USAID/OTI Venezuela Field Report
January - March 2007
Program Description
In August 2002, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) initiated a program in Venezuela to provide assistance to maintain democratic stability and strengthen the country's fragile democratic institutions. The program operates out of the U.S. Embassy and is part of a larger U.S. Government effort to promote democratic stability in Venezuela. The FY 2007 budget for Venezuela is $2.7 million, including Economic Support Funds provided by the State Department.
The Venezuela program has two main objectives: (1) strengthen democratic institutions and promote space for democratic dialogue; and (2) encourage citizen participation in democratic processes. USAID supports five implementing partners: Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), which focuses on dialogue, public debate, citizen participation and training for democratic leadership; the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), which offer technical assistance for political parties; Freedom House, which provides technical support to human rights practitioners; and the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), which provides support to civil society.
Country Situation
The Revolution Deepens and Radicalizes – As promised throughout the electoral campaign leading up to the December 2006 presidential election, President Hugo Chavez moved quickly during this reporting period to "deepen and radicalize" the Bolivarian revolution. To accomplish this, President Chavez was authorized by the National Assembly to rule by decree for 18 months. In addition, the president embarked on an effort to achieve specific objectives, including instituting constitutional reform that will almost certainly remove presidential term limits; remapping the political geography of the country to significantly decrease the number of mayors and governors and reduce the authority of those who remain; creating a national system of communal councils that will be the primary mechanism for funding public services and will report directly to Chavez, minimizing the authority of the remaining elected governors and mayors; and finally, restructuring the educational system to focus on "socialistic values." President Chavez is also moving forward with the merging of all government-aligned political parties into the newly created United Socialist Party.
President Chavez announced with great fanfare that he would revoke the broadcast license of the nation's oldest independent broadcasting company, Radio and Television Caracas (RCTV), at the end of May. The announcement set off a wave of domestic and international protests, but Chavez has promised to continue with plans to close RCTV, which is the primary media outlet of the opposition. In addition, Chavez continues to expropriate farms for distribution to farming collectives. He has also nationalized the country's largest telephone and electric companies.
The three opposition parties still legally in existence after the December election continue to try to position themselves as alternatives to the revolution. One of the parties - until recently considered the up-and-coming opposition party - split in two, as half the members joined the party of opposition presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, who is in the process of launching his regional party at the national level.
The economy continues to grow at around 8 percent per year, fueled almost entirely by government spending. This spending-induced growth has led to an inflation rate estimated at 29 percent between March 2006 and March 2007, by far the highest inflation rate in Latin America. Price controls continue to lead to shortages of staples such as sugar, beans, coffee, and milk, as well as poultry and meat. It is also becoming difficult to predict the availability of basic medicines and car parts.
The proposed law to control cooperation between nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the international community is still pending in the National Assembly. While the president of the National Assembly announced earlier in the year that this is one of the laws that will be passed in 2007, some political observers are speculating that other issues facing the assembly will preempt further discussions of the law this year.
OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
During this reporting period, as a result of decreased funding levels, the DAI program has reduced the number of grants awarded and the number of staff working on the program. Ongoing activities are focusing on training in democratic leadership and values, increasing citizen participation at the local level, and supporting NGO participation in international events (Argentina, Chile, Turkey, the United States, and Uruguay). In the past few months, OTI has worked with partner organizations to determine how to best support democracy in Venezuela with reduced funding.
PADF approved three grants during this reporting period. The grants provide funds to document the following activities: the constitutional reform process, discrimination based on political affiliation, and persecution of human rights practitioners. PADF is making plans to end its work with OTI in Venezuela in September, after implementing these and other grants.
Freedom House staff visited Venezuela in February to follow up on training previously carried out with 15 human rights organizations.
NDI and IRI continue working with political parties to improve their capabilities in areas such as constituency outreach and institutional development. Both organizations are in the process of seeking replacements for their departed chiefs of party.
In February, OTI Latin America and the Caribbean Team Leader Russell Porter visited Venezuela to participate in a strategic planning exercise involving the five implementing partner organizations.
B. Grants Activity Summary
USAID, through implementing partner DAI, has approved 353 grants totaling $8,439,621. In addition to these funds, USAID/OTI has leveraged $3.5 million in local contributions. Currently there are 139 active grants in 19 of Venezuela's 23 states.
PADF has committed $898,000 to support the activities of 12 NGOs.
C. Indicators of Success
As available funding has decreased, DAI has been negotiating with partner organizations to encourage them to fund more of the costs involved in project implementation. Coincident with these discussions has been a growing appreciation by project partners and participants for the training materials that DAI and its partners have developed over the course of the past 18 months. The effort has generated a number of successes: For example, the mayor of a large urban municipality agreed to assume all of the costs involved in training citizens in democratic values, requesting only that DAI provide the training materials. In another instance, an NGO requested citizen participation training materials while committing to funding all the other costs for training 90 local leaders. A recent evaluation of the impact of citizen participation training has documented that participants not only value the materials, they are putting the knowledge gained to use. In addition, political parties working with NDI and IRI continue to express interest in having access to the training materials.
An important indicator of program success is the increasing number of young leaders who are committed to the hard work of governance. In the past, if citizens were engaged in the political process at all, it was only during election periods. With Chavez's promotion of participatory democracy, however, expectations for political discourse have been growing, and while citizens want to participate, many have no experience with democracy. USAID/OTI partners are working to provide formerly disenfranchised citizens with the tools they need to engage, to participate, and to hold local leaders accountable. For many of the leaders who are emerging from these circumstances, a USAID/OTI-supported project provided their first real opportunity to assume leadership responsibilities. OTI is excited to see these young leaders grow in their roles and engage others in the democratic process.
Program Appraisal
The Venezuela program is similar to USAID programs in other countries in this hemisphere and around the world in that it seeks to strengthen democracy and its supporting institutions. Specifically, the program in Venezuela is designed to strengthen civil society and political parties - key components of a healthy democracy and the channels through which citizens express their desires, frustrations, and concerns and find ways to collectively address or advance them.
The partnerships that have formed between NGOs and citizens eager to participate democratically in their own governance attest to the success of this program. Similarly, the number of ordinary citizens stepping up to assume leadership roles demonstrates that USAID/OTI is filling an important need that is laying the groundwork for a sustainable democratic future.
One area that needs increased emphasis is human rights training, which will entail reaching out to the networks of citizens not formally engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights. OTI will evaluate options to fill this gap.
Next Steps/Immediate Priorities
USAID/OTI Venezuela is organizing a meeting with more than 20 NGOs that promote citizen participation in local democratic spaces. The purpose of the 2-day meeting is to evaluate impact to date and to plan for next steps. The program's recently completed external evaluation will provide critical input to the discussion. Given the political parties' growing appreciation of the importance of democratic spaces, the meeting will provide opportunities to discuss the synergistic overlap between civil society and political parties.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C: Russell Porter, LAC Program Manager, 202-712-5455, rporter@usaid.gov
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