under the LAC regional program in FY 1997 will: (1) identify and reinforce regionwide or subregional trends, policies and strategies, (2) strengthen and institutionalize democracy and human rights, (3) encourage broadbased economic growth and expansion of trade, (4) protect the environment and natural resources, and (5) address serious health issues. Agency Goal: Encouraging Broadbased Economic Growth USAID s strategy for encouraging environmentally sound, broadbased economic growth focuses on strengthening markets, investing in people, and enhancing opportunity and access through support for new or significantlystrengthened, hemisphericwide, catalytic institutions. Achieving the goal of countries in this hemisphere to promote regional prosperity through increased free trade and economic integration will depend upon technical assistance and other support from, and close collaboration among, governments, the private sector and multinational investment funds all partners in the international development community. This partnership aims at improving market efficiency and performance, expanding market opportunities, and expanding access to markets for all social groups. USAID's strategy for encouraging broadbased economic growth also includes strengthening of hemispheric partnerships to promote educational policy reform. Economic growth created by a better educated and a moreproductive labor force earning higher incomes, ensures that current trading partners become better customers for U.S. products and technologies. The LAC regional program also addresses issues of food insecurity at the national and household level through economic growth and health strategic objectives, and technical assistance is provided on a regional basis to analyze and design strategic responses. The program addresses food security in the LAC region for strategic, as well as humanitarian reasons. An insecure food situation contributes to low and inequitable growth, exacerbates environmental degradation, creates disincentives for population planning, stimulates migration to neighboring countries, including the United States, and encourages political instability in the region. Food insecurity and hemispheric economic integration also are linked . If foodinsecure countries use food shortages as a rationale for reimposing controls on their agricultural sectors, this could impede progress toward economic integration.  Strategic Objective 1: Key Market Issues Impeding Environmentally Sound and Equitable Free Trade in the Hemisphere Resolved Tradeinduced economic expansion is the catalyst for improved living standards, poverty reduction, and sustained growth and political stability in the LAC region. Efforts under this strategic objective pave the way for increased trade and greater economic integration in Latin America by addressing key issues regarding the creation of the Free Trade Area of Americas, and by addressing the basic social and economic adjustments associated with entrance into a free trade arrangement.   Smaller economies face substantial obstacles in joining a hemispheric free trade arrangement. USAID efforts are directed to assist target countries resolve basic trade and economic integration issues and implement legal reform measures. A few of the mechanisms that will be operational in FY 1997, as a result of assistance under the LAC Regional program, are: (1) a regional training center to train agricultural quarantine and inspection officers in Latin America, (2) a rules of origin system to simplify customs procedures in target LAC countries, and (3) food safety regulatory procedures to ensure consistent production of food products that meet regulatory requirements of importing countries, based on accepted World Health Organization standards. Smallscale businesses and entrepreneurs are currently limited from fully participating in regional markets due to technological inefficiencies, lack of access to tradefacilitating infrastructure and high transaction costs. USAID efforts will lead to development of integrated communications network technologies and use of personal computers to globally link small and mediumsized businesses with traders and to carry out international trade transactions. The segments of society that are currently the most disadvantaged and marginalized in the marketplace women, the poor, and indigenous groups will need access to information and outreach systems to allow them to take advantage of the benefits of free trade and economic growth. USAID efforts will strengthen key regional market institutions and networks to reach the disadvantaged and provide opportunities, particularly for smallscale agricultural producers, for participation in trade expansion. These institutions and networks include private property systems, agricultural technology development systems, and links between commercial capital markets and microenterprise institutions. As economic growth and trade expand, pressures on natural resources and the potential for increased pollution, environmental contamination, and associated health risks will mount in the region. In FY 1997, the program will assist LAC countries to modify their policies to provide incentives for more sustainable natural resource use and for industries to adopt pollution prevention practices. Programs will be launched by LAC governments and industries to reduce health risks from key environmental contaminants. Targeted industries will begin to adopt the use of industrial audits for assessing environmental management needs. Current labor standards and practices in the region are generally not at a level that can support efficient production necessary for companies to effectively participate in an increasingly competitive and interdependent global economy. USAID efforts will support democratic free labor movements, modern labormanagement relations, and worker health and safety standards to ensure efficient and stable production capabilities.  Strategic Objective 2: Improved Human Resources Policies Adopted in Selected LAC Countries Equally true for the United States and LAC countries, education is the foundation of democracy and the key to reducing poverty and income inequality. Education reform is a timely issue on the hemispheric agenda, illustrated by the commitment of the Summit of the Americas to an initiative to ensure universal access to highquality basic education. With the shift in most of the LAC region to open economies, countries have come to recognize that political stability and success in world trade are dependent on increasing human capacity. Most children in the region, male and female, attend primary school. Access to primary school increased from 60% in the 1960s to over 90% today. Participation rates in secondary and higher education also increased, although at a slower rate. While LAC countries have made good progress in providing access to basic education, the failings of existing systems to prevent students from repeating grades or dropping out, the particular issue of access by indigenous groups to basic education, and the small proportions of GDP dedicated by governments to education, point to a continuing need for deep reforms in education policies. In an effort to increase awareness and understanding of education policy and program options, the LAC Regional program established, and will continue in FY 1997 to strengthen, a consultative forum of governments, the private sector, NGOs, and donors, to develop a broader and more active constituency for education policy reform hemispherewide, as well as within selected LAC countries. This sustainable, hemispheric "partnership for educational reform in the Americas" will strongly promote educational policy reform at all levels of society. Agency Goal: Stabilizing World Population and Protecting Human Health All funding requested for population and health is planned for health activities. Despite impressive gains in the hemisphere, limited access to and poor quality of health services have resulted in persistently high child and maternal mortality, particularly among rural poor and indigenous groups. The Summit of the Americas' plan of action provides that governments: (1) endorse child and maternal health objectives, including reducing child mortality by onethird and maternal mortality by half (from 1990 levels), reflecting the objectives of the 1990 World Summit for Children, the 1994 Narino Accord, and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, (2) endorse a basic package of child and reproductive health interventions; and (3) develop or update country action plans or programs to focus on reforms to achieve equitable, universal access to the basic package. Health reforms, which virtually all LAC countries are to some degree in the process of undertaking, include decentralization, alternative financing schemes, quality assurance, and greater use of NGOs and communitybased services for the poor. Summit governments further agreed to use a network to share expertise, information, and experience on health reform efforts in the region. In FY 1997, USAID's contribution through the LAC Regional program will continue the United State's role in the hemisphere as a leader in public health and development, by helping LAC countries design, implement, and monitor such reforms. Support for health management and financial reforms to increase equity of access to basic health services is also in the U.S. national interest for humanitarian, political (the United States is committed to implement the plan of action of the Summit of the Americas), and developmental reasons (improved health systems will be more sustainable, and will enable countries to provide full coverage of basic health services to their populations without having to depend upon donor resources). If resources were to diminish significantly for FY 1997, regional efforts to improve care for children sick with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections (the two primary causes of mortality among infants and children), would have to be cut back.  Strategic Objective 3: Country Health Reform Plans and Programs that Increase Equitable Access to Basic Health Services Implemented Infant, child and maternal mortality remain high, especially among disadvantaged populations in the LAC region. Currently, target countries do not dedicate enough health resources to priority needs in controlling diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infections, nor to maternal mortality reduction. The quality and effectiveness of these programs need improvement. Despite the drop in infant mortality, close to 600,000 infants die each year before their first birthday, most of them from causes that could be prevented with simple, lowcost technologies. While vaccination coverage levels generally are excellent, there are pockets of low coverage and programs not yet sustainable. Furthermore, the region has recently adopted an ambitious measleselimination goal. The proximity of the LAC region to the United States presents special challenges, especially in view of current migration and travel patterns. Communicable diseases such as cholera, polio and measles can cause problems in our own country if they are not addressed throughout the region. U.S. interests are also served by intensifying efforts to reduce maternal mortality, not only from a humanitarian perspective, but also to reduce the uncertainties of reproduction, leading to better family planning and, ultimately, to slower population growth and reduced pressures for migration to the United States. In FY 1997, the LAC Regional program will use the same successful approaches as those employed in accelerated immunization projects (developing regional standards for program implementation and surveillance, providing technical advisors who work with country program managers and Interagency Coordinating Committees, and creating effective surveillance systems), which resulted over the past years in a high level of political attention and emphasis on immunization programs in targetX0ÍX0ÍF#ixP7P# ÍThe target countries will be those LAC sustainable development countries with strategic objectives relating to the specific service; for example, for child survival services, there are currently 9 priority countries: Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Specific target countries for each health service selected for this program will be specified at the time grant funds are provided to the Pan American Health Organization. F countries, and in the effective dedication of substantial national resources for this high priority program. In FY 1997, LAC regional program resources are intended to leverage other modest USAID resources to focus the attention of LAC countries and other assistance organizations on basic health interventions that are successful. Advancing basic health in selected areas of USAID's priority health goals (those relating to child survival and maternal health, which are amenable to regional action and which need additional program resources beyond other USAID bilateral and global assistance programs), will help the hemisphere, make progress towards its ambitious population and health goals.  Strategic Objective 4: More Effective Delivery of Selected Health Services Achieved Agency Goal: Protecting the Environment The LAC Region contains nearly half of the world's biodiversity. However, population pressures, rapid urbanization and industrialization, increased demands for agricultural and grazing land, and other factors, are resulting in extensive degradation of key ecosystems. Conservation of the region's biodiversity is critical in view of its longterm potential for providing significant industrial, pharmaceutical, and agricultural uses. As a result of ongoing USAID assistance under the LAC Regional Parks in Peril (PiP) program, LAC governments are now committed to taking measures to protect, conserve and utilize their resources, including maintaining a system of parks and reserves of representative ecosystems. The PiP program, implemented by The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with national and local governments, NGOs and indigenous communities, directly supports the Summit of the America's initiative to establish "a partnership for biodiversity" in key ecosystems in selected LAC countries. Through FY 1996, protection activities are ongoing in 28 parks covering 18 million acres in 12 countries participating in the program. The activities undertaken are against a target of 28 to 35 parks over the life of the program (subject to the availability of overall funding). NonUSAID funding was identified for 6 PiP sites, and they are well on their way to graduating from the PiP program. In FY 1997, increased emphasis will be placed on: (1) sharing lessons learned from the PiP program and on utilizing PiP sites as demonstration and training areas to advance conservation in other endangered ecosystems, (2) expanding the involvement of local communities in the conservation and management of the parks and reserves, (3) increasing scientific knowledge of the biodiversity in PiP sites and the impact of management interventions, and (4) promoting policy reform and sustainable financing for conservation of key ecosystems. While rapid economic growth in the LAC region offers many opportunities for the United States, environmental degradation in the region contributes to global climate change, deterioration of the natural resource base, and political instability. The PiP program maximizes political, economic and social returns for the region as a whole and for all its participating countries, including the United States, when it prevents these phenomena from occurring.  Strategic Objective 5: Selected LAC Parks and Reserves Important to Conserve the Hemisphere's Biological Diversity Protected Agency Goal: Building Democracy While the 1980s and early 1990s witnessed dramatic advances in Latin American efforts to establish democracy, a new democratic order has yet to be consolidated. Still fragile Latin American democracies face difficult challenges from growing crime and drug trafficking, endemic corruption, uneven access to justice, and continuing human rights abuses. Internally, many democratic institutions are weak and remain unrepresentative, and the legacy of authoritarian rule has been a highlycentalized and unresponsive government. The poor remain unrepresented and unable to participate effectively in political life. Despite these difficulties, the democratic transition that has taken place throughout the region offers a strong foundation for further progress in building sustainable democratic systems. Over the past few years, Latin American politics have been marked by important positive trends including: (1) growing pluralism and increasing citizen participation, (2) a rising popular demand for judicial reform, (3) a movement to decentralize political and financial decisionmaking, and (4) repeated calls for government institutions to become more accountable and responsive to citizens. Underlying each of these trends is the principle that a new democratic order in Latin America needs to promote the rights of citizens and the rule of law. In FY 1997, the LAC Regional program will help consolidate democracy by supporting regional institutions, networks, and exchanges that serve as catalysts and innovators in the democratization effort. The program will identify broad trends that encourage or threaten democracy in the region and will work with USAID and regional institutions (both in Latin America and in the United States) to develop and disseminate new approaches which focus on these trends. The Regional program supports activities that help deepen democracy, as agreed to at the Summit of the Americas The LAC Regional program has contributed to important achievements through promoting human rights and rule of law, promoting transparent elections, strengthening civil society, and decentralization of power to legislatures, local governments and municipalities. Nearly all countries have implemented judicial reforms and initiated human rights activities, partly as a result of technical assistance and other support provided under the regional program. The ability of election tribunals to carry out free, fair and transparent elections has improved dramatically. Civil society groups are expanding and multiplying rapidly throughout the region, helped along by U.S. assistance for an NGO network which has professionalized several organizations and which plans to assist 80 others in the region over the next five years. Accountability and anticorruption are now the subject of public discourse in most countries of the region. USAID has been the most active donor in followup to the Summit of the Americas' "no to corruption" initiative. Much of the LAC Regional program's work is based upon, and strengthens, regional treaties, agreements and protocols. The InterAmerican Institute for Human Rights (IIDH) and its Center for the Promotion of Electoral Assistance (CAPEL) have received core funding through the regional program to carry out regional human rights education, and provide training, publications, and technical assistance to countries for human rights promotion and implementation of free and fair elections. The Latin American journalism project recently opened the Latin American Journalism Center in Panama. This regional center is close to becoming selfsustaining and will train media professionals in technical skills and ethical norms basic to independent media in functioning democracies. A hallmark of the LAC Regional program is its ability to stimulate participation of other development assistance donors and numerous U.S. NGOs, institutions of higher education, other U.S. Government agencies (U.S. Departments of State and Justice, and the U.S. Information Agency), drawn into this essential work either as active collaborators with USAID or regional institutions supported by USAID, or firsttime funding sources for LAC countries. For example, the Regional Financial Management Improvement project has leveraged over $130 million in World Bank and IDB resources to promote accountability and tranparency in various LAC countries.  Strategic Objective 6:  Strengthened Regional Trends that Deepen Democracy Special Objective Training The Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships (CASS) and the National Association of the Partners of the Americas (NAPA) are U.S. NGOs that receive USAID grants to enable their existing programs to provide training for LAC participants. The training helps achieve USAID goals and strategic objectives across sectors and is useful in encouraging greater civic and voluntary participation in communitylevel development activities throughout the region. While the CASS project, implemented by Georgetown University since 1989, was designed prior to the adoption of USAID's current strategic objectives, Georgetown University has redirected the training focus accordingly and continues to meet human resource development needs of LAC countries. For example, of the 283 participants entering the CASS training program in 1995, a total of 101 students began training in either agribusiness, small business management or industrial maintenance administration. Fifty participants entered ecotourism and environmental management. Fortynine began programs of study in health care administration and food science technology. Thirty participants are enrolled in an education administration program. A growing number of participants throughout the LAC region are engaged in civic education and democratic initiatives at the grassroots level of communities. Graduates of CASS and NAPA programs will contribute to the economic growth of their respective countries with new skills and by exercising leadership as individuals. Beneficiaries of these programs also will work to strengthen the democratic role of NGOs in community, national, and regional affairs.   X % LAC REGIONAL _ FY 1997 PROGRAM SUMMARY ă % ($ Thousands) ă  XX #TxP7P# | dd<%  dd<%  | *  *Encouraging Economic GrowthStabilizing Population Growth and Protecting Human HealthProtecting the Environment Building DemocracyProviding HumanitarianAssistanceTotal*\ \ *USAID Strategic Objectives*@ @ *1. Resolution of Key Market Issues Impeding Environmentally Sound and Equitable Free Trade in the Hemisphere Dev. Assistance $1,875 $1,000 $2,875*N N *2. Improved Human Resource Policies Adopted in Selected LAC Countries Dev. Assistance $1,225 $1,225*  *3. Implementation of Country Health Reform Plans/Programs that Increase Equitable Access to Basic Health Services Dev. Assistance  $1,000  $1,000*  *4. More Effective Delivery of Selected Health Services Dev. Assistancee  $3,800   $3,800*  *5. Protection of Selected Parks and Reserves Important to Conserve the Hemisphere's Biological Diversity Dev. Assistance  $4,300   $4,300*  *6. Strengthened Regional Trends that Deepen Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean Dev. Assistance ESF  $5,400 $35,000 $5,400 $35,000*\ \ *Special Objective: *  *Training Dev. Assistance $13,750  $13,750*2      2      *Total Dev. Assistance ESF $16,850 $4,800 $5,300  $5,400 $35,000 $32,350 $35,000 Office of Regional Sustainable Development Director: Twig Johnson  X    #ixP7P# m#ACTIVITY DATA SHEET ă PROGRAM : LAC REGIONAL TITLE AND NUMBER : Key Market Issues Impeding EnvironmentallySound and EquitableFree Trade in the Hemisphere Resolved, 598SO01 STATUS : Continuing PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE : FY 1997: $2,875,000 DA INITIAL OBLIGATION : FY 1995; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : FY 2000 Purpose: To resolve key market issues impeding environmentallysound and equitablefree trade in the hemisphere. Background: In 1994, at the Summit of the Americas, countries of the Western Hemisphere outlined the proposal for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), which will increase trade and economic integration in the region. The Summit recognized that, as economic growth and trade expand, pressures on natural resources and the potential for increased pollution, environmental contamination and associated health risks mount, and require compatible trade and environment initiatives. Moreover, since education and health are essential social investments which are fundamental building blocks to produce broadbased economic growth, education and health activities, designed to expand human capacity, significantly contribute to attainment of this objective. USAID Role and Achievements to Date: The LAC Regional program's Hemispheric Free Trade Expansion activity, which was implemented at the end of FY 1995, supports tradeinduced economic expansion as a significant catalyst for improved living standards, reducing poverty, and sustaining growth and political stability in the developing world. USAID collaborates closely with the Office of thel U.S. Trade Representative to participate in the international working groups meeting on the FTAA and works with U.S. and LAC partners to carry out trade liberalization initiatives in support of the creation of the FTAA. Major activities include: (1) establishing an electronic agribusiness network, (2) improving the response capacity of technology institutions to changes and impacts of agricultural free trade in the LAC region, (3) increasing the participation of indigenous groups in natural resource markets, (4) promoting improved occupational health and safety conditions, (5) introducing labor and management relations practices and processes in the LAC region, (6) creating a repository of spatial data to support trade expansion, and (7) developing an information database system linking partners, customers, and beneficiaries through the Internet. Description: In FY 1997, USAID will continue to focus on the following five distinct areas through the Hemispheric Free Trade Expansion (HFTE) and sustainable microfinance activities under the LAC Regional program: (1) increasing the capability of target LAC countries to implement legal reforms in tariff and nontariff areas required for countries' entries into the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the FTAA, (2) increasing the adoption of integrated network technologies and the use of personal computers to globally link traders and carry out international trade transactions more efficiently and at a lower transaction cost; (3) assisting countries with tradeinduced structural adjustments by developing and strengthening a variety of local and regional social institutions and networks through which the public and private sectors can engage in dialogue and create a catalyst for social change, (4) increasing the adoption of improved environmental and natural resource management practices related to free trade to ensure that expanded trade and hemispheric economic integration does not contribute to the degradation of the environment, and (5) increasing the adoption of improved labor and management relations and practices related to free trade through support for democratic free labor movements and for modern labormanagement relations. 4 <DL! Host Country and Other Donors: The LAC Regional program is already working with the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) to support economic growth and trade initiatives, and with the World Bank and the World Research Institute to support environmental initiatives adopted at the 1994 Summit of the Americas. Donor coordination will expand further in FY 1997. USAID is working jointly in these activities with Ecuador, Honduras, Brazil, and El Salvador. Beneficiaries: The LAC Regional program will focus economic growth and trade activities on smaller countries with lessdeveloped economies in order to accomplish this objective. It also will focus on increasing trade opportunities for the poor, particularly small entrepreneurs and small farmers, by incorporating them in the economic process. Principal Contractors, Grantees or Agencies: USAID is working closely with other U.S. government agencies and international organizations to support the initiatives adopted at the Summit of the Americas. The following U.S. organizations and agencies are some of the key partners involved in developing and implementing hemispheric free trade expansion and environment activities: the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Customs, the InterAmerican Institute for Agricultural Cooperation, National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Departments of Labor, Energy, Interior, and Agriculture. Major Results Indicators: ` `  hh#(Baselinepp27Target Number of FTAArelated tradehh#Baseline assessmentpp2Catalytic reforms in liberalizatioin reforms enacted andhh#(underwaypp2745 countries implemented.` `  hh#(-pp27 Number of tradefacilitating systemshh#(0-pp273 systems in 9 in key countries.` `  hh#(-pp2countries Number of market institutions hh#0(-pp25 new market strengthened and number of trade hh#(-pp27institutions tested in disciplines advanced. hh#(-pp278 countries Establishing enabling conditions forhh#(Baselinepp274 conditions in 1012 environmentally sustainable increasedhh#assessment-pp2countries trade.` `  hh#(underway Number of new institutions establishedhh#0(-pp23 institutions to address workers rights and labor andhh#(-pp2established management relations.  hh#( m#ACTIVITY DATA SHEET ă  PROGRAM : LAC REGIONAL TITLE AND NUMBER : Improved Human Resource Policies Adopted In Selected LAC Countries, 598SO02 STATUS : Continuing PROPOSED OBLIGATION AND FUNDING SOURCE : FY 1997: $1,225,000 DA INITIAL OBLIGATION : FY 1996; ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE : FY 2000  Purpose: To establish a sustainable hemispheric partnership to promote a better understanding of education policy issues and develop a broader and more active constituency for educational policy reform within the LAC region and selected countries. Background: Education reform is a timely issue on the hemispheric agenda. With the shift toward open economies in most of the region, countries are increasingly concluding that success in world trade and political stability depends more on human resources than on natural resources. Large segments of society, particularly women, minorities and indigenous groups, have not been equipped to participate fully in economic life. Nearly onehalf of the hemisphere's population lives in ignorance and poverty. The low level of primary school attainment is a major constraint to economic development. No country with low levels of human capital has developed successfully in a selfsustained manner in the latter half of the twentieth century. Considerable evidence suggests that policies change only when local policy thinkers and persuaders become intellectually convinced of the merit of an argument. USAID Role and Achievements to Date: With only modest investments in educational policy reform in LAC countries, USAID can have a direct effect on developing influential constituencies to support policy reform and on the delivery of quality primary education. In FY 1996, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched USAID's Partnership for Education Revitalization in the Americas activity which, in FY 1997, will use policy dialogue to encourage selected governments in the region to make policy changes to improve the quality of primary education. While it is still too early to enumerate achievements, the partnership is off to a fast start with active participation from most LAC countries and major educational organizations in the region. Description: The essence of USAID's approach in the region is to effect policy change through the development of a network of hemispheric "change agents," who will work to reform their own governments' considerable investment in education. USAID, in cooperation with other donors, will support a consultative forum for governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the business community, donors, and international organizations to review exemplary educational programs and policies and to focus resources for reform more effectively. The forum will establish the framework, process, and mechanism for identifying, showcasing and replicating best educational policies and practices in the hemisphere, leading to countrylevel reform in a variety of areas, including educational quality, finance, equity, and decentralization. The approach is very costeffective because, for relatively small investments, USAID can effect large changes in manner in which national governments invest their massive expenditures in education, and because those changes will result in dramatic efficiencies and savings. Host Country and Other Donors: USAID's effort to improve the quality and efficiency of education in the LAC region is a partnership between USAID, host countries, other donors, and LAC education organizations. Partners will be asked to provide financial and other support for the effort. The InterAmerican Development Bank has already provided limited support for the effort, and expects to provide additional funds. The World Bank also is interested in becoming a partner in the effort. On hemispheric educational policy, the LAC Regional program works with the InterAmerican Dialogue and LAC regional institutions, such as the Center for research and Development of Education. LAC regional activities also maintain contact with the U.S. Department of Education.  Beneficiaries: The ultimate beneficiaries of the effort will be all schoolage children in the LAC region, especially those in the primary grades. Other beneficiaries will include the host country governments which will provide more costeffective services, the private sector which will draw on a better educated, more productive labor force, and people at large who will gain more equitable and politically stable societies. Principal Contractor, Grantees, or Agencies: The Partnership for Educational Revitalization in the Americas will be implemented through a cooperative agreement with a U.S.based NGO (InterAmerican Dialogue). Major Results Indicators: ` `  hh#(-Baseline 7  <Target Policies formulated and adopted to improve educational quality, hh# (- finance, equity and governance.hh#(5 (FY 1996)pp2725 (1000) Working groups formed to showcase and replicate successful practices and policies.` `  hh#(-0pp2 7  <30 (2000) Increased percentage of primary school completers. hh#(-55% pp27  <65%X0Í ÍX0Í ÍqX` hp x (#%'0*,.8135@8: