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Africa Regional
Please note: All linked documents are in PDF format
| Objective |
SO Number |
FY 2004 |
FY 2005 |
FY 2006 |
| Support for Cross-Cutting Programs |
698-001 |
25,8021 |
76,723 |
45,593 |
| Improving African Education |
698-026 | 29,057 |
36,294 |
36,764 |
| Better Health in Africa |
698-027 | 0 |
29,037 |
17,111 |
| Promoting Peace and Good Governance in Africa |
698-028 |
0 |
8,727 |
29,837 |
| Increased Program Impact |
698-029 |
0 |
24,237 |
21,716 |
| Improve Partner Communications |
698-030 |
0 |
2,900 |
1,000 |
| Total (in thousands of dollars) |
86,789 |
177,918 |
152,021 |
Excludes P.L. 480. See Program Annex.
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The Development Challenge: In the eyes of much of the world, sub-Saharan Africa seems to be characterized by conflict, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, illiteracy, corruption, drought, hunger, and economic stagnation. The 2000/2001 World Development Report put the total number of Africans living below the World Bank's $1-per-day benchmark for defining the core poor at 290.9 million in 1998--and that number has been rising steadily since. With more than 10% of the world's population, Africa accounts for just 2% of world trade, and it is the only continent where the problem of hunger is getting worse. Africa leads the world in armed conflict, in disease burden, in out-of-school children, and in deforestation. In Africa's HIV/AIDS "hot spots," average life expectancy is projected to fall from 68 to 33, and the continent is home to 1 million new AIDS orphans each year.
Yet there is promise that increased economic growth and new development opportunities will herald a better future for Africa's people. U.S. total trade with sub-Saharan Africa rose 27% in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the first quarter of 2003. New technologies, varieties, and approaches to finance and networking are beginning to transform the face of farming in Africa, and the community-based natural resource management movement is building local bulwarks against forest loss. HIV/AIDS prevention efforts are becoming more sophisticated and effective, and in many regions, the introduction of new medications is prolonging life and giving hope.
There is also widespread recognition among African leaders and policy makers of the importance of sound economic policies, good governance structures, and effective public institutions to create the conditions for more rapid economic growth and broad-based poverty reduction. This evolution drew worldwide attention in 2001 in the elaboration of the Africa-led New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The United Nation's articulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)--which laid out ambitious targets for achievement by the year 2015--added specificity and urgency to this movement.
For the United States, support and technical guidance to African people and institutions represent a vital, long-term investment in global peace and safety. Africa not only has a wealth of natural resources but represents a growing market for U.S. goods and services. Reducing poverty, mitigating conflict, promoting democracy, and confronting HIV/AIDS are all vitally important to U.S. national security and regional stability.
The USAID Program: USAID's program for Africa comprises four distinct types of activities. First, USAID provides relevant information and helps African countries and partners use it to improve their policies, programs and strategies for development. Second, it builds Africa's capacity to manage its own development by strengthening African institutions, such as government units, universities, and non-government groups with training and other resources, leading to overall sustainability. Third, it helps African countries and institutions build more effective regional networks for economic and technical cooperation. Fourth, it helps Africans develop true partnerships with other development groups and with the private sector, including formal public-private alliances.
Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Environmental Management: Building free markets in Africa is a prerequisite for sustainable economic prosperity. The keystone of USAID's economic development efforts in Africa is therefore the President's Trade for African Development and Enterprise (TRADE) Initiative, created to help African countries improve their competitiveness and gain greater access to global markets. Led by USAID's three regional TRADE competitiveness centers ("hubs"), TRADE helps African markets and businesses take advantage of increased opportunities for U.S. trade under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), strengthens their ability to develop African regional trade, and works to improve the infrastructure and policy climate for African businesses. Complementing USAID's economic development work in Africa is its program in agriculture. Agriculture is the major economic driver in most Africans' daily lives, underpinning household income, food security, and national economies. USAID's agricultural programs in Africa, including the Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA), link several sectors in helping agriculture generate more income and employment; strengthening regional collaboration; and promoting policy and program changes to liberalize trade, improve market access, and foster innovation. USAID will enhance these efforts by improving knowledge management for food security and related goals, and by building missions' and partners' capacity to integrate sound environmental principles into their program design and monitoring.
Education: Education lowers infant mortality, reinforces democratization and political stability, raises farm productivity, decreases poverty, conserves environmental resources and reduces socioeconomic and gender inequality. USAID has combined the best elements of the former Education for Development and Democracy Initiative with effective basic education programs in designing and guiding the President's African Education Initiative. USAID works with schools and educators' networks to raise access to basic education for African children--especially girls--via scholarships, mentoring and informal instruction; to organize educators to respond to the effects of HIV/AIDS; to ensure that teachers are well trained for basic education and life skills instruction; to supply up-to-date textbooks; and to enable communities to become more involved in--and responsible for--their children's education.
Health and Population: Over the past decade, the health of Africans in many countries has deteriorated because of poverty, conflict, a rapid spread of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and the continuing scourge of malaria. Inadequate health care looms as a major factor. USAID's activities to improve the quality and sustainability of African health care services emphasize increased African capacity to design, manage and evaluate health systems. USAID also promotes innovative financing schemes responding to Africans' widespread lack of access to health services. USAID supports multifaceted approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa, including abstinence, and works closely with the education, health and agricultural sectors. The program in family planning and reproductive health supports effective work in research, advocacy, and distribution of contraceptives, for which demand remains far greater than supply. Other programs target polio, TB, malaria, malnutrition, respiratory diseases, diarrhea, vaccine-preventable illnesses, and maternal/child health problems.
Democracy and Governance and Crisis Prevention: Conflict and political instability across sub-Saharan Africa endanger core U.S. policy interests in the region by encouraging weapons proliferation and breeding poverty, disease, terrorism, and corruption. USAID's regional democracy and good governance (DG) program advances U.S. security goals by fighting corruption, strengthening weak civic institutions, and promoting human rights. USAID's work involves innovative projects integrating DG principles into other sectors' activities for stronger impact; giving guidance and grants to African non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for activities to build peace, human rights and democracy; and managing USAID's initiative to combat corruption in Africa, which is testing diverse models that can guide anti-corruption work continent-wide. In addition, recognizing how severely violence threatens development, USAID's regional crisis prevention/mitigation programs will continue to seek solutions to conflict before it becomes acute and to give African decision-makers the tools to identify and ward off approaching conflicts, lessen their impact and help nations recover from them. Activities focus on programs such as mediation, community-based reconciliation, peace media, reintegration, and psychosocial counseling. USAID field missions benefit from country-specific conflict vulnerability analyses, which not only discuss areas and issues that may spark conflict but note resources for avoiding conflict.
Other Program Elements: As appropriate, USAID's Africa regional program works with USAID's pillar bureaus to ensure the most cost-effective use of appropriated funds. This programmatic synergy makes USAID more effective in terms of results, resources used, and overall long-term impact.
Other Donors: Coordination between USAID and other donors--such as the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations Children's Fund, and the World Health Organization's African Regional Office--helps avoid program duplication, streamline efforts and combine funding to achieve the greatest possible impact. The program is also closely coordinated with host country development strategies and works with African NGOs, as well as the private sector, building partnerships, public-private alliances and networks with all of these actors to sustain long-term results.
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