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Archives for Asia

Former Afghan Aid Chief Reflects on Career in Foreign Assistance

Posted by  on Wednesday, August 25th 2010     

After 14 months heading the largest USAID office in Agency history—in Afghanistan— Bill Frej stepped down from a long career in foreign assistance this summer. “We have completely transformed the aid program and made agriculture the number one priority,” said Frej in an interview in Washington.

Although Frej admitted to many challenges in delivering large amounts of foreign assistance in a war zone, the aid veteran is replete with success stories. Frej counts the mass enrollment of girls in schools as one of USAID’s major accomplishments in Afghanistan, explaining that U.S. assistance helped increase countrywide school enrollment from 400,000 children—only boys—in 2001 to 6.5 million today, 40 percent of them girls.

Frej said he recently travelled three hours by jeep to visit a USAID program in a village in Bamiyan at 10,000 feet. He was struck to see children, boys and girls, being taught to read, write and even speak English by a trained teacher in such an isolated place. “USAID and our development partner, Aga Khan Trust, were the first development organizations to visit this village,” he said.

Frej also points to major healthcare improvements as a result of U.S. government aid activity. “I’ve been to 28 of the 34 provinces and in almost every visit, seen midwives training. [Afghanistan] had the highest mortality rate of mothers and children in childbirth in the world and it has been completely turned around,” he said. Frej called Afghanistan one of the best success stories “anywhere in the developing world” in terms of gains in mother-child health. “USAID has a great deal to be proud of.”

Great Gains for Tiny Timor-Leste – Reflections from the Road Part 2

Posted by  on Tuesday, August 10th 2010     

Development Half a World Away: Field Visit Day Two and Departure
By Frank Young, USAID’s Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia

Frank Young admiring the tomatoes from the greenhouses in Liure that are supported by USAID (Photo: USAID/Timor Leste)

It was the second day of our field trip to visit USAID projects in rural Timor-Leste.  That morning, we headed down the mountain to participate in a harvest ceremony of high-value horticulture crops being grown in new greenhouses supported by USAID.  It had been raining buckets over night, and we encountered a large tree that had fallen across the road, cutting off our route.  There was no way to drive around it, and it was far too heavy for even four of us to move.  I took a machete and, alongside the driver, started hacking away.  After a few minutes I let more expert people take over the chopping and instead took up dragging the large limbs to the side of the road.  Within a half hour we were back on our way.

The greenhouses in the village of Liure house row after row of massive red tomatoes and capsicum like nothing I had ever seen in size or quality.  They smelled wonderful and were virtually unblemished.  Everything was organic:  no pesticides and only organic fertilizer.  In the outside fields nearby, broccoli and cauliflower were also being grown.  Projects, like the one USAID supports there, help farmers produce locally at prices competitive with imported fresh products.

My final stop was the Timor-Leste Coffee Cooperative’s coffee sorting and bagging operations.  I walked into a long, narrow area housing 700 women, who sorted out coffee beans with even the most minor flaw.  Those beans are sent elsewhere to be made into instant coffee.  I then watched the beans being loaded into 160 lb. bags, which are carried one by one and put into large shipping containers for export.

Frank Young helping out at the Coffee Coop bagging facility (Photo: USAID/Timor Leste)

On my final day in Timor-Leste, Mark White, the Charge’, and I spent an hour with President Ramos-Horte, a Nobel laureate who led the struggle for the country’s independence in the 1990s.  Later, we met with the Finance Minister and discussed prospects for replicating and scaling up our successful agriculture projects (beyond coffee) for national scope and impact.  We then dashed to a meeting with the donor community, where I got a candid reading of the relationship between donors and the government and what their plans are going forward in terms of assistance.

Finally, I had lunch with Mission staff to talk about my impressions of my four days in country and about what is going on in Washington that is of relevance to them—and, most important, to listen to their thoughts and concerns.

When I returned to Washington, jet-lagged and aching from the long flight, the cup of coffee I sipped never tasted so good – and it brought back vivid memories of the outstanding work USAID has done and continues to do in tiny, distant Timor-Leste.

Reflections From the Road — Part One

Great Gains for Tiny Timor-Leste – Reflections from the Road

Posted by  on Monday, August 9th 2010     

Development Half a World Away: Arrival and Field Visit Day One
Submitted by Frank Young, USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia

I touched down at the one-building international airport in Dili, Timor-Leste, on July 24 and was met by Mission Director Mark White. As we dashed to his car, he told me that he had determined that Timor-Leste is the farthest USAID Mission in terms of travel time from Washington, D.C. My stiff back concurred.

CCT workers spread out Arabica beans to dry in hot sun. (Photo: USAID/Timor Leste)

We left the next day for a two-day field trip outside Dili. First stop was the major coffee-drying operation of the Timor-Leste Coffee Cooperative (CCT), operated by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), which has been building this sector with USAID support since 1994. Acres of green Arabica beans were spread out on plastic sheets—it was the height of the harvest season—as workers used long-handled spreaders to continuously turn them over to dry in the hot sun. It’s labor-intensive work for the almost 3,000 person workforce that earns about $3.50-$5.00/day.

Later, we headed up 5,000 feet into the mountains of central Timor-Leste to the village of Maubissee, where the major collection and washing operation of the coffee cooperative is located. I learned en route that the cooperative will export $11-12 million of green beans this year from Dili’s port to buyers that include Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, and occasionally Caribou Coffee. The operation pumps about $14,000 a day into the local economy through its labor force.

Coffee washing operation at Coffee Coop Timor. (Photo: Frank Young)

Coffee production is one of USAID’s long-term success stories in Timor-Leste. Our investment is paying dividends now in employment, agricultural development, and economic growth for Timor-Leste. Coffee production has done so well, in fact, that USAID support is no longer needed (the cooperative agreement ends this year). However, we still support several other areas of NCBA’s work in Timor-Leste, as I would see at my next stop.

Late in the afternoon I visited one of CCT’s health clinics and learned that the government of Timor-Leste relies on these clinics in the coffee-growing areas where it is not yet able to deliver services. With USAID’s support, and revenues from coffee operations, the clinics are able to offer free health services to everyone in the coffee-growing regions, not just the members of the cooperative.

Frank Young with USAID partner Health Alliance International Country Director Dominique Freire and Aileu District Health Center Senior Midwife Alda Falcao reviewing some of the family planning information materials used by the Health Center. (Photo: USAID/Timor Leste)

The entire staff of the Maubissee clinic gathered, and I told them how impressed I was by what they are able to do for the community in the small but well-equipped clinic and how thankful I was for their dedicated service and passion to serve the people who so badly need what they offer. The Timorese head of the clinic, Ms. Marcy, began to cry. I suddenly felt badly that somehow I had offended them with the few words of Tetum I uttered. No, they tell me; no one had come this far to thank her and the staff personally for the long hours they put in day after day.

Reflections from the Road – Part Two

This Week at USAID – July 26, 2010

Posted by  on Monday, July 26th 2010     

Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Management Drew Luten will testify before the Commission on Wartime Contracting on Subcontracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Administrator Shah and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke will appear before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations for an oversight hearing on corruption in Afghanistan.  

Chief Innovation Officer Maura O’Neill will participate in a briefing entitled: Innovation to Catalyze Development: Leveraging Research in Foreign Assistance, which is organized by the Global Health Technologies Coalition and the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network.

Administrator Shah will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere about: The Crisis in Haiti: Are We Moving Fast Enough?  He will also brief the Congressional Black Caucus about efforts in Haiti.

USAID – From the Field

Posted by  on Monday, July 26th 2010     

submitted by Abby Sugrue

In Zambia USAID has partnered with World Vision to implement The Community Based Prevention Initiative for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, Youth and other Vulnerable Populations Program to strengthen community response and leadership for HIV prevention and improve the quality of life for orphans and other vulnerable, at-risk children.  USAID and World Vision will work with the Zambian government to strengthen community response and leadership for HIV prevention; improve the quality of life for orphans and other at-risk children through educational, psychosocial, food and nutritional support and by improving their access to health care, child protection and legal services.

The American people’s response to HIV/AIDS in Zambia has contributed significantly to the scale up of HIV prevention, care, and treatment services. Notable among the successes has been a significant number of community-based care programs for orphans and vulnerable children, care and support programs for people living with HIV/AIDS, increased access of pregnant women to Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission services, establishment of a network of trained volunteer caregivers and peer educators, a significant number of Zambians accessing Anti-retrovrial Therapy and a decrease in the prevalence of HIV from 15.6 percent to 14.3 percent between 2001 and 2007.

In Indonesia a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Information Computer Technology (ICT) lab at the Al-Ahliyah religious junior secondary school (Madrasah) in Karawang, West Java.  The event highlights a public/private partnership to support quality and relevance of education through strengthening the use of ICT in education.  The school will receive a state-of-the-art computer lab, with equipment, software and educational resources from private sector partners.  USAID is providing teacher training and support, The Office of Defense Cooperation has also provided resources for construction of the lab building and donated staff time and resources.

Long-Term Investments to Bring Real-Life Improvements to People of Pakistan

Posted by  on Tuesday, July 20th 2010     

A summary map on the activities announced or underway in Pakistan.

During Dr. Raj Shah’s whirlwind two-day visit to Pakistan with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the ongoing Strategic Dialogue between the two countries, the U.S. announced more than $500 million in new development assistance for Pakistan. 

The new projects include the completion of two hydroelectric dams in South Waziristan and Gilgit-Baltistan that will supply more than 34 megawatts of additional power to 280,000 residents in those areas, the renovation and construction of three medical facilities, economic growth programs and seven projects to improve water distribution and efficiency in the country. Much of the assistance will be delivered by USAID.

The United States shares with Pakistan a vision of a future in which all people can live safe, healthy, and productive lives. Dr. Shah spoke with press about USAID’s role in Pakistan, saying that “Our commitment is broad and deep,” and one that encompasses programs ranging from health and energy to economic growth and agriculture. 

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This Week at USAID – July 19, 2010

Posted by  on Monday, July 19th 2010     

USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah is in Afghanistan and Pakistan to meet with USAID mission personnel, visit USAID projects and attend the Pakistan Strategic Dialogue and the Kabul Conference with Secretary Clinton.  The Conference will reinforce the commitment of the Government of Afghanistan and the international community to work together to realize the goal of full Afghan ownership and responsibility for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan. 

Technical leaders from USAID’s office of HIV/AIDS are part of the U.S. delegation to the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.  Notably, results from a USAID-funded microbicides trial will be released at the conference on Tuesday.  The trial was conducted in South Africa in close partnership with the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), the CONRAD Program, and Family Health International.

USAID Testifies on Agent Orange in Vietnam

Posted by  on Sunday, July 18th 2010     

On Thursday, Dr. John Wilson, Director for the Office of Technical Support in USAID’s Bureaus for Asia and the Middle East, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment on “Agent Orange in Vietnam:  Recent Developments in Remediation”.

Dioxin contamination, associated with the use of Agent Orange, is one of the last vestiges of the Vietnam War and remains an obstacle to further strengthening relations between the United States and Vietnam. USAID is the lead implementer for dioxin remediation in Vietnam working collaboratively with the Department of State, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense.

For more information on USAID programs in Vietnam, please visit http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia/countries/vietnam/.

From the Field

Posted by  on Monday, July 12th 2010     

submitted by Abby Sugrue

In Lebanon Haigazian University will be presented with $450,081 to directly support its student financial aid program. 356 Haigazian University students with demonstrable financial need from all over Lebanon will be given scholarships with these U.S. funds, made available through USAID. Without this assistance, these students would not be able to study at Haigazian University. Lebanese American University (LAU) will be presented with $1,178,122 to support its Financial Aid & Scholarships Fund for both campuses in Jbeil and Beirut. 249 qualified Lebanese students benefit from this program.

In Albania USAID will open a Public Information Office in one of Albania’s District Courts. To tackle corruption in Albania’s judicial system, USAID’s Rule of Law program works with a set of pilot courts to improve their performance and accountability to citizens. One of several accountability measures introduced by USAID, public information offices serve as one-stop shops where citizens have quick and easy access to information on court proceedings and their legal rights.

In El Salvador a signing ceremony for the Global Development Alliance (GDA) with the Salvadoran Foundation for Health and Human Development (FUSAL). USAID will help expand FUSAL’s Libras de Amor program to two additional municipalities in Sonsonate to combat poor eating habits and malnutrition.

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World Population Day 2010

Posted by  on Monday, July 12th 2010     

Why Population Data Matters: Ensuring Families Around the World Have Access to Family Planning

While you are out celebrating the close of the World Cup this Sunday, don’t forget to take a minute to remember that Sunday, 11 July, is World Population Day. World Population Day is annually observed on July 11 to reaffirm the human right to plan for a family. It encourages activities, events and information to help make this right a reality throughout the world.  This year’s theme, “Everyone Counts” is meant to highlight the critical role data plays in tracking population trends.

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