PANORAMA
In this section:
Strategic Budgeting, Reforms Listed in New USAID Report
50th Anniversary of U.S. Food Aid That Fed 3.3 Billion People
Investigated Firm Agrees to Pay $1.5M
Aid for Guinea Cashew Farmers
Haiti Donors Pledge $1B
African Brain Drain Imperils AIDS Fight
Creative Wins Second Iraq Contract
Kenya Asks For Food Aid in Drought
U.S. Cuts Aid to Uzbek Government
Polio Epidemic in Africa Feared
Strategic Budgeting, Reforms Listed in New USAID Report
Rewarding good performance with more resources, an element of strategic budgeting, is one way the Agency is transforming the way it operates.
USAID is also recruiting a new generation of development officers, modernizing its financial management and contracting systems, and harnessing institutional knowledge in a more systematic way.
These operational reforms are described in a new Agency report, USAID Business Transformation: People, Technology, Ideas, Results. An intra-agency "business transformation executive" committee is responsible for overseeing these reforms.
The new strategic budgeting model, for instance, divvies up the Agency budget among countries against four criteria: need, country commitment, foreign policy importance, and program performance.
Income and child mortality are among several statistics used to measure need. Country commitment is captured by applying Millennium Challenge Corporation criteria, including economic freedom, just governance, and public investments in health and education.
Data on how well USAID programs are performing comes from missions' annual reports, and are fed into the equation. Factoring performance into budget decisions is a priority of the President's Management Agenda.
Country totals generated by a computer model, however, are a guideline. Actual country budgets are based on factors outside of the model's scope.
Congressional directives, mission pipelines, and late-breaking developments in a country are factored in when regional bureaus draft their budgets, said Parrie Henderson, a program analyst in the Bureau for Policy and Program Coordination (PPC).
"A computer model can't do everything. You still need common sense. The data to measure country commitment, for instance, is historical. There's a time lag of several years, so if a government changed direction, you need to account for that," Henderson said.
The goal, said Barbara Turner, head of PPC and acting vice chair of the Business Transformation Committee, is to allocate Agency resources, including personnel, more strategically to accomplish the mission of the Agency—particularly the transformational development objectives where country performance and good governance matter.
50th Anniversary of U.S. Food Aid That Fed 3.3 Billion People
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Child advocate and former food aid recipient Kimmie Weeks spoke at a conference marking the 50th anniversary of Food for Peace, the U.S. food assistance program. |
"I was one of these children who was malnourished; I was one of these children who could not move," said speaker Kimmie Weeks, in reference to video highlights shown at a conference marking the 50th anniversary of USAID Food for Peace (FFP).
Weeks is a Liberian who survived civil war in his homeland by subsisting on U.S. food aid.
Now 22 and a child rights advocate, Weeks said that during the 1989 Liberian civil war people ate things they would never have imagined during times of peace: tree roots and leaves. "We drank dirty water just to get through the day," he said.
Since it was created in 1954, FFP has delivered 107 billion metric tons of food to about 3.3 billion people. Last year alone the program fed 133 million people, mostly in Africa.
But there are still many who could use American food aid.
Some 840 million people worldwide face food insecurity today, said Administrator Andrew Natsios, addressing more than 400 guests at the day-long celebration, which included retired senators Robert Dole and George McGovern among a series of speakers.
McGovern was director of the Food for Peace program in the early 1960s.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell addressed the audience of food aid professionals during a luncheon.
"Your work is not done until every child goes to bed with a full stomach," Powell told USAID employees.
Investigated Firm Agrees to Pay $1.5M
WASHINGTON—As a result of a USAID Office of Inspector General investigation, FFIA of Cambridge, Mass., formerly known as Farallon Fixed Income Associates, LP, reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts July 30 to pay $1.5 million to the U.S. government to resolve civil claims that stem from a misuse of resources in USAID's Russia program in the 1990s.
The United States alleges that FFIA improperly used USAID-funded resources and staff, diverting U.S. taxpayer funds for its own purposes and profit. FFIA was owned in part and operated by Nancy Zimmerman, wife of Andrei Shleifer, a Harvard professor who was the head of the Harvard Russia Project.
The Harvard Russia Project was terminated in 1997 after the USAID Office of Inspector General uncovered evidence that Shleifer and his second-in-command, Jonathan Hay, were investing and assisting their wives in establishing businesses in Russia. This included using their influence with Russian government officials to obtain favorable licensing, funding, and other benefits in violation of the terms of the agreement between USAID and Harvard.
A civil case filed by the U.S. Attorney against Shleifer, Hay, and Harvard University is still pending in the District of Massachusetts.
Aid for Guinea Cashew Farmers
WASHINGTON—USAID and Kraft Foods Inc. are teaming up to strengthen cashew production in Guinea and help lift local farmers out of poverty. The over $1 million alliance will help local farmers to organize and effectively manage the growing cashew industry. Kraft is one of the largest cashew purchasers in the world. Guinea, a French-speaking West African country, is one of the poorest in the world.
Haiti Donors Pledge $1B
International donors pledged more than $1 billion July 20 to help rebuild Haiti. The amount includes $230 million of U.S. assistance over two years.
Gérard Latortue, Haiti's interim prime minister, said the money will be used to build up the country's infrastructure, including its roads and electricity network. "If we have electricity and roads, you will not have to come back here every 10 years to help Haiti," Latortue told donors.
U.S. assistance will boost spending on HIV/AIDS and jobs programs, announced Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. Powell said the pledges made were "a testament to the importance that the international community places on Haiti's return to the path of democracy, stability, and prosperity."
African Brain Drain Imperils AIDS Fight
BOSTON—A brain drain of nurses, doctors, and pharmacists from Africa is crippling already fragile health systems as they try to care for millions of people dying of HIV/AIDS, according to a report released July 15 by Physicians for Human Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit advocacy group.
Lack of training and migration of health professionals to wealthier countries are leaving Africa bare of medical personnel. In its 121-page report, "An Action Plan to Prevent Brain Drain," the group proposes measures to slow down migration and bolster staffing in hospitals and clinics.
Creative Wins Second Iraq Contract
USAID announced July 15 a $56.4 million contract to Creative Associates International for a two-year education program in Iraq. The contract continues Agency work to develop primary and secondary education in Iraq.
New funds will promote community participation in early childhood education, train primary and secondary school teachers, and fund model schools.
Kenya Asks For Food Aid in Drought
NAIROBI, Kenya—President Mwai Kibaki declared Kenya's food shortage a national disaster July 14, saying crops would fail because of a widespread drought. The World Food Program and the Kenyan government appealed for aid for about 2.3 million Kenyans.
USAID is responding with $17. 9 million in cornmeal, pinto beans, vegetable oil, and other assistance. An estimated 12 million people in eastern Africa will need food aid in the next six months, including 4.5 million in Ethiopia, 1. 7 million in Uganda, and 1.1 million in Somalia, according to the USAID-supported Famine Early Warning System (FEWS Net).
U.S. Cuts Aid to Uzbek Government
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan—The State Department froze aid to the Uzbek government July 13 due to lack of progress in democratic reforms. Of the $55 million in U.S. assistance in 2004, about $18 million, primarily security assistance, was affected by the sanctions.
U.S. aid to Uzbekistan rose dramatically after the September 11 terror attacks, when the government allowed U.S. forces to use a major airbase near the Afghan border.
Secretary of State Powell made an exception for assistance to the government for anti-torture, WTO, and health reform programs. U.S. programs in democracy, health, human rights, agribusiness, microcredit, and community development are expected to continue.
Polio Epidemic in Africa Feared
GENEVA—A polio outbreak that originated in northern Nigeria is spreading, and could lead to a major epidemic across west and central Africa, said a World Health Organization report released August 24. On the same day, new cases of the disease were confirmed in Guinea, Mali, and the Darfur region of Sudan, said epidemiologists from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
International concerns over the spread of polio prompted a decision by African Union health ministers in May to conduct a series of synchronized mass polio campaigns in October and November in 22 countries, including Nigeria and Niger. The campaign aims to reach more than 74 million children under 5.
