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Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance
Under the authority of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, the President has designated the USAID Administrator as his Special Coordinator for International Disaster Assistance. The DCHA Bureau within USAID is the lead U. S. Government organization for providing emergency, life-saving disaster relief, including food aid, and other humanitarian assistance to people in developing countries, particularly those plagued by state failure problems. Even in countries that are not so fragile, however, there are inevitably natural disasters and violent man-made crises that threaten large-scale loss of life. DCHA's programs, and especially those providing development assistance, also encourage responsible participation by all citizens in the political processes of their countries, assist those countries to improve governance, especially the rule of law, and help strengthen non-governmental organizations and other elements of civil society. Proposed funding for FY 2005 will further strengthen U.S. leadership in foreign disaster relief, emergency food aid, and other humanitarian assistance. The financial resources requested will also underwrite crucial assistance programs for helping countries to: manage and mitigate conflict; make the transition from crisis to recovery and a return to development progress, practice democracy and good governance, and strengthen the capacity of indigenous non-governmental organizations. For some programs - such as Transition Initiatives, International Disaster Assistance, Food for Peace, Private and Voluntary Cooperation, and American Schools and Hospitals Abroad - the Bureau manages activities directly. For Democracy and Governance and Conflict Management and Mitigation programs, the Bureau supports USAID field missions in their efforts.
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"Timely and effective intervention minimizes suffering, contains the crisis, reestablishes local government structures that provide lasting protection, and helps lay the foundation for sustainable development."
Source: Department of State and Agency for International Development Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2004 to 2009
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The Development Challenge: One challenge DCHA has an important role in addressing is the significant growth in the internally displaced persons (IDPs) population since 1990. In the 1990s, armed conflict generated millions of IDPs. The number of internally displaced persons driven from homes by conflict in the world is estimated at 25 million in 50 countries affected by conflict. While people become internally displaced because of natural disasters and large-scale development projects, the dramatic increase in the number of IDPs is primarily a reflection of an increase in complex humanitarian emergencies, and the number and the nature of armed conflicts. DCHA offices in collaboration with our many partners address the serious needs of IDP populations including food and other relief commodities, and programming to enable citizens to address critical needs of their communities.
Internal displacement is a symptom of underlying problems, in particular, the need to resolve and manage conflict and instability, particularly in fragile, failed and failing states, and thus is another challenge being addressed in part by DCHA. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in his report Sustaining the Earth in the New Millennium, said "In the last decade, internal wars have claimed more than five million lives and driven many times that number of people from their homes." DCHA offices have the ability to meet both quick, short-term programming needs and longer-term activities to meet and alleviate the underlying causes of conflict.
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"The overwhelming majority of IDPs - mainly women and children - struggled to survive with little hope of returning home, sometimes years after fighting ended."
Source: A Global Overview of Internal Displacement; www.idpproject.org
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Another major challenge facing DCHA and its Office of Food for Peace (FFP) is the worsening global food security situation, affecting over 800 million malnourished people in the developing world and threatening to overwhelm U.S. and international humanitarian relief systems. Recently the FFP Office has confronted unprecedented droughts in the Horn of Africa and Southern Africa, the conflicts in the Sudan, Angola and elsewhere, and the wars against terrorism in failed or failing states like Afghanistan and Iraq. In FY 2003, over 3.1 million metric tons of food, valued at over $1.7 billion, was procured and delivered by the FFP Office, preventing widespread famines and human catastrophes and saving millions of lives in the process. However, the food security situation in Africa, most notably Ethiopia, continues to be precarious.
All six of DCHA's offices that manage programs share a set of common goals: (1) advancing longer-term development through integrated, high-impact interventions, particularly in countries affected by crisis, conflict, and food insecurity; (2) strengthening capable, responsive, and stable democratic systems and civil society, particularly in fragile, failing, and failed states; (3) increasing host country capacity to save lives and reduce human suffering; (4) providing technical leadership within the U. S. Government and to partners in response to the needs of fragile, failed, and failing states; and (5) ensuring coordination within DCHA for more effective responses to crisis and development needs.
The programs managed by DCHA's seven offices support USAID's four pillars: (1) democracy, conflict, and humanitarian assistance; (2) economic growth, agriculture, and trade; (3) global health; and (4) global development alliance.
- Office of Democracy and Governance (DG). USAID's programs strengthen democracy and good governance worldwide, directly supporting the U.S. National Security Strategy and the State/USAID Strategic Plan. In the words of the report Foreign Aid in the National Interest: Promoting Freedom, Security, and Opportunity: "It is strongly in the U. S. interest to promote both democracy and good governance." Democratic governments tend to advocate and observe international laws, protect civil and human rights, avoid external conflicts, and pursue free market economies essential to international trade and prosperity. Supporting such governance entails a variety of often difficult political and institutional reforms, and capacity-building efforts within both the public sector and civil society. The DG Office currently provides field support, technical leadership, and training in the following areas: (1) promoting the rule of law and respect for human rights; (2) encouragement of credible and competitive political processes; (3) development of politically active civil society; (4) promoting more transparent and accountable government institutions, including local government support and anti-corruption efforts; and, (5) strategic planning and cross-cutting issues.
- Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM). The world faces a major and growing threat from the increasing incapacity of states to deal with the potential causes of instability, conflict, and in some cases terrorism. Responding effectively to this emerging global reality is the challenge that shapes CMM's programs and external relationships. All USAID development programs and partners, especially those that directly address humanitarian assistance, the transition from crisis to stability, and promotion of democracy, must now address this new imperative. The mandate of the office is to help USAID missions, development officers and partners gain the expertise they need to work more effectively in high-risk environments.
- Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The United States, through USAID, remains the world's leader in responding to man-made and natural disasters. OFDA targets the most vulnerable groups with its emergency assistance: the malnourished, nursing and pregnant women, households headed by children and women, the elderly and the handicapped. Emergency assistance includes many types of life-saving activities to meet the situation such as airlifting supplies to affected populations in remote locations, managing primary health care and supplementary feeding centers, and providing shelter materials to disaster evacuees and displaced persons as a small example. While emergency relief for natural disasters is crucial, preparedness is equally important. OFDA's preparedness, mitigation and prevention efforts are essential in dealing with natural disasters, playing an equally important role in complex emergencies. The last decade's marked growth in these man-made emergencies has continued into the new millennium, as internal conflict and war cause social, political, and economic institutions and systems to fail. Sometimes, natural disasters accompany man-made emergencies, which compound their complexity.
- Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI). Knowing where quick, targeted transition assistance can make a difference, and being prepared to respond in a timely fashion, are among OTI's core duties. With its limited resources, OTI concentrates its assistance where it will have the greatest impact such as community-based activities, strengthening independent media, abuse protection and human rights. This may be in countries where initial advances require immediate support to continue or where political or economic divisions threaten to expand into large-scale crises.
- Office of Food for Peace (FFP). FFP manages the U.S. Government's P.L. 480 Title II program, which is the largest food aid program in the world, totaling over $1 billion annually in food and other resources. As of July 2003, 36 countries and over 800 million people around the world faced serious food emergencies requiring international food aid. Reducing global food insecurity and the number of chronically undernourished and underweight people in the developing world is a key U.S. foreign policy objective. Towards this objective, FFP is developing a new five-year strategy that seeks to reduce food insecurity in vulnerable populations around the world. Title II resources are used to predict, prevent and respond to malnutrition and potential famine overseas. FFP programs address the causes of food insecurity, poverty and conflict in emergency and development situations and in transitional periods of instability. FFP promotes international consensus on food security issues and concerns and helps minimize the long-term need for food aid by strengthening the capacity of developing societies to ensure access to food by their most vulnerable communities and individuals, especially women and children, through Title II programs.
- Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation - American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (PVC-ASHA). These two previously separate offices have been merged in the past year. These programs appear as separate presentations in this document. PVC focuses on enhancing the capacity of local non-governmental organizations to deliver development services across sectors (e.g., agriculture, credit, environment) in developing and post-conflict countries. ASHA provides assistance to schools, libraries, and medical centers outside the United States but founded or sponsored by U.S. organizations to demonstrate U.S. advances in education and medical technology and practices. Both PVC and ASHA programs are implemented through grants to U.S. organizations to address the capacity-building needs of the local institutions.
- Office of Volunteers for Prosperity (VfP). USAID is the lead agency charged with administering the interagency coordination of the President's new initiative, Volunteers for Prosperity, and works with appropriate agencies and departments to meet initiative objectives. The Office for Volunteers for Prosperity is housed in DCHA. The Volunteers for Prosperity initiative, launched in September 2003, will support major U.S. development activities overseas, using highly skilled American professionals to help meet the U.S. Government's global prosperity agenda. American volunteers in a variety of fields serve for a period of time, ranging from a few weeks to up to several years, depending on the project. Examples of the initiatives that VfP will support include the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Digital Freedom Initiative, Water for the Poor, Trade for African Development and Enterprise, and the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
- Office of Program, Policy and Management (PPM): PPM provides technical assistance, management and support to various offices, both within and outside the DCHA Bureau.
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"USAID formed DCHA to consolidate USAID programs that help developing and transition countries prevent, or recover from, state failure. The focus on state failure provides a central organizing principle for the Bureau, and arises from U.S. foreign policy priorities and socio-political realities in many of the countries where DCHA works."
Source: DCHA Strategic Planning Framework 2003 - 2010, Approved August 2003
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Program And Management Challenges: To be effective, DCHA's interventions must be well coordinated, the responses must be rapid but careful, and the approaches must be appropriately integrated if lives are to be saved and suffering reduced, conflict prevented or mitigated, non-governmental organizations' and other local institutions' capacities strengthened, and democracy and good governance buttressed. To that end, DCHA is implementing a number of important initiatives and innovations.
- The Bureau has helped USAID progress in focusing on the integration of disaster relief, transition, food security, and conflict management and mitigation programs into country portfolios. The result has been a new appreciation of these priorities in country programs.
- The Bureau is working closely with the rest of the Agency to develop agency-wide response mechanisms for quickly dealing with crises as they arise.
- The Bureau continues to actively pursue a resource-leveraging approach with its partners, particularly in its innovative work on forging PVO- and other public-private partnerships.
- The Bureau continues to refine and apply performance-monitoring tools to strengthen program management and the allocation of resources. Reinforcing effective past practice, DCHA offices continue to consult with partners on adopting up-to-date Agency performance management and results reporting procedures and practices. FFP is undertaking management improvement and innovation, including greater utilization of electronic systems and procedures to streamline and improve Title II operations.
In a united effort to facilitate its strategic planning and budgeting, DCHA approved a Strategic Planning Framework in 2004 that provides a structure for DCHA offices to coordinate their planning and activities in pursuing DCHA's joint vision, mission and goals. The DCHA framework provides an additional link for DCHA offices with the National Security Strategy and the joint State/USAID Strategic Plan. DCHA's mission is to save lives, alleviate suffering, support democracy, and promote opportunities for people adversely affected by poverty, conflict, natural disasters, and a breakdown of good governance. DCHA rapidly responds in support of USAID mission worldwide, particularly in fragile, failed and failing states. To carry out its mission, DCHA collaborates within the Agency, the U.S. Government, other donors, and implementing partners. DCHA seeks to maximize its efforts through partnerships with organizations that share its vision and complement its resources. DCHA teams design and implement effective solutions to crisis situations that link its humanitarian efforts with longer-term development goals
The individual sections on each of the Bureau's offices contain numerous examples of the results their programs have achieved in the past year. They also contain specific information on the program plans for fiscal year 2005.
Other Program Elements: DCHA is a "pillar bureau-plus" within USAID. Like the Agency's other two pillar bureaus (i.e., Global Health, and Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade), DCHA provides field support to overseas missions and serves as a center of technical excellence for programs in democracy and governance, conflict, private and voluntary cooperation, and humanitarian assistance. However, several of DCHA's offices have direct responsibility for field programs. This is true of OFDA, OTI, ASHA, PVC, and to a lesser degree FFP and CMM. DCHA is making a concerted effort to integrate its programs more fully with those of other USAID Bureaus. DCHA also continues its work on ensuring close coordination with the Departments of State and Agriculture, the National Security Council, and other parts of the U.S. Government.
Other Donors: A hallmark of DCHA's programs is the degree to which they involve partners, including private voluntary organizations, cooperative development organizations, non-governmental organizations, for-profit contractors, American schools and hospitals sponsoring overseas institutions, United Nations agencies, international organizations, and other bilateral and multilateral donors. DCHA intends to continue working closely with the U.S. foreign affairs community, particularly the Department of State, on donor coordination and other partnering relationships. The Bureau plans to form an increased number of alliances with entities such as the U.S. Institute for Peace, the Department of Defense, indigenous religious institutions dedicated to conflict prevention, mitigation, and resolution, and other non-governmental and governmental organizations.
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