USAID Impact Photo Credit: Nancy Leahy/USAID

Archives for Sub-Saharan Africa

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

Peace, Recovery, and Development in Northern Uganda

Posted by  on Friday, March 16th 2012     

Northern Uganda experienced one of Africa’s longest running conflicts from 1987 through 2007. The Lord’s Resistance Army terrorized communities, and abducted tens of thousands of children to train as child soldiers. The conflict exacted severe economic losses, leading to mass displacement of people, a breakdown in infrastructure, and severely weakened governance and social structures. In the years since 2007, Northern Uganda has rebounded from the shadow of conflict to become relatively peaceful and stable. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 95 percent of the 1.8 million people living in Internally Displaced Persons camps at the height of the conflict have returned to their homes.

USAID assistance to Mercy Corps supported a local women’s tailor association run by women heads of household affected by LRA violence in the DRC. With a cash grant, these women were able to purchase sewing machines, fabric, and basic sewing accessories to expand their livelihoods and train young women in sewing and basic literacy. Photo by Mercy Corps

While nearly everyone in the region has experienced loss and continues to face challenges, the process of reintegrating into society has been particularly difficult for young people who were abducted and pressed into service by the LRA. Several international and community-based organizations introduced vocational training programs to provide former abductees with skills to help them become self-reliant and reintegrate into their communities.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) identified and trained, vulnerable youth and provided them employment opportunities to make furniture for schools that were being rehabilitated by USG and other donor programs. The restored schools and housing for teachers have encouraged a large number of children to enroll.

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My 2012 Annual Letter: Elevating Development within America’s Foreign Policy

Posted by  on Friday, March 16th 2012     

Cover of 2012 Annual LetterAbout a year ago, I decided to write an annual letter to share some of the work our Agency does saving lives and improving human welfare around the world. I also wanted to describe some of the priorities we’ve set and tough choices we’ve made in order to deliver meaningful results for and on behalf of the American people.

Now, I am pleased to share our 2012 Annual Letter, which we issued last week.  This letter highlights the work we’ve done over the last year to seize pivotal opportunities in development and achieve generational legacies of success.

From helping communities build resilience before disasters strike to helping countries improve child survival so they can reap what’s known as a demographic dividend, USAID is working hard to answer President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s call to elevate global development.

We’re also stepping out of our comfort zone, embracing challenging roles and responding quickly to world events. As the Arab Spring took hold in North Africa and Middle East, we helped empower citizens as they embraced new freedoms and participated actively in the political process for the first time. And we’re partnering much more closely with the private sector to expand opportunities for investment in the developing world.

Ultimately, this letter describes our efforts to help countries build the capacity to direct their own development, as we work together to shape a brighter future.

I hope you enjoy reading it, and please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Administrator Shah Meets with President of Ghana

Posted by  on Friday, March 9th 2012     

USAID Administrator Raj Shah meets with President Mills of Ghana. Photo Credit: Pat Adams/USAID

Administrator Shah met with the President of Ghana, John Atta Mills to highlight USAID strong commitment to Ghana’s Partnership for Growth (PfG) and agricultural development through the Feed the Future (FtF) initiative. Feed the Future, is the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.

USAID and the Ghanaian government are working together to generate prosperity and security for both the Ghanaian and the American people by increasing agricultural production, employment opportunities, and income for the poor; improving the quality of health services and education; and strengthening local government institutions.

In Her Own Words: A Malian entrepreneur is given the tools to grow

Posted by  on Thursday, March 8th 2012     

I have always believed that better tools give better results.

For many years, farmers in West Africa have been struggling with low yields because good-quality seeds are not easily available. Most people need a little convincing to upgrade, especially when they are used to a certain way of doing things. In Africa, the majority of farmers use seeds saved from the previous year’s harvest, which often results in lower yields and vulnerability to disease. They don’t have access to affordable improved seeds: new varieties that have greater yields and are pest- and disease-resistant. Also, using saved seeds costs nothing and farmers are wary of paying for something when they are not sure of the return they will get.

Women farmers give their feedback during a tasting of three varieties of sorghum and groundnut. Photo Credit: Alina Paul-Bossuet, ICRISAT

My dream was to involve our local farmers in producing adapted high-quality seeds that can bring much better returns to smallholder farmers. And this is what’s happening now, enabled by Mali’s revised seed laws and support from initiatives like Feed the Future. To my knowledge, I am the first woman in Mali to develop a successful seed business through producing and marketing high-quality seeds.

The right support makes all the difference. Since 2008, my company, Faso Kaba, and a Feed the Future-supported seed project in Mali have been promoting improved seeds together on demonstration plots using seeds produced by four seed farmer cooperatives trained by the project. The seeds are then sold at Faso Kaba stores. This year, the West Africa Finance Fund (supported by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) enabled me to invest in a seed cleaning and packaging assembly line to ensure quality standards and facilitate packing. In return, we will clean, at reduced costs, the seeds produced by the seed farmer partners involved in the project.

The Feed the Future seed project has also helped me grow and develop Faso Kaba through business management training and international seed industry best practices. I have just returned from a visit to the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India where I discussed the possibility of creating a seed venture incubator in Mali. I want Faso Kaba to be able to train Malian farmers to become local seed entrepreneurs producing improved varieties. They could then supply the seeds to farmers in their district, helping build local seed industries. Faso Kaba would ensure the supply of improved varieties, provide quality control, and help market the seeds.

I am very proud of Faso Kaba, which shows that a woman can drive this type of pioneering agribusiness in Mali. My mother was my inspiration; she used to produce a very respectable 500 kilograms of sorghum every season, but she didn’t have access to improved seeds. That is why distributing these seeds to both male and female farmers is a real source of pride for us.

I’m an ambitious person and I want to see more women involved in agribusiness. This is a tough challenge because women here are juggling so many responsibilities; they don’t have the time or support to develop businesses like this.

I hope that I can help show them the way.

Learn more about how Feed the Future is working to empower women farmers.

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