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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
APRIL 2005
In this section:
U.S. Focus Shifts to Fragile States Strategy
Madagascar First in MCC
Wolfowitz to World Bank
Gorillas Help Uganda Grow
New Quake Off Sumatra
U.S. Focus Shifts to Fragile States Strategy
The United States is threatened more by “failed, failing,
and recovering states” than by “conquering states,”
says Administrator Andrew Natsios.
“There is perhaps no more urgent matter” facing
U.S. development efforts, according to a new USAID report
outlining the Agency’s fragile states strategy. The strategy
is part of the overall U.S. National Security Strategy, Natsios
said.
Natsios presented the report Feb. 16 to the Advisory Committee
on Voluntary Foreign Aid meeting in Washington. The committee,
which links the U.S. government and private voluntary organizations
active in international humanitarian assistance and development,
meets three times a year.
“The world has changed and we need to change with it,”
Natsios said.
Ignoring failed and failing states “can pose great
risks, including the likelihood of terrorism taking root,”
the report says.
Of particular concern are economic instability, food insecurity,
and violent conflict—usual symptoms of government failure
in failed states, it says.
“The most significant shortfall in meeting the widely
supported Millennium Development Goals of the [United Nations]
Millennium Declaration will likely be in fragile states,”
according to the report.
Weak, inefficient, and illegitimate governments are “at
the heart” of fragile countries, Natsios said. USAID
has responded to the reality of failed states by creating
a new Office of Conflict Mitigation, he added.
Using a new “fragility framework,” the office
will provide USAID with more analyses of democracy and governance
development efforts and countries’ ability to deal with
conflict in order to identify fragile states, the report says.
Areas to be analyzed for effectiveness and legitimacy will
include military and police services, political and financial
institutions, and the provision of basic services, it says.
The office will work closely with the State Department’s
new Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization,
Natsios said. An effective response to the challenge of failed
states will also require close cooperation between U.S. agencies
and the nonprofit sector, he said.
Natsios added that the Bush administration is asking Congress
for more flexibility than it now has to program USAID funds
to best target assistance to crisis and crisis-prone countries.
On a related topic, Natsios said the Bush administration
in its fiscal year 2006 budget proposal to Congress is seeking
approval to buy more food aid from producers located near
food crises areas
Such flexibility would drastically reduce the amount of
aid funds now required to transport food that is mostly grown
by U.S. farmers to where it is needed, he said.
The administrator said that because USAID was not allowed
to purchase more food from local producers in response to
food shortages in Afghanistan, many of that country’s
farmers have given up trying to grow wheat and have returned
to growing higher-income-generating poppies for opium.
Natsios also spoke about the need to boost USAID’s
outreach to the U.S. military to best coordinate humanitarian
aid and reconstruction efforts
By Kathryn McConnell
Washington File staff writer
Washington File is a product of the U.S. Department of
State.
Madagascar First in MCC
WASHINGTON—Madagascar will be the first country
invited to sign a development compact with the Millennium
Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board, the organization’s
CEO announced March 14.
The island nation off the east coast of Africa will be eligible
to receive nearly $110 million over four years to reduce poverty
and promote economic growth. The money will be used in three
areas: property rights, finance, and agriculture.
The funding is “designed to increase incomes and create
opportunities for rural Malagasy by unleashing domestic investment,”
said CEO Paul Applegarth.
The formal signing is expected in April.
Madagascar, with a population of about 17 million, is lush
in natural beauty, but more than 70 percent of its people
live below the poverty line. And four out of five of those
who live in rural areas survive on 41 cents a day.
The country is renowned for its biodiversity—thousands
of its animals and plants cannot be found anywhere else in
the world—but that bounty is threatened by logging and
destructive farming practices.
The country is also emerging from political turmoil in 2002,
and its president, Marc Ravalomanana, is pushing reforms to
end rural poverty, reform the economy, and attract foreign
investment.
“The compact will create ways for the rural poor to
generate wealth by giving them the opportunity to own land
and improve their access to credit, and by giving them technical
assistance in agricultural practices and in identifying market
opportunities,” Applegarth said.
Madagascar, which submitted a proposal to the MCC in October
2004, has a per capita income of about $300 a year.
To qualify for MCC money, countries must have a per capita
income below $1,450 a year.
Madagascar is among 17 countries eligible for MCC aid. Another
13 countries are eligible for assistance under MCC’s
Threshold Program, which will be implemented by USAID.
The program, launched by President Bush three years ago,
provides money to poor countries that rule justly, invest
in their people, and encourage economic freedom. It was created
as an alternative to traditional foreign aid programs.
The MCC received $1 billion in 2004, its first year, and
is getting another $1.5 billion this year. President Bush
has asked Congress for $3 billion for 2006.
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Georgia are expected to sign compacts
with the MCC in the coming months.
Wolfowitz to World Bank
President Bush nominated Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
March 16 to be the next head of the World Bank, the world’s
biggest development agency, which made $20 billion in loans
last year.
“Paul Wolfowitz is a proven leader and experienced diplomat,
who will guide the World Bank effectively and honorably during
a critical time in history—both for the Bank and the
developing nations it supports,” Bush said March 16 at
the White House.
“He has devoted his career to advancing the cause of
freedom. He is a person of compassion who believes deeply
that lifting people out of poverty is critical to achieving
that goal.”
Wolfowitz has spoken publicly about the importance of USAID
programs in Indonesia, where he was ambassador, and recently
said the U.S. tsunami relief effort showed “incredible
cooperation between State and Defense and USAID.”
“It is a noble mission to lift people out of poverty
and in doing so to strengthen the whole political movement
towards democracy” he told the New York Times.
Wolfowitz will replace James Wolfensohn at the Bank if the
board of directors approves the U.S. president’s choice,
as they have in the past.
Before serving at Defense, Wolfowitz was dean of the Paul
H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns
Hopkins University and assistant secretary of state.
In 2002 in Manila, Wolfowitz said he was told by a governor
that “the only international aid agency that is able
to deliver assistance to his part of the country is USAID…because
so far the others are unwilling to take the risks.”
Gorillas Help Uganda Grow
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park,
Uganda - Kisoro has a scar on his nose. “He
must have fought with another male overnight,”
the guard whispers, standing some 10
feet away from a group of 13 gorillas.
Two of the older male silverbacks, a few
younger males like Kisoro, several females,
and a 3-month-old baby can be seen up close
by a handful of tourists each day.
Trips are led by guards from the Uganda
Wildlife Authority (UWA), who monitor the
animals and protect the park from poaching
and encroachment for agriculture.
See Gorillas in the Coutry Spotlight Section...
New Quake Off Sumatra
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CALANG, Sumatra—A child orphaned by the tsunami
lives with a relative in this shelter. The shelter is
built with plastic, supplied by USAID and other aid
groups, which is supplemented by branches and materials
salvaged from the tsunami debris. All of Calang’s
houses were destroyed and most of its 16,000 citizens
killed in the tsunami.
Ben Barber,USAID |
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia—A massive 8.7 magnitude
earthquake killed at least 200 people when it hit off Sumatra’s
southwest coast March 28—just miles from the epicenter
of the much larger 9 magnitude quake Dec. 26 that left 273,000
people dead and missing around the Indian Ocean through tsunamis.
USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance
(OFDA) gave $100,000 to CARE and Save the Children for immediate
aid.
Food and other relief supplies in Indonesia were being transported
via ferry to Nias, the Indonesian island off Sumatra, where
as many as 2,000 people were feared dead.
The quake did not spawn any tsunamis.
To assess the need for aid, an OFDA worker flew to Nias
from Banda Aceh, where a major USAID relief effort was still
underway for survivors of the tsunami.
After the new quake, Indonesian, Singaporean, and Australian
military forces rushed food, water, and medical supplies by
helicopter and ship. The injured were evacuated to the Sumatran
port of Sibolga, as power and water were cut in Nias.
Indonesia’s Vice President Jusuf Kalla said many people
were trapped beneath the rubble on Nias, especially in the
wreckage of its principal city, Gunung Sitoli, population
30,000.
The World Food Program sent helicopters and aircraft, and
the International Red Cross said a large landing craft carrying
body bags, trucks, and supplies was due to reach Nias March
30. Japan said it would send an emergency medical team.
“We already had emergency supplies and partners in
the region, so we are able to quickly reach the worst-hit
areas with assistance,” said Administrator Andrew S.
Natsios.
By March 30, the U.S. government had given more than $42
million in humanitarian and recovery aid to help Indonesia
recover from the Dec. 26 tsunami.
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