Note: This document may not always reflect the actual appropriations determined by Congress. Final budget allocations for USAID's programs are not determined until after passage of an appropriations bill and preparation of the Operating Year Budget (OYB).
PROGRAM PERFORMANCE
About USAID
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administers America's bilateral economic assistance program. USAID promotes sustainable development and save lives. USAID promotes global economic prosperity and democracy, helps those in crisis, and addresses global issues like environmental protection, population growth and spread of infectious diseases.
For development to be sustainable, aid recipients must do their part to address their challenges and to create the conditions for success. But even the best-intentioned countries cannot do their part to achieve progress without strong institutions, capable people and other resources. American resources, expertise, ideas, and values, along with those of other donors, and U.S. and host-country partners, often make the difference between success and failure.
This report looks ahead at USAID's goals for the coming year and looks back at the impact of foreign assistance in developing and transition nations. USAID has had a key role in the results reported here, but these results do not reflect only USAID's direct assistance efforts. They reflect the sustained effort of many committed agencies, organizations and individuals. One of the most important lessons USAID has learned over the years is the importance of local commitment. Successful, sustainable development must be based on local needs, priorities, choices, and commitment; it must draw on and mobilize local resources; and it must involve a broad cross-section of the country's citizens, especially women and other disadvantaged groups.
USAID works in a variety of settings. USAID activities reflect host-country needs and priorities, as well as the work of other donors and partners. Often, countries are committed to achieving sustainable development but lack necessary technical skills or resources. In these countries, USAID helps work toward one or more of the goals essential to development: achieving broad-based economic growth and agricultural development, building sustainable democracies, stabilizing population and protecting human health, managing the environment for long-term sustainability, building the human capacity needed for development, and saving lives and reducing suffering. USAID also works in countries making the transition from centrally planned to market-driven economies. In these countries, USAID programs seek to build essential human and institutional capacities to implement necessary reforms.
Increasingly, USAID is working with countries emerging from conflict. Here, the emphasis is on restoring infrastructure -- social, institutional, and physical -- to reduce the risk of renewed conflict and to return the country to a path of sustainable development. USAID works with some of the world's poorest and least stable countries where living conditions are often harsh and political and economic conditions uncertain.
USAID continues to change the way it does business to maximize efficiency and to better respond to changing foreign policy needs. USAID has revamped its strategic approach, for example, to reflect the new priorities of the post-Cold War era, focusing its goals and objectives on a limited number of high-priority development challenges. Greater emphasis is made on programs that incorporate participation, partnership and concern for gender. Managing for results is becoming ingrained in the agency's culture. Monitoring and evaluating systems continue to be strengthened, and the agency is using more performance information in program, policy and budget decisions.
USAID has also made major organizational and management changes. During the Clinton Administration, USAID has reorganized and streamlined operational units, reduced the direct-hire work force by 29%, closed 28 overseas posts, reengineered program operations and procedures, and reformed its systems for procurement, financial management, budget, personnel and management information.
The USAID Strategy
USAID sets its goals in those areas most critical to sustainable development. USAID currently has six development and humanitarian assistance goals: (1) encouraging broad-based economic growth and agricultural development, (2) strengthening democracy and good governance, (3) building human capacity through education and training, (4) stabilizing the world's population and protecting human health, (5) protecting the world's environment for long-term sustainability, and (6) saving lives and reducing suffering associated with disasters, and re-establishing conditions necessary for political and economic development. In addition, there is a seventh goal: management reform to ensure that USAID remains a premier bilateral development agency. (A detailed discussed of management improvement is included in the next section of this Congressional presentation.) These goals were articulated in the September 1997 Agency Strategic Plan.
As USAID has implemented many reforms, the development and global challenges also have evolved. Much of USAID's development success has relied upon the agency's unique capabilities in technical leadership and assistance, reflecting and drawing upon U.S. and international expertise. USAID maintains its critical role through its continued investment in applied strategic research, development and applications of tools and technologies, and accompanying training in skills needed for development. Creative partnerships involving the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and higher education institutions together with governments, provide the collaborative means to improve and extend results of agency programs.
There are a variety of cross-cutting themes that affect all of USAID's goals. Among the most important are ensuring women have full access to social benefits (e.g., health care, education and financial markets), ensuring women's voices are heard in politics and governance and ensuring that women and their children are protected in times of crisis.
Goal 1: Broad-Based Economic Growth and Agricultural Development Encouraged
USAID helps developing and transitional countries achieve broad-based, rapid and sustainable economic growth. Broad-based economic growth reduces poverty, increases household incomes and improves food security. There is strong evidence that economic growth is the single best way to reduce poverty. Economic growth creates jobs and provides the increased revenues governments need to expand and improve education, health, and other social services. Restoring economic growth is an essential element of successful transition.
Altruism is not the only motive for fostering economic growth in developing nations. Growth in recipient USAID countries directly promotes U.S. trade and investment. Continuing a trend that began in the 1980s, U.S. exports to developing countries in the 1990s are expanding by 12% a year, more than double the export growth to industrial countries. Indirectly, broad-based economic growth reinforces other U.S. national interests and foreign policy goals, including democratic development, environmental sustainability and more stable world social conditions.
USAID fosters broad-based economic growth by pursuing three interrelated objectives: (1) strengthening critical private markets; (2) promoting agricultural development, and
(3) expanding access and opportunity for the poor.
For 1999, USAID programs are expected to contribute to accelerated economic growth and poverty reduction, particularly in Africa, Latin America, and the New Independent States (NIS) of the former Soviet Union, where only a minority of countries have achieved significantly positive growth in per capita income. In Asia, USAID hopes to sustain the largely positive growth performance of the past decade, in the face of the current difficult financial crisis. In at least half of our low-income recipients, mainly Africa, USAID will help agricultural growth keep pace with population growth. This would represent a significant improvement over past performance. USAID programs will contribute to a
continuation of the positive trends for economic freedom, with at least half of the countries in each region showing clear improvements in scores for economic freedom. USAID will also help achieve significantly diminished reliance on foreign aid in most advanced developing and transitional countries.
A sampling of the considerable progress that has been made includes:
* Ten USAID-assisted countries (Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Mozambique, Peru, Sri Lanka and Uganda)--accounting for 1.5 billion people--achieved very rapid average annual growth in per capita income (3.4 to 7 percent) over the 1992-1996 period.
* USAID directly expanded opportunities for the poor worldwide. During 1996, USAID microenterprise development programs in 54 countries supported over 300 institutions that made more than $300 million in loans to more than one million people. More than two-thirds of the loan recipients were women. Income-generation programs like these are particularly critical given the fact that the vast majority of poor women in the developing world are barred from formal markets.
* Programs in more than a dozen countries in Africa, Asia, the Near East, and the formerly communist countries helped privatize 26,000 state-owned enterprises during 1996. In Ukraine, through 1997, USAID programs assisted in privatizing 40,000 small enterprises, and helped develop the policies for all small-scale privatization in Ukraine. The agency was instrumental in restructuring 138 collective farms, with 138 more in process, and in issuing over 3,500 land titles to individual farmers through 1997. More than six million hectares of land (five million more than were targeted) were transferred to farm members by issuing land certificates (one hectare equals about 2½ acres.)
* The agency has made progress in leveraging food aid to improve economic opportunities and in increasing access by the rural poor to a variety of services. In Latin America and the Caribbean, for example, P.L. 480 Title III resources were used to support policy reforms affecting food security in Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. P.L. 480-generated local currencies and food for work were used in Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru to support agricultural extension and marketing services and the development of productive infrastructure in rural areas. This included building market access roads, recovering eroded land through soil conservation and forestry activities, and building small irrigation systems.
* In sub-Saharan Africa, USAID promoted growth in agricultural production and nontraditional exports. The agency strengthened the private sector by providing support for policy and regulatory reforms, increasing market access, and promoting investments in agriculture. During 1996, significant progress in policy, legal and regulatory reform was made in Ghana, Madagascar, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. USAID made good progress in increasing market efficiency and access in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Kenya, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.
* In Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Jordan and Egypt, USAID has supported economic, trade and investment policy reforms. USAID support, for example, resulted in private sector non-petroleium exports increasing nearly 70% in Eqypt, and in increased capital market investment in India and the Philippines of $40 billion between 1993 and 1996.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 1: Broad-Based Economic Growth and Agricultural Development Encouraged
USAID's six strategic goals, as noted following the discussion of each specific goal, are directly linked to objectives in the agency's performance plan as well as to the budget request for FY 1999. Funding cited applies to Development Assistance (DA) and Child Survival and Disease (CSD) accounts unlessotherwise noted. Credit programs can touch on more than one of the agency's strategic objectives. Moreover, Operating Expenses of $484 million fund the operating costs of the agency to carry out all goals and objectives.
The remaining USAID-managed accounts -- Economic Support Funds, Support for East European Democracy (SEED), and FREEDOM Support Act funds for the New Independent States (FSA) -- fund activities that would also fall under the agency's strategic goal area. Given the special nature of these programs, however, the agency configures goals for these programs in a slightly different format in the Congressional presentation.
For Goal 1, encouraging broad-based economic growth and agricultural development:
Objectives are:
* Critical, private markets expanded and strengthened
* More rapid and enhanced agricultural development and food security enhanced
* Access to economic opportunity for the rural and urban poor expanded and made more accessible
FY 1999 budget request:
Base program $418 million (DA)
New initiatives $ 45 million (DA)
P.L. 480 Title III $ 30 million
$493 million
Goal 2: Democracies and Good Governance Strengthened
Anarchy, autocracy, oppression, and human rights abuses threaten global peace and prosperity. USAID works to help build democracies and improve governance. Democracy offers citizens advantages and opportunities that no other form of government can provide. It protects human rights, encourages informed participation, and promotes public-sector accountability. Growing popular demand for democracy is evidenced by a decade of dramatic transitions from dictatorship to democracy. USAID has provided timely and constructive support during these transitions. The agency helps citizens draft constitutions, protect human rights, hold free and fair elections, and enhance judicial independence. USAID supports development of democratic institutions, an informed and educated populace, a vibrant civil society, and a relationship between the state and society that encourages pluralism, inclusion, and peaceful conflict resolution.
USAID's democracy building goals support America's foreign policy interests. By promoting democracy, the United States supports governments capable of maintaining peace and averting crises. Democracies governed by the rule of law are more reliable trade partners. USAID has learned that promotion of democracy is essential for sustainable development. Accountable and transparent political institutions, representing and responding to citizens' needs, help consolidate the social and economic gains of development. Democracy building thus reinforces the agency's efforts in other areas.
USAID helps build democracies in four ways: (1) strengthening rule of law and respect for human rights, (2) developing more genuine and competitive political processes, (3) increasing development of a politically active civil society, and (4) promoting more transparent and accountable government institutions.
Recent results include:
* In 1996 and early 1997, USAID helped develop new constitutions in Eritrea, South Africa and Uganda; constitutional forums and new laws in Croatia, Georgia and the Ukraine; and free and fair elections in Bangladesh, Benin, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Lithuania, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Russia, Senegal and Uganda.
* USAID continues to help dismantle the legacy of communist rule. The agency has supported the efforts of citizens in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Russia and elsewhere to form advocacy-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community groups, political parties and labor unions. Even where the political environment proved less conducive to NGO development, such as in Azerbaijan, Belarus, and much of Central Asia, space for autonomous action has been created through social service delivery organizations.
* In partnership with the U.S. Congress, USAID has strengthened parliaments in central and eastern Europe. USAID, the U.S. Library of Congress and the U.S. House of Representatives Information Systems Office teamed to strengthen information systems and research capacities for the parliaments in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
* In the West Bank and Gaza in 1996, local NGOs, with agency support, reached 8,800 citizens monthly -- half of them women -- to debate issues of citizens' rights. Unprecedented town meetings were established between members of the new Legislative Council and constituents. These results helped establish a foundation for decentralized local government.
* Kenya's USAID-supported Human Rights Commission persistently confronted the government with documented evidence of police brutality. In response, the government formed its own Standing Committee on Human Rights to address the charges.
* In Nepal, women's advocacy led to a supreme court decision in 1996 to overturn existing inheritance laws because of gender bias. This outcome resulted, in part, from USAID's legal literacy programming that trained 44,000 women that year in fundamental and legal rights, far exceeding the target of 17,000 women.
* In South Africa, USAID worked on conflict prevention in KwaZulu Natal. The agency facilitated high-level political dialog and provided extensive training in conflict resolution to 2,200 people from communities directly affected by violence in Natal. The agency also provided voter education and campaign training emphasizing nonviolent methods of political participation. These activities improved South Africans' ability to prevent, manage, and resolve democracy-threatening conflicts.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 2: Strengthening Democracy and Good Governance
Objectives:
* Rule of law and respect for human rights of women as well as men strengthened
* Credible and competitive political processes encouraged
* The development of politically active civil society promoted
* More transparent and accountable government institutions encouraged
FY 1999 budget request:
$138 million (DA)
Goal 3: Human Capacity Built through Education and Training
In 1997, USAID added an important new goal to the agency's strategic framework: building human capacity through education and training. This goal acknowledges USAID's longstanding commitment to building human capacity as a key basis for development that endures. The goal's primary focus is on expanding access to quality basic education, especially for women and girls. In more modest ways, the goal describes the agency's commitment to enhancing the contribution that higher education institutions make to solving national and local development problems. What follows are a few illustrative examples of the impacts. Further descriptions are found in the Special Interests chapter of this Congressional presentation.
* In Guinea, the agency promoted reforms of the education system. The government increased the share of the education budget devoted to primary education from 36% in 1995 to 38% in 1996. The share of education in the total budget continued to rise during 1996, reaching 26%. Overall, the primary enrollment rate increased from 44% in 1995 to 47% in 1996, progress that exceeded USAID's target.
* In Honduras, USAID's program for teacher training and curriculum development facilitated important gains in efficiency. More than 103,000 children completed primary school in 1996, an increase of almost 3% over 1995. The overall primary school completion rate in 1996 reached 70%.
* In Egypt in 1996, the Ministry of Education adopted several USAID-supported policy reforms that contribute to increased girls' participation. The permissible age for entry to primary school was increased from 8 to 9 years; for entry to preparatory school, from 14 to 18. One-room schools, under an initiative by Egypt's First Lady, were opened to communities in the evenings for literacy classes.
* In Malawi, the agency contributed to improvements in the quality of basic education by supporting teacher training. In 1996, nearly 61% of all teachers (compared with 58% in 1995) possessed the required qualifications, exceeding program expectations.
* USAID resources provide a catalyst for linkages between U.S. colleges and universities and counterpart institutions in developing and transitional countries. These partnerships facilitate in-country institutions' ability to play a key role in solving national and local development problems. For example, with USAID funding through the University Development Linkages project, the University of Florida has worked actively with Makerere University in Uganda to establish a very successful Human Rights and Peace Center. In India, Iowas' Sinclair Community College used a USAID grant to transform a vocational education center into a proactive, self-sufficient institution that offers training in key economic trades.
* In the Carpathian region of Eastern Europe and in Mexico, very modest investments by USAID have catalyzed extensive networks of U.S. community colleges, universities and private sector with in-country institutions, businesses and community groups. As a result, in-country colleges have become more actively engaged in the local, regional and national development dialogue.
* USAID's new higher education community partnership emphasizes the importance of U.S. colleges and universities in planning, implementing, and evaluating USAID's development programs. In agriculture, health, population and other sectors, the scientific and technical depth that resides on U.S. campuses is a national resource that the agency continues to tap.
The expertise represented in academic administrators is increasingly sought by overseas counterparts to develop vibrant, high quality, and development-relevant academic systems.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 3: Human Capacity Built through Education and Training
Objectives:
* Access to quality basic education, especially for girls and women expanded
* The contribution of institutions of higher education to sustainable development increased
FY 1999 budget request:
Basic Education
Base program $ 93 million (CSD)
New Initiative $ 5 million (CSD)
Higher education [to be determined] (DA)
$ 98 million
Goal 4: World's Population Stabilized and Human Health Protected
Rapid and unsustainable population growth and poor health and nutrition (particularly of mothers and children) cause human suffering and impede development. When women are repeatedly pregnant and people suffer from malnutrition and infectious diseases, they are unable to contribute to their own economic and social progress. Activities in population, health, and nutrition have long been central to USAID's work.
Stabilizing the world's population serves U.S. national interests because it contributes to global economic growth, a sustainable environment and regional security. Reducing growth rates in countries with high population growth prevents humanitarian crises (e.g., famine) along with the need for U.S. humanitarian assistance. Giving families the ability to choose the number and spacing of their children makes tremendous contributions to maternal and child survival, and empowers women and their families. Protecting health and nutrition, including increasing child survival in developing and transitional countries, directly affects America's public health -- unhealthful conditions outside America's borders increase disease and the threat of epidemic for U.S. citizens. Improved health and nutrition also contribute to economic development and lower the risk of humanitarian crises and the suffering that accompanies them.
USAID helps stabilize world population and protect human health by supporting sustainable reductions in (1) unintended pregnancies, (2) child mortality, (3) maternal mortality,
(4) transmission of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and (5) reducing the threat of infectious diseases of major public health importance. (This last objective was added to USAID's portfolio in 1998.)
Considerable progress has been made:
* In 1996 alone, USAID, as a leading donor in family planning, health and nutrition, helped save the lives of five million children in 33 countries and enabled more than eight million couples in 36 countries to adopt family planning. USAID programs provided information access to many millions more to continue to use family planning.
* Nearly 400 million couples in the developing world now use contraception to avoid unwanted births. Family planning alone can prevent 25% of all maternal and infant deaths.
* In Jordan, the modern contraceptive prevalence rate has increased from 27% (1990) to 38% (1996), suggesting that the National Population Commission's target of 41.5% by 2000 will be met.
* In Zimbabwe, the average family size declined from 6.3 children in 1984 to 4.3 children in 1994.
* USAID has successfully concluded its family planning program in Colombia, with the average number of children per woman falling from 6.5 in 1965 to 2.8 in 1995.
* In Nepal, child mortality plummeted from 165 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1991 to 118 in 1996.
* Twenty five years ago, fewer than 5% of the world's children in developing countries were immunized against measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and tuberculosis. The figure now stands at approximately 80%. Polio has been eradicated from the Western Hemisphere and may be eradicated globally by the year 2000. Measles elimination is also within reach in the Americas.
* During 1980_1995, infant mortality in developing countries (excluding China) fell rom 107 in 1,000 live births to 74 in 1,000. In the same period, under-five mortality rates fell from 165 in 1,000 to 116 in 1,000.
* In Central Asia, citizens have access to private health care services for the first time. In Kazakhstan, with USAID help, the government broke up the state monopoly, and auctioned and transferred ownership of 90% of the pharmacies (including 1,000 retail and 300 wholesale pharmacies). The new pharmacies offer better services and more complete and up-to-date pharmaceutical and other products at considerably lower prices and in customer-oriented settings. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, citizens and doctors have a choice for the first time, and they like it. In pilot areas of Kazakhstan, 90% of the population has enrolled in private group medical practices. In Kyrgyzstan, 81 family group practices are fully operational in the pilot Karakol city, with 85% of the population enrolled.
* USAID has been a global leader since 1996 in HIV/AIDS prevention and helped pioneer a cohesive strategy for preventing and controlling HIV and AIDS. Working with donor, host-country, and NGO partners, USAID has helped countries respond to the crisis and develop effective interventions. Those interventions are changing behavior among groups at risk and lowering infection rates.
* USAID has helped decrease sexual HIV transmission by promoting safer sexual behavior. The agency supports the largest and most effective worldwide HIV/AIDS prevention program, providing education in behavior change and other interventions for more than 15 million people vulnerable to HIV infection.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 4: World's Population Stabilized and Human Health Protected
Objectives:
* Unintended and mistimed pregnancies reduced
* Infant and child health and nutrition improved and infant and child mortality reduced
* Death and adverse health outcomes to women as a result of pregnancy and child birth reduced
* HIV transmission and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic reduced
* The threat of infectious diseases of major public health importance reduced
FY 1999 budget request:
Family planning $375 million (DA)
Infant and child health $227 million (CSD)
AIDS $121 million (CSD)
Other Health $ 27 million (CSD)
Infectious Diseases $ 30 million (CSD)
$780 million
Goal 5: The World's Environment Protected for Long-term Sustainability
Environmental degradation endangers human health, undermines long-term economic growth and threatens ecological systems essential to sustainable development. The United States is affected directly by the loss of biological diversity, changes in global climate, the spread of pollutants, the use of toxic chemicals and the decline of fish in the ocean. Furthermore, struggles over land, water, and other resources can lead to instability and conflict, which can directly affect U.S. interests. U.S. leadership is essential to resolving global environmental problems and promoting environmentally sustainable economic growth in developing countries.
USAID promotes better environmental management to sustain the world's natural resources. Agency programs help people manage their activities in ways that enable the natural environment to continue to produce -- now and in the future -- the goods and services necessary for survival.
USAID focuses on five objectives to achieve its environmental goals: (1) conserving biological diversity, (2) reducing the threat of global climate change, (3) promoting sustainable urbanization and increasing pollution management, (4) increasing provision of environmentally sound energy services, and (5) expanding sustainable natural resource management.
In FY 1999, USAID will move into its second year of implementation of its $1 billion five-year Global Climate Change Initiative. This will assist developing and transitioning countires to participate meaningfully in world efforts to significantly reduce gasses from the atmosphere. Programs will focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy production, forest protection, and agricultural techniques. Also in FY 1999, USAID will follow through on its recent decision to expand its highly successful U.S.-Asia Environmental Partnership program approach with U.S. environmental companies to other regions in the world.
The following are a few examples of current activities that USAID intends to continue, expand, or replicate during FY 1999:
* In the past year, USAID conserved the world's biodiversity through improved conservation on more than 5.5 million hectares (21,200 square miles) of land in 14 countries. Furthermore, USAID programs in rural communities led to 320,000 people in 16 countries adopting sustainable practices.
* With USAID assistance, Guinea, Malawi, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, the Philippines, and Tanzania took responsibility for managing their forest resources for long-term use. In 1996, 12 countries protected more than 5.5 million hectares of land important for preserving biodiversity.
* In India, a new gene bank facility, with storage capacity for 800,000 additional germ plasm samples (over the capacity of an older facility) for food crops, is now open and functioning as
a result of USAID assistance. The 34,000 exchanges of germ plasm materials with other countries in 1997 far exceeded expectations. The conservation of plant germ plasm samples is essential for maintaining the diveersity and resilience of the world's food crops.
* In Egypt, USAID's work with polluting industries, power plants and vehicles led to more than 9,400 metric tons of nitrous oxide emissions averted in 1996 (surpassing the target by 6%). Carbon monoxide emissions fell by 22,560 metric tons (surpassing the target by 4%).
* Through a partnership with a local NGO, USAID is tackling one of Jamaica's biggest problems: disposal of sewage in low-income communities. In 1996, a 1,400 home squatter community installed on-site sanitation facilities and adopted behaviors consistent with good health and a clean environment, while the monitoring of ten key sanitation and environmental behavior indicators demonstrated a dramatic improvement in compliance from 46% to 96%.
* In Russia, the discharge of nickel from a large medical-instruments facility was reduced by 60% after a system to trap and reclaim this toxic metal was installed. Also, with low-cost pollution prevention and control measures adopted at eight factories, emissions from stationary sources in one city dropped by 8% in 1996.
* In Mexico, USAID support for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, during 1996, prevented over 270,000 tons of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere.
* The agency's programs in Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Philippines resulted in 820,000 hectares (3,200 square miles) of commercial forests being placed under sustainable management practices. Because of USAID-sponsored work in eight countries in Latin America and Africa, more than 210,000 people adopted sustainable agriculture practices in 1996. In Guinea, Honduras, Indonesia and Jamaica, USAID programs resulted in improved agriculture practices on nearly 125,000 hectares (about 480 square miles) of land.
* In Haiti, over 130,000 farmers practiced environmentally sound cultivation and participated in activities to increase sustainable hillside agriculture (substantially exceeding USAID's target of 100,000). The project has proven effective in helping farmers significantly increase farm production, income, and food security and protect the environment through soil and water conservation practice.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 5: The World's Environment Protected for Long-term Sustainability
Objectives:
* Threat of global climate change reduced
* Biological diversity conserved
* Sustainable urbanization including pollution management promoted
* Use of environmentally sound energy services increased
* Sustainable management of natural resources increased
FY 1999 budget request:
$290 million (DA), of which Global Climate Change is ($ 87 million)
Goal 6: Lives Saved, Suffering Associated with Disasters Reduced, and Conditions Necessary for Political and Economic Development Re-established
USAID provides humanitarian assistance to achieve the goal of saving lives, reducing suffering, and reinforcing development potential through three objectives: (1) reducing the potential impact of humanitarian crises, (2) meeting urgent needs in crises, and (3) establishing security and getting basic institutions functioning to meet essential needs and basic rights.
USAID has traditionally responded to natural and relatively simple man-made disasters. Natural disasters include floods, tropical storms, cyclones, landslides, earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, droughts, pests and disease outbreaks. “Simple” man-made disasters include the collapse of bridges and other infrastructure and industrial and technological accidents caused by human error in design, operation and management. In recent years, USAID has had to respond to fewer natural and simple man-made disasters, largely because improvements supported by USAID in preparedness, technology and response systems have lessened the consequences of such disasters.
Increasingly, however, USAID is responding to more complex emergencies. These disasters are mostly political in origin and usually violent. They last longer and are more multifaceted than traditional natural and man-made disasters. The end of the Cold War created new challenges that test the capacity of USAID and its partners in the international community to provide humanitarian assistance. As superpower tensions eased, religious and ethnic rivalries have sharpened. USAID has provided a leadership role by undertaking preventive measures to reduce the impact of humanitarian crises by meeting urgent humanitarian needs, restoring law and order, and increasing the ability of institutions to meet basic needs and human rights. The agency created the Office of Transition Initiatives to work with USAID bureaus to integrate a timely and appropriate response to crises.
USAID has developed a strong partnership with the U.S. private voluntary organizations and international and indigenous nongovernmental organizations to deliver USAID's humanitarian assistance to support effectivey the three objectives of this goal. These partners are a valued resource because they have an intimate knowledge of field conditions and provide continuity. A recent assessment by the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, a board of private citizens who advise USAID and other government agencies on development issues, determined that the USAID_PVO partnership is significantly stronger than it was only four years ago.
* In 1996, USAID's disaster relief programs provided food and other assistance to more than 28 million disaster victims. In addition to timely delivery of humanitarian assistance, USAID continued its preventive and self-help measures, working with many nations to develop preparedness planning and early warning systems. Thirteen at-risk Latin American countries are far less dependent on external emergency assistance as a result. USAID-supported famine early warning systems in Africa averted serious food shortfalls in the Sahel and Horn of Africa.
* In Bangladesh, in 1996, USAID provided emergency supplies within 72 hours of a cyclone, assisting six million vulnerable people representing 40% of the population in 48 disaster-prone areas. Similarly, 4,000 families affected by a tornado received assistance within 48 hours, including first-aid treatment for 3,511 patients.
* USAID's emergency and humanitarian program in Angola has kept alive hundreds of thousands of Angolans during the civil war and the transition that followed. USAID-supported programs continue to provide food to 300,000 people monthly. As a result, malnutrition in one area dropped from 15.2% in 1994 to 8.7% in 1996.
* Women have been instrumental in peace processes and transitions in many areas of the world, from Mali and Somalia in Africa; and Guatemala and El Salvador in Latin America. The experience of women in Sierra Leone, where they took an active role in bringing about
democratic elections but were then unable to gain political representation and participation in the government then elected, is, unfortunately, widespread.
* USAID's land-mine awareness program in Angola has reached 1.4 million people and trained 750 people in mine removal techniques. As a result, mine accidents have been reduced significantly, large areas of the country have been reopened to commerce and agriculture, and many refugees and displaced persons have returned to their communities.
FY 1999 Program Budget Request for USAID Strategic Goal 6: Lives Saved, Suffering Associated with Disasters Reduced, and Conditions Necessary for Political and Economic Development Re-established
Objectives:
* The potential impact of crises reduced
* Urgent needs in times of crisis met
* Personal security and basic institutions to meet critical intermediate needs and protect human rights reestablished
FY 1999 budget request:
Disaster Assistance $160 million
Transition Assistance $ 45 million
P.L. 480 Title II Food Aid $837 million
$1,042 million
USAID's Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Systems
USAID's improved strategic planning and performance monitoring systems help the agency manage for results and learn from experience at every level. USAID is committed to using the lessons learned from monitoring and evaluating performance to improve program and management decisions, including decisions on resource allocation and program approaches.
About every five years, each USAID field mission and Washington-based office prepares a new multi-year strategic plan to guide its operations over the next planning period. The plan specifies the strategic objectives for which the unit will be accountable. These objectives must contribute directly to the agency's goals and objectives. Each year, the field missions and Washington offices and centers report on performance toward achievement of their objectives. They use evaluations to examine their approaches and assess, in particular, how or why results are or are not being achieved.
In addition to missions' evaluations, the Washington bureaus and offices conduct evaluations each year. Central evaluations, conducted by the Center for Development Information and Evaluation, address strategic program and policy concerns of USAID's senior managers. These studies generally assess a specific agency objective or program across a variety of countries. Each year, USAID develops an agenda for agency-wide evaluations. The results of these evaluations, including their findings and lessons learned, are widely disseminated through formal reports, briefings and electronic distribution. They substantially influence USAID's program and policy decisions. The technical centers in USAID's Global Bureau also conduct evaluations that examine the way programs are implemented in the field. In addition, regional bureaus evaluate region-specific issues.
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