East AfricaOVERVIEWUSAID/East Africa is a Nairobi-based regional mission that promotes economic growth and trade, environmental conservation, conflict reduction and improved governance, and improved health and health systems. Partnerships are carried out with regional African organizations and the private sector. The regional mission also supports humanitarian assistance, including the delivery of emergency food aid. USAID/East Africa's mandates are to provide technical, cross-cutting services that bolster bilateral programs; to implement innovative regional programs; and to manage programs in limited presence countries of Burundi, Central African Republic, Djibouti, and Somalia. PROGRAMSPEACE AND SECURITYActivities focus on the pressing problems of fragility in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regions. USAID works through regional, national, and local partners to address external factors that lead to conflict in resource-rich (Great Lakes) and resource-challenged (Horn of Africa) cross-border environments and corruption-prone corridors. The focus is on frontier zones and areas under threat from militant and violent extremism. USAID supports technical assistance, training, and community infrastructure that accelerate peace processes, promote reconciliation or mitigate points of cross-border tensions. Activities address regional sources of fragility, including extremism, poor governance, and weak territorial integrity through innovative local peace-building initiatives. To address a dearth of female voices in peace building efforts, USAID is building women's awareness of and capacity to become stronger leaders in regional conflict management. INVESTING IN PEOPLE: HEALTHBecause infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS spread rapidly across borders, USAID's regional health activities tackle challenges that go beyond the mandate of one bilateral country program. Controlling multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis depends on strong diagnostic and treatment programs, so USAID/East Africa works with bilateral missions to strengthen national reference laboratories to manage diagnostic testing. USAID extends HIV/AIDS services to high-risk and mobile populations along transport corridors, supports the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and promotes increased quality of services for pediatric HIV/AIDS. USAID also provides family planning services and messaging for transient border populations, often in remote locations, and is testing the effectiveness of various family planning service delivery models for emergency situations with people who have been internally displaced. To mitigate the impact of conflict, USAID is supporting gender-based violence services for people in border communities and in emergency or post-conflict situations. Through advocacy efforts, ten regional health ministers adopted an implementation framework for prevention and control of gender-based violence, and a model national policy is being developed for country-level use. Prolonged regional drought has decreased food availability, seriously affecting children's nutritional status. USAID's resources support food fortification to lay the groundwork to improve nutritional status of families in the region. ECONOMIC GROWTHUSAID/East Africa works in agriculture, trade, and environmental management to increase the availability of staple foods in integrated regional markets, to improve farmer access to regional and global markets, and to provide technologies to increase productivity and competitiveness. Activities will be scaled up under the Feed the Future Initiative, the African Growth and Competitiveness Initiative, and the Global Climate Change Initiative. USAID supports integration and intra-regional trade through the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and its Alliance for Commodity Trade in Eastern and Southerm Africa. To increase trade, competitiveness, and food security, USAID focuses on staple foods, cotton, textiles, apparel, horticulture, and financial services. USAID helps reduce value chain transaction costs for targeted commodities and supports producer organizations improve commodity storage. USAID/East Africa has helped broker millions of dollars in trade deals through the African Growth and Opportunities Act and supports COMESA's coordination of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program in its member states. Regionally coordinated research is a focus, and USAID promotes the distribution of of inmproved technologies, knowledge, and best practices. USAID also supports the conservation of key transboundary natural resources, such as water within the Masai Mara-Serengeti ecosystem, provides guidance to African partners on carbon markets to mitigate global climate change, and helps smallholder farmers and pastoralists adapt to climate uncertainties. Back to Top ^ Back to Top ^ | 
