Social Media
Country Profile
Capital: Pretoria
Population: 48.6 Million (2009)
Area: 1,219,090 sq km
Terrain: Plateau, savanna, desert, mountains, coastal plains.
GDP per Capita: $3,075(2008 est.)
Real GDP growth rate: 3.1%.(2008 est)
Search
Trilateral Assistance Program Overview
Printer
email
Trilateral Assistance Program (TAP) activities cover a wide range of technical areas including agricultural programs in Malawi, a higher education project to provide postgraduate degrees to South Sudanese education officials, a justice sector strengthening project that provides training to judges and court administrators on criminal and civil law procedure and legislative drafting in Southern Sudan, and transfrontier conservation along the border of South Africa and Namibia, South African Development Community (SADC) capacity building in disaster response and gender justice, and post-conflict peace-building projects in Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Current projects are implemented by five different departments in the South African Government (SAG): Higher Education and Learning, Science and Technology, Justice and Constitutional Development, Environmental Affairs, and the Office of the Premier. Projects are chosen by a joint SAG-USAID evaluation committee, and funding ranges from $40,000-$250,000 per project.
In the current context, African countries prefer to search for their own approaches and solutions and benefit from a country such as South Africa that shares many of the same features of other African countries. Continued SAG support to develop the region and the African continent will leverage USAID’s development impact and assist the USG to reduce its footprint in Africa in the future.
FUNDS LEVERAGED FROM SOUTH AFRICA AND OTHER USAID MISSIONS
The South African Government covers all administrative and indirect costs in this program. The SAG does not yet have the legislation or systems in place to have a budget line item for foreign assistance, but they have made substantial contributions totaling nearly $2 million out of their domestic budget over the past two years. This is in addition to covering 100% of the overhead costs, technical experts, and staff salaries. Trilateral projects are low-cost solutions that allow the USG to respond to diplomatic and development needs in areas where it is difficult for USG agencies to work directly.
USAID/ Southern Africa has also leveraged a total of $292,000 from other USAID missions, including $95,000 from USAID/Sudan, $139,000 from the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and $58,000 from USAID/ Malawi.
THE TRILATERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM AND AID EFFECTIVENESS
The TAP has expanded the mandate of the South African Government’s domestic line ministries to include international development activities in Africa, creating the architecture for South Africa to create its own development agency to assist underdeveloped and conflict ridden countries throughout the African continent. This unique mechanism is not only in-line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action, but also creates spaces for capacity development and mutual learning between countries.
The program is heralded as a best practice in supporting host country systems and exemplifies South-South cooperation (SSC). The Accra Agenda for Action recognizes that working through host country systems and promoting SSC, based on principles of solidarity, equality, and mutual learning, are some of the most effective capacity building techniques for both recipients and providers of aid.