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INSIDE USAID
In this section:
Malawi President Helps Celebrate Mission’s
Anniversary
West Bank and Gaza Mission Wins Award for GIS System
Malawi President Helps Celebrate Mission’s Anniversary
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President Bingu wa Mutharika and Mission Director Roger Yochelson.
Aggrey Kanyerere, Chemonics Internationa |
LILONGWE, Malawi—On
the 44th anniversary of the U.S. foreign aid mission to this
country, President Bingu wa Mutharika attended a celebration
of the event and thanked the United States for its long-term
commitment to reduce poverty and foster democratic stability
in Malawi.
“This is indeed a great day in the history of our two
nations,” Mutharika told 600 guests at the day-long event
in October, which featured booths for 33 of USAID’s health,
democracy and governance, education, and economic growth projects.
The Agency has spent $917 million in Malawi since 1960.
Mutharika reiterated his commitment to combat
corruption, reform the public sector, and spur economic
growth, promising “fundamental policy reforms” to
reduce government interference in the private sector. He also
requested continued U.S. support for anticorruption and poverty
reduction efforts.
“I need hardly emphasize that the fight against corruption,
underdevelopment, and poverty requires huge amounts of resources,”
Mutharika said. “I therefore hope that the U.S. government
will stand by us and that they will ensure that our reform
program…[does] not slide backwards.”
Mission Director Roger Yochelson said U.S. aid provides benefits
to Malawian citizens in education and training; HIV/AIDS awareness
and testing; and infrastructure projects such as roads.
Traditional dances with masks, animal skins, and spears were
performed at the anniversary event, as well as dramas that
had the crowd chuckling over issues of inheritance, women’s
rights, and corruption.
One agriculture project displayed three rows of corn plants
that graphically demonstrated the results of three different
growing regimens: no fertilizer, inadequately applied fertilizer,
and a proper fertilizer regime.
U.S.-funded work to combat malaria and HIV/AIDS and to promote
child health, nutrition, and survival were on display. Paralegals
from Malawi Carer, an NGO that educates Malawians about their
rights under the law, explained their work to the president.
One female member of parliament greeted attendants at the
International Republican Institute booth by saying, “I
won my seat because of the tips I learned in your training
workshop!”
West Bank and Gaza Mission Wins Award for GIS System
TEL AVIV—More than 1,300 computer wizards were gathered
for the 13th annual conference of geographic information systems (GIS)
users Nov. 15, when USAID’s West Bank and Gaza mission honored
for developing a sophisticated internet-based GIS that manages humanitarian
and development activities.
The GIS User Conference was hosted by California-based ESRI, a software
and technology company.
The developer of the technology is Tayseer Edeas, management information
systems specialist at the mission’s Program and Project Development
Office. Working with Israeli and Palestinian GIS firms, Edeas built
an internet-based GIS system that helps manage, track, and evaluate
USAID activities in the region. The system also helps the mission to
measure its achievements more accurately.
With a click of a mouse, the technology allows Edeas to ask, for instance,
the location of all projects under $100,000, and immediately come up
with a map of the region that pinpoints such projects and identifies
them by sector.
Among other uses, the technology has helped the mission analyze the
cost efficiency of partners involved in similar projects—pointing
out discrepancies in overhead costs or showing that one partner can
create twice the number of jobs with the same budget as another partner.
USAID headquarters is now mulling over the idea of developing a GIS
system to improve access to information for the entire Bureau for Asia
and the Near East.
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