Phil Goduka, Executive Director of Isandla Partners in Development;

The Board of Directors of Isandla Partners in Development;

David Thompson, Director of the Cooperative Housing Foundation/South Africa;

Representatives from Despatch and Motherwell Communities;

Representatives from the Port Elizabeth Municipal Council;

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works throughout the country to provide technical assistance, training, and grants to assist our governmental and non-governmental partners to address a wide variety of development challenges. We believe in a teamwork approach to help fulfill the aspirations of South Africans to gain access to basic necessities, including decent shelter and a healthy living environment.

More than two years have passed since I arrived in South Africa. Within a week of setting foot in South Africa, I found myself in the Eastern Cape to see where USAID was helping the Departments of Justice and Public Works to build courthouses in the former Transkei. Not only did I see immediately the widespread shortage of functional public structures, but also I was staggered to see so many people living in shacks and poor quality houses. The vast need for decent homes in decent communities, serviced with roads, water and electricity, was obvious throughout the entire province.

Decent housing is a basic human need. But assuring access to adequate housing is a difficult challenge faced by communities throughout the world. Overcoming housing shortages requires careful planning and management of limited resources.

For this reason USAID provides some funding and professional training in both management and technical construction techniques in the Eastern Cape.

USAID and the Cooperative Housing Foundation have been working together in helping to address the housing shortages in this province for several years now. CHF, in coordination with the Eastern Cape Provincial Housing Board and other stakeholders in the Eastern Cape, has done an excellent job in establishing a Technical Service Center and developing housing delivery demonstration projects in key areas surrounding Port Elizabeth.

CHF has thus helped to ensure a smooth transition, so that Isandla--a highly skilled local NGO--can competently take the baton and tools to continue the process of building functional homes in well-serviced communities in this area.

Isandla, with funding and technical support from CHF, will respond to the needs of local communities to improve their housing conditions. Isandla is well equipped to help communities build good houses with energy-saving and environmental features. Families will be able to save money through lower electricity payments and the health of their families will improve through decreased use of burning charcoal and wood inside the household during the winter months.

You - the Directors and staff at Isandla - are pioneers in this process. You will invariably face some difficult challenges ahead; you probably already have. And though there will be more challenges ahead, we want you to know that you have our support.

So we are here to celebrate the emergence of Islandla, a new local NGO that epitomizes USAID's vision of building the local capacity to respond to local community needs.

I couldn't help but notice this afternoon that people were greeting each other with warm smiles and enthusiastic handshakes. I smiled, too, as I clasped hands with you and thought just how perfectly the name of the new NGO describes this occasion: ISANDLA…"extending the hand". My ability to pronounce the local word may be limited, but the image of ISANDLA that comes to mind is universal. You see, USAID has adopted the extended hand of partnership as our logo.

So let me congratulate ISANDLA PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT today as we embrace this exciting new phase of our partnership together.

We recognize your successes so far and congratulate you sincerely on these. I am pleased to be here today to tell you that USAID will continue to support Isandla Partners in Development through our cooperative agreement with CHF through 2001.

In closing, I would like to EXTEND MY HANDS to congratulate and applaud CHF, Islanda, and all other governmental and non-governmental organizations who are playing a key role in helping the Eastern Cape provide decent shelter for its people. I encourage you all to continue in this worthy process and to share the lessons you learn with other stakeholders.

I would like to give special thanks to the CHF and Isandla Partners in Development staff for organizing this open house and for arranging the site visits this week.

Thank you very much.