|
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
In this section:
MCC OKs Armenia, Vanuatu Compacts
Radio Station Highlighted in Imam Sahib
Contractor to Repay $1.2 Mil
Thailand Flood Victims Get Aid
Global Development Alliance Now Office
Relief Goes to Indonesia Flood Victims
Former Cashier Pleads Guilty to Stealing
Agency Lobby Gets New Look and Name
Agency Releases Democracy Strategy
MCC OKs Armenia, Vanuatu Compacts
WASHINGTON—The Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC) has approved a five-year, $235.7 million compact with
Armenia and a similar $65.7 million agreement with Vanuatu.
Armenia, MCC Chief Executive Officer John Danilovich said,
has “developed an integrated, results-oriented program
that will provide rural residents better access to jobs, social
services, and markets and increase the productivity of farmers.”
The compact, which aims to reduce rural poverty, will invest
in rebuilding rural roads and work on agriculture irrigation.
The program is meant to impact 75 percent of the rural population,
and is expected to increase annual incomes by $36 million
in 2010 and over $113 million in 2015.
In Vanuatu, the compact includes up to 11 infrastructure
projects—roads, wharfs, an airstrip, and warehouses.
It also includes training and policy reform initiatives to
improve the operation and maintenance of Vanuatu’s transport
infrastructure network. MCC funds are expected to impact more
than 65,000 rural residents and increase their average income
per capita by 15 percent.
Since its establishment in 2004, MCC has signed compacts
totaling more than $900 million with Madagascar, Honduras,
Cape Verde, Nicaragua, and Georgia.
Radio Station Highlighted in Imam Sahib
IMAM SAHIB, Afghanistan—Officials, local elders,
and students in this capital city of Kunduz province inaugurated
the city’s first independent radio station in mid-December.
Radio Jaihoon began broadcasting in May 2005. USAID began
helping to set up a network of community radio stations in
Afghanistan in 2002. The network currently has 31 stations,
each of which operates with full editorial independence.
Prior to the overthrow of the Taliban, the only radio network
in the country was Radio Afghanistan.
Contractor to Repay $1.2 Mil
WASHINGTON—Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI)
has agreed to repay USAID $1.2 million to settle allegations
it overcharged the Agency for contracts it received in the
1990s. As part of the settlement, DAI did not admit to fraud.
The decision from the Bethesda, Md.-based company settles
charges under the False Claims Act.
The settlement agreement resulted from an investigation
into three contracts conducted by the USAID Office of Inspector
General in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s
Office for Maryland. One contract, signed in 1995, involved
implementation of a program to encourage financial institutions
to increase the flow of credit to micro and small businesses
in developing countries. The other two contracts, signed in
1996 and 1997, involved implementation of economic assistance
programs in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The investigation found that DAI overcharged the Agency
just over $500,000.
In a statement after the agreement was settled, Acting Deputy
Inspector General Paula F. Hayes said: “USAID and the
American companies it relies upon to deliver development programs
throughout the world must always be steadfast protectors of
U.S. taxpayer funds. As highlighted by this settlement agreement,
the Office of Inspector General will vigorously pursue the
investigation and prosecution of fraudulent activities that
target the U.S. foreign assistance program.”
Thailand Flood Victims Get Aid
WASHINGTON—USAID has provided $50,000 to the
Thai Red Cross to assist victims of severe flooding in southern
Thailand.
Unusually heavy and continuous rainfall since early December
caused severe flooding in the southern Thailand provinces
of Songkhla, Nakhonsithammarat, Pattani, Narathiwat, Phatthalung,
Trang, Yala, and Satun. Flooding has killed 26 people, affected
more than 700,000, and forced large-scale evacuations to temporary
shelters, according to the Thai Department of Disaster Prevention
and Mitigation.
USAID funding will be used to purchase and distribute emergency
relief supplies, including blankets, food, and water.
Global Development Alliance Now Office
WASHINGTON—The Global Development Alliance Secretariat
has become an independent office within USAID, under the name
of Office of Global Development Alliances (GDA). It will report
directly to the acting administrator.
GDA, which was created four years ago, works to promote
public-private alliances that encourage global development.
The office says it has generated almost 300 alliances, leveraging
more than $3.7 billion in private partner contributions.
Relief Goes to Indonesia Flood Victims
WASHINGTON—USAID has provided $50,000 to the
Indonesian Red Cross to help it respond in areas of the country
affected by monsoon-related flooding.
On Jan. 1, flash flooding and landslides hit three districts
of Jember Regency, East Java Province. This came after three
days of torrential downpours and the overflow of the Dinoyo
River. The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said the weather is to
blame for 63 deaths. It also displaced 6,700 people and destroyed
more than 2,500 homes.
Local media reported that on Jan. 4, additional flash floods
and landsides buried approximately 100 homes in Cijeruk. An
estimated 200 villagers were presumed dead.
Former Cashier Pleads Guilty to Stealing
WASHINGTON—Muftar Ali pleaded guilty Dec. 29,
2005, to stealing $200,000 from USAID’s mission in Maputo,
Mozambique, and the U.S. Embassy there, USAID’s Office
of Inspector General said.
Ali entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Charleston,
S.C., and could face up to a $250,000 fine and 10 years in
prison. Evidence from the case showed that Ali stole the money
between 2003 and 2005 when he worked as a cashier in both
offices.
Agency Lobby Gets New Look and Name
As one of his final acts as Administrator, Andrew S. Natsios
named the 14th Street entryway of USAID’s headquarters
in Washington the George C. Marshall Hall.
He unveiled the new name—and new look—for the
light-filled, two-story walkway just after delivering his
final town hall address to employees Jan. 9.
The entryway’s facelift included seven new display
panels that highlight in vivid color images some of the work
the Agency has performed in developing countries. The panels
represent humanitarian assistance, global partnerships, economic
growth and trade, education, agriculture and the environment,
democracy and governance, and global health.
Natsios also unveiled a new portrait of Marshall, the former
Secretary of State whose plans to rebuild Europe after World
War II came to be known as the Marshall Plan. The document—which
encouraged spending billions to help a devastated Europe recover—led
to the United States’ more formal approach to foreign
assistance. A succession of five organizations handled U.S.
foreign assistance after that. Finally, in 1961, USAID was
established to take over those duties.
The new portrait, which replaces another portrait of Marshall,
is a reproduction of a 1949 painting that hangs in the State
Department’s diplomatic reception room.
Agency Releases Democracy Strategy
At Freedom’s Frontiers, USAID’s recently
released publication detailing its democracy efforts in developing
countries across the globe, contends that countries with healthy
democracies are more apt to do well in other areas, including
economic development and security.
The Agency’s democracy strategy focuses on four core
“dimensions of democracy”: rule of law, institutions
with democratic and accountable governance, political freedom
and competition, and citizen participation and advocacy.
“As a matter of principle, part of strengthening our
national security, and an essential element of international
development, USAID promotes good governance and the transition
to democracy through the world,” the strategy begins.
The document was unveiled Jan. 10 to nearly 300 people at
the National Press Club during an event cohosted by Freedom
House and featuring an address by former Administrator Andrew
S. Natsios.
USAID’s democracy work reaches back several decades
with efforts in countries like El Salvador and Indonesia.
In some places, USAID’s efforts were shorter term. In
others, democracies took years of work to come to fruition.
In the last couple of years, the Agency has also jumped
in in places like Georgia and Ukraine where grassroots democracy
efforts were taking shape, showing “we can move quickly,
as in the case where an orange or rose or cedar revolution
breaks out,” said Paul Bonicelli, a deputy assistant
administrator in the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian
Assistance.
The strategy also bolsters the Agency’s role as the
democracy-promotion arm of the U.S. government, and shows
the work encompasses far more than elections. “Here’s
what we’ve been doing over the years and that has a lot
of value,” said Bonicelli, who added that the strategy
will be distributed to congressional staffers, journalists,
State Department colleagues, and others.
In 2004, USAID spent $1.2 billion to implement democracy
programs around the world, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The democracy strategy includes explanations about how and
why USAID promotes democracy, and how the Agency’s democracy
practitioners are responding to 21st century challenges, such
as establishing democracies in fragile states and supporting
countries during transitions from their former methods of
governance.
Also included is an outline of the Agency’s “democracy
promotion toolbox.” As the name suggests, the toolbox
includes descriptions of the nuts and bolts efforts—for
example, mobilizing get-out-the-vote drives and providing
advisors who have expertise in writing constitutions—that
move democracies forward.
At Freedom’s Frontiers: A Democracy and Governance
Strategic Framework was released with a companion publication
called Democracy Rising, which provides a narrative
of some the Agency’s most recent work. Both publications
are available at www.usaid.gov.
Back to Top ^
|
RSS Feed for Recent HIV/AIDS WebSource Articles
