USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Archives for Sub-Saharan Africa

Earth Week Series: USAID-Funded Boma National Park Headquarters Inaugurated in South Sudan

Posted by  on Tuesday, April 24th 2012     

Officials from the Republic of South Sudan and United States Government on March 8 inaugurated the Boma National Park Headquarters and Boma Payam Headquarters in Jonglei State, drawing attention to the important role that the establishment of protected area management and local governance infrastructure and capacity can play in contributing to security, stability, eco-tourism development and economic growth, especially in the more isolated regions of South Sudan. This critical infrastructure was built with funding from the U.S. Government through USAID under the auspices of its partnership with the Republic of South Sudan.

Wildlife in Boma National Park includes several varieties of antelope, such as white-eared kob. Photo Credit: Michelle Barrett/USAID

Boma National Park covers 20,000 square kilometers of woodland savanna and grassland in Jonglei and Eastern Equatoria states. The park protects one of the largest intact savanna ecosystems in East Africa, hosting significant wildlife populations, including elephants, giraffe, buffalo, numerous antelopes (including white-eared kob, common eland, lesser kudu, Bohor reedbuck, gazelles, tiang, Lelwel hartebeest, Beisa oryx, and roan), and an impressive diversity of migratory birds. Boma was established as a national park in 1986, when South Sudan was part of Sudan.

Jonglei State, particularly the isolated and remote regions around Boma National Park, has been marked by ongoing instability and insecurity through the continued presence of rebel militias and fighting between ethnic groups fueled by the prevalence of small arms, lack of government presence, and inaccessibility in the rainy season, due to absence of roads.

Protected area management has a critical role to play in strengthening and supporting local government and improving security in addition to protecting biodiversity and providing a sustainable foundation for economic growth. USAID and the Wildlife Conservation Society are supporting the South Sudan Wildlife Forces to undertake law enforcement and monitoring activities and to develop security partnerships with other armed forces and local communities.

U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Susan D. Page, who represented the U.S. Government at the event, said, “It is so important that we continue to work together to preserve this area and its wildlife, which are threatened by hasty and unplanned development, or by wildlife poachers, who would ruin a world treasure for their own short-term benefit.”

The Pursuit of Peace on Wheels in Uganda

Posted by  on Friday, April 20th 2012     

Oscar Okello, a former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) child-abductee, now works to build wheelchairs through the USAID-funded Gulu Youth Development Association (GYDA) project. Oscar is hopeful about the future and his ability to help others like him which he attributes to his new skills.

On most days, Oscar Okello can be found hunched over a metal wheel, adjusting brake cables, or simply plying his skills as a technician in Gulu, northern Uganda.  With his steady, dexterous hands and sharp mind, he designs, assembles and rolls out dozens of wheelchairs made to order for aid organizations, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, intended for free distribution to victims of war.  Beneath the edge of his bright yellow T-shirt, Okello’s torso reveals the blunt stubs where his legs once were—a reminder of the time that brought him close to death.

Okello’s life-altering journey began when he escaped from a stronghold of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) with his parents and 50 others on a truck. While fleeing toward his village, the truck driver lost control and struck a tree in an area that was then studded with landmines. The 16-year-old tried to hold onto a branch but fell to the ground striking a landmine.  His mother died instantly, and his father succumbed to his injuries soon after. Okello was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors amputated his lower legs and fitted him with prosthetic limbs.

Oscar Okello works to refine his skills by building wheelchairs for aid organizations. He looks forward to opening his own business one day and becoming fully self-sufficient. Photo: GYDA project

Left alone to care for his six brothers and sisters, Okello confronted the situation head on and relearned to walk. But the LRA returned, attacked his village and broke his prosthetics. Exhausted, and with little hope, he made his way to an organization that counseled him and linked him with the Gulu Youth Development Association (GYDA). USAID assisted with the launch of this project through funding, and provided support to build the project’s infrastructure and training curriculum that has helped GYDA to continue its work today.

Under the leadership of Robert Kilma, a civil engineer and a mechanic, the association helps abductees, former child soldiers, and people who fled the violence cope with life as they reconnect with their communities. Most of the youth displaced by the conflict grew up in camps with no primary or secondary schools; nearly 70 percent never received any formal education. To give a boost to these young adults, who are anxious to work and support their families, USAID trains them at the Gulu Association on how to work with metal, repair motor vehicles, build wheelchairs, design clothing, and construct buildings.

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Responding to Acute Malnutrition in the Sahel

Posted by  on Friday, April 20th 2012     

I recently returned from Niger and Mauritania, in Africa’s Sahel region, assessing nutrition-focused humanitarian assistance.  This was not my first trip to the region, as I was also there with USAID in 2010 when a failed harvest and poor pasture conditions led to food insecurity conditions nationwide and a significant rise in acute malnutrition among young children.  This year, without much time for families and communities to recover and restore livelihoods, we are again facing a humanitarian crisis.  Another drought, coupled with high food prices, and conflict in northern Mali displacing some 250,000 people, often to areas with limited resources and capacity, means that millions of people may need emergency assistance in the coming weeks and months, and acute malnutrition rates are again climbing.

The causes of hunger and malnutrition in the Sahel are complex and deeply rooted.  Even with a good harvest, particularly vulnerable communities cannot afford to buy available food in the market.  Poor health care, sanitation, and feeding practices are also major contributors to malnutrition. However, a drought and failed harvest makes it that much worse.  The hardship, food insecurity and acute malnutrition vary by district, village and community, and public health and nutrition monitoring must be very specific and localized to identify existing pockets of need.

USAID Public Health advisor Mark Phelan in Niger. Photo Credit: USAID

We are indeed facing a crisis, but I am encouraged by what is being done differently, by ways we have applied lessons learned in the Sahel during food crises in 2010 and 2005, though we still have a long way to go.  Improved forecasting of malnutrition cases, earlier initiation of programs, better relief agency coordination, all add up to keeping more children alive and well.  Especially for children under 5, whose growth and development is most at risk from acute malnutrition, we are seeing the impact of more effective health monitoring, recognition of need, and response.

In the Sahel, USAID’s approach supports national and regional structures that promote food security and nutrition, while providing short-term assistance to vulnerable populations – such as food assistance and treatment for acute malnutrition.  We are supporting nutrition pipelines to ensure adequate stockpiles of ready-to-use therapeutic foods are in place while training health staff and volunteers, and increasing nutrition screening and nutrition education.

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Project Impacting Food Security, Empowering Women Begins With Land

Posted by  on Monday, April 16th 2012     

The kebele of Debeso, a majority Muslim community in southern Ethiopia, faces many of the same challenges one encounters across the country. Scarce water resources, near exclusive economic dependence on agriculture, and a government that owns all land in the country, create feelings of insecurity and hardship among rural Ethiopians, who represent about 85% of the total population. Located in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Debeso is one place where USAID is working to address some of these challenges. Through a project centered on surveying land parcels using GPS technology and issuing land certificates to those occupying the land, USAID and the Government of Ethiopia help secure property rights so that residents can focus on investing in production and limit conflict.

Two weeks after receiving their certificates, some Debeso residents are already planning to use it as an assurance for creating rental and sharecropping agreements. A month ago they would have hesitated to make these types of arrangements for fear that those farming the land would claim it as their own. The certificate, accompanied by a parcel map, also gives land holders accurate measurements of property which help them set fair prices for use agreements, improve economic benefits, and avoid boundary disputes.

These women and men in Debeso now have secure property rights through a USAID land certificate project. Photo Credit: Gregory Myers, USAID

The land certification project provides equal benefits to men and women. Married women are listed as rights’ holders on the certificates along with their husbands, and certificates can be issued to an individual woman. Before certification, individual women were vulnerable to claims from others and could spend a large amount of time disputing a border; now they feel safer and can justify a claim quickly.

Both men and women in Debeso expressed a desire to use the certificate to access microcredit loans. One gentleman noted that with certificates from a previous project, about 50 land holders were able secure loans of as little as 55 US dollars, up to 300 US dollars. This credit allows land holders to invest in fertilizer and other technologies to increase production.

Just 20 years ago, the idea of smallholder farmers having secure land over time was unthinkable in Ethiopia. Under the Derg government, in power from 1974 to 1991, land boundaries were allocated and modified by the state frequently. Based on the outcomes of USAID’s land certification demonstration projects, the government’s approach to land rights is changing and communities are finding their own ways to solve some local food production challenges.

USAID in the News

Posted by  on Friday, April 13th 2012     

Weekly Briefing (4/9/2012 – 4/13/2012)

April 9: Returning from a recent trip to Ethiopia, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah told Voice of America that assistance to the country’s health sector has saved thousands of children’s lives. “Because of those joint partnerships that we have had for years and years, last year, we now know, that partnership helped save 36,000 Ethiopian kids’ lives,” said Shah.

April 12: In an interview with NextGov, USAID’s Chief Innovation Officer, Maura O’Neill, discussed the role the White House’s new chief technology officers’ council will play. O’Neill also discussed USAID’s approach to technology and development. How do you get the interagency to not stifle innovations? We have a lot of the same issues in each of our agencies and we can talk about particularly smart approaches to them.”

 

Life Skills and Leadership Training Empower Tanzanian Girls

Posted by  on Monday, April 2nd 2012     

Margaret Melkiori, a Maasai girl from a rural village in Northern Tanzania, did not have a rosy future when she was born.  When her father discovered her mother was HIV-positive, he abandoned them both.

Margaret, orphaned after losing both parents to HIV/AIDS, benefits from a USAID-supported project in Tanzania to mentor, train, and empower girls. Photo: Africaid

When Margaret was five, her mother died from AIDS. She was then reunited with her father, only to lose him five years later to AIDS as well. Life without parents was tough for Margaret, but joining Orkeeswa Secondary School and the Kisa Project, a USAID-funded project that provides mentoring and training for girls, helped to give Margaret real hope for her future.

The USAID-supported project matches secondary school girls in Tanzania with sponsors that help provide the girls with a mentor, life skills for personal empowerment and leadership training. The life skills and leadership training stretches over a two-year period, during which time the sponsored girls have access to computers and internet and have regular email exchanges with their sponsors. When the training ends, each scholar is expected to teach the lessons she learned to up to 20 girls in her home village.

USAID’s support is important in Tanzania, where 95 percent of girls do not complete secondary school. By providing young African women with schooling they might not otherwise receive, this type of program empowers them to become leaders and mentors in their own communities.

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Moving Food Faster to Those Who Need it Most in the Sahel

Posted by  on Friday, March 30th 2012     

This week, urgently needed food – 33,700 tons of sorghum from American farmers – will depart the United States for West Africa, as a part of the U.S. Government’s response to the drought in the Sahel.

Due to poor harvests, high food prices, and a number of conflicts in the region, a dire humanitarian situation is looming for chronically vulnerable populations across the Sahel region of western Africa.

Bags of Sorghum from the United States. Photo: USAID

The food we are shipping this week should arrive by late April, just four to five weeks from now. USAID’s speedy contribution complements efforts of the UN World Food Program and other agencies to procure food for the hungry regionally. Because markets in the Sahel are currently stretched to meet the demand for food, internationally sourced assistance is vital to ensure that food prices don’t rise even higher. With 7 to 12 million people in need of assistance, time is of the essence, particularly with the next rainy season to begin in June, when roads will be impassable and populations will be difficult to reach.

This sorghum is destined to feed individuals in two areas of Chad: children and moderately malnourished mothers affected by the drought in the western and central Sahelian regions of Chad, and in eastern Chad Sudanese refugees – mainly pregnant and nursing women and malnourished children – as well as internally displaced people, returnees, and school children in eastern Chad. USAID is providing additional food aid and emergency cash resources to support both UN agencies and other organizations working across the Sahel to combat the effects of drought and high food prices.

Food aid is just one aspect of the overall USAID response to the crisis in the Sahel. USAID is also focusing on improving nutrition, increasing agricultural production, linking individuals to local markets through voucher programs, rehabilitating public infrastructure through cash-for-work schemes, and mitigating conflict, among other activities. In addition to providing life-saving assistance, these efforts aim to alleviate poverty and build community resilience to withstand future shocks. With an announcement yesterday of an additional $120 million in emergency assistance, the U.S. government is providing nearly $200 million in humanitarian assistance this fiscal year to the Sahel region.

Pre-positioned Plastic Sheeting Hastens Recovery in Madagascar

Posted by  on Monday, March 26th 2012     

When Tropical Cyclone Giovanna slammed into the eastern coast of Madagascar on Valentine’s Day, relief agencies recognized the storm as a potentially catastrophic event — but not an unpredictable one. Dangerous cyclones are not unusual for the Indian Ocean island: cyclones and tropical storms affect Madagascar almost every year. Giovanna’s strong winds destroyed more than 44,000 houses and left thousands homeless. Because some vulnerable populations, including the elderly, female-headed households, and fishing villages in coastal areas, lack the resources necessary to prepare for extreme weather, USAID took steps to ensure they receive the relief they need quickly.

Workers unload plastic sheeting in Madagascar. Photo: Michael Keegan, USAID

Understanding the recurring nature of cyclones in Madagascar, USAID and its partner CARE annually pre-position plastic sheeting in areas susceptible to cyclones. Reinforced plastic sheeting — an inexpensive, versatile, and high-quality temporary building material — can be used in combination with traditional building techniques and locally available materials to repair damaged homes or construct temporary emergency shelter for affected families.

Even before Cyclone Giovanna struck, USAID had pre-positioned nearly 400 rolls of plastic sheeting in a CARE warehouse in Vatomandry—one of the two districts most affected by the cyclone—ready for immediate distribution.

Within days of the cyclone, with USAID support, CARE was distributing plastic sheeting to the most affected and vulnerable families. It was able to move quickly due to its established connections with local communities, as well as the proximity of pre-positioned supplies to cyclone-affected populations. CARE dispatched 285 rolls of USAID plastic sheeting in under a week to the most affected villages, allowing 2,850 vulnerable families to mend damaged roofs or make other repairs, and helping more than 14,000 people recover from the effects of Cyclone Giovanna.

Pounds of Prevention: Focus on Mozambique

Posted by  on Monday, March 19th 2012     

An emergency responder flashes the red cyclone flag to warn people in his community. Photo by USAID/FEWSNET

In this next edition of “Pounds of Prevention,” we travel to the country of Mozambique. Over the past decade, Mozambique has set up a cyclone early warning system that combines technology with community organization and mobilization.

Every year when the cyclone season arrives, and flooding threatens the countryside, the people in Mozambique are better prepared to take the right action at the right time. Countless lives have been saved. Moreover, the resources spent mounting a humanitarian response have decreased.

USAID is proud to be a partner in this endeavor and commends the people of Mozambique on their accomplishments in disaster risk reduction.

Picture of the Week

Posted by  on Friday, March 16th 2012     

A village girl from Kedougou, Senegal, gets acquainted with two new friends. USAID’s Agro-Nutrition new animal grant program under Feed the Future called Pass on the Gift helps catalyze animal husbandry in some of the Senegal’s most vulnerable villages with gifts of ruminants, bovines, and poultry. Once the gifts are bred successfully, beneficiaries pass on the new livestock to fellow villagers. Photo: USAID

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