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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
THE REGIONS
In this section:
UNESCO Designates Chaco Biosphere Reserve
Namibia Leaders Raise HIV Awareness in Youth
Aid Responds to Sri Lanka Conflict, Tsunami
Water Eases Kazakhstan’s Rural Migration
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
UNESCO Designates Chaco Biosphere Reserve
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A group of indigenous men on the Chaco Biosphere Reserve
prepare to perform a traditional dance.
DeSdelChaco Foundation
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ASUNCION, Paraguay—The U.N. Education Social
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) approved the designation
of almost 7.5 million hectares of forest lands as the Chaco
Biosphere Reserve this June.
The Paraguayan government had been moving since 2001 toward
making the Chaco a biosphere reserve. Since then, USAID, though
the Fundacion DeSdel Chaco and The Nature Conservancy, has
helped prepare the scientific work required to prove that
an area should be a reserve.
Researchers made maps of the soil, vegetation, and topography
of the Chaco, a massive plains region on the border of Paraguay,
Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. They also researched the local
infrastructure and social setting, considering things like
the construction of an administrative office and control posts
and operating costs for the reserve.
USAID also helped local governments to promote public participation,
transparency, organization, and decentralization. Several
workshops were held educating the public about the Chaco.
And USAID helped with the writing and submission of the proposal
to UNESCO.
“Biosphere reserves serve in some ways as ‘living
laboratories’ for testing out and demonstrating integrated
management of land, water, and biodiversity,” said Uwe
Kurth of USAID/Paraguay’s environmental program.
The Chaco Biosphere Reserve is named for the Chaco region’s
dry forest ecosystem, which is rich in flora and fauna, as
well as home to Native American groups. The land has been
under pressure in recent years by farmers grazing cattle.
The region ranges from arid sand dunes in the west to the
Rio Negro National Park in the east, bordering the Paraguay
River and Brazil. It includes the world’s largest natural
wetland, called Pantanal.
The reserve is home to more than 5,000 floral species. The
fauna is composed of 31 species of amphibians, 51 species
of reptiles, 421 species of birds, and 103 species of mammals.
The region is also rich in cultural assets, as it is the
ancestral area for three indigenous groups: the Ayoreo, Ishir,
and Guarani Ñandeva. There is also an Ayoreo group
within the reserve that has never had contact with the civilized
world.
Although the reserve is extremely large, its low population
level has left it largely untouched by development, Kurth
said.
USAID has already been working in the Chaco, mainly in the
Pantanal, where indigenous communities have been involved
in projects such as commercial fish breeding.
Biospheres are nominated by national governments and remain
under sovereign jurisdiction of the home state. They aim to
conserve the landscape and ecosystems; foster economic development;
and provide support for research, monitoring, education, and
information exchange related to local, national, and global
issues of conservation and development.
AFRICA
Namibia Leaders Raise HIV Awareness in Youth
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George Johnson, a former NBA player and the president
of the NBA Players’ Association, works with youngsters
at Windhoek International School in Namibia in October
2004. Johnson played host to the basketball clinic and
also gave a motivational speech on values and healthy
living.
U.S. Embassy in Namibia
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Windhoek, Namibia—The 43 athletes, coaches,
and counselors from the Namibia Basketball Federation (NBF)
came here for a four-day workshop earlier this year not only
to improve their game on the court, but to improve life beyond
the world of sports.
The workshop, organized by the U.S. Embassy’s public
affairs section, NBF, and USAID, focused squarely on HIV/AIDS,
a disease that has swamped the southern African nation. More
than 19 percent of pregnant women in Namibia are HIV-positive,
one of the highest rates in the world.
The project will become part of USAID’s “Sports
for Life” program. Its workshops aim to spur participants—in
this instance, community leaders and activists from 10 of
the nation’s 13 regions—to form grassroots clubs
to spread what they have learned to other young people. The
program is aimed at youth and young adults aged 14 and up.
Coaches also participated in workshops to help them become
better leaders on and off the court. They are expected to
start clubs that integrate sports and other recreational activities—such
as reading, chess, drama, and art—that incorporate HIV/AIDS
awareness. And the coaches committed to encouraging leaders
of other clubs in their communities—such as science clubs
and church youth groups—to do the same.
“The way you reach youth is to offer them something
interesting, something they want to do,” said C. Kirk
Lazell, USAID’s HIV/AIDS officer in Namibia.
Then you slip in the lessons about HIV/AIDS prevention and
responsible decisionmaking. In this case, the lure was basketball.
In addition to the standard dribbling and passing drills,
the workshop included presentations, role-play, and other
activities to help the youngsters learn more about HIV/AIDS.
The classes invoked the names of basketball superstars,
such as Magic Johnson, the former L.A. Laker who announced
in 1991 that he was HIV-positive, and the Houston Rockets’
Dikembe Mutombo, a native of the Congo, who is building a
hospital and providing health services to people in his home
country.
The young people also talked about Gilbert Josamu, a young
Zimbabwean whose boxing career was devastated and life cut
short by HIV/AIDS. “His dreams were destroyed just when
his career was on the rise,” said one young woman who
attended the session.
Another person in the workshop said he regarded Josamu as
a courageous community educator and called on Namibians to
be more open and honest about living with HIV when talking
to youth. “We can’t just keep hiding from this,”
he said.
Five years ago, Lazell said, one was unlikely to hear that
kind of sentiment. But not today. “There’s been
a real recognition—in the communities as well as at the
national level—that something has to be done,” she
said. “They know that they have to start talking about
these issues.”
Now many more people want to know their HIV status and are
working to reduce the stigma and discrimination that affects
people who have HIV/AIDS, Lazell said.
“The truth of the matter is that parents and adults
who support youth organizations and sports are all grappling
with this issue,” Lazell added. “They don’t
want to see the young people they work with infected.”
Funding for the workshops comes from the President’s
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
ASIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Aid Responds to Sri Lanka Conflict, Tsunami
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Sri Lankan workers deliver cooking pots, with support
from USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives.
Ben Barber, USAID
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Sri Lanka’s reputation as a tranquil and exotic tropical
island off southern India has been shattered, first by two
decades of civil war and then by the 2004 tsunami.
But despite the ongoing tension between the rebel Tamil
Tigers and the mainly Sinhalese majority-led government in
Colombo, USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI)
has been working to increase support for a negotiated peace
settlement.
The small-grants program encourages diverse groups to work
together and set local priorities. The program’s former
Country Representative Justin Sherman looks back and gives
an update on the 2-year-old effort.
Q: What was the political atmosphere in the country like
when the program began?
A: The ceasefire appeared to be holding, and ongoing talks
between the government and separatist LTTE—Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam—put a definite optimism in the
air. However, talks were suspended a year after the ceasefire
was signed and have yet to resume.
This was basic bread and butter for OTI—the transition
from conflict to peace. But nothing was guaranteed. Early
on, we identified as part of our mission to help maintain
the space—keep the pressure off the government so they
can be free to negotiate.
Q: Did the program have any specific mandate when it
started?
A: We thought we could come in and try to do projects that
would help people see things in a different, more positive
way…highlight potential tangible benefits of peace.
Q: What was the program’s strategy?
A: We knew the media was a tremendous tool we could use
to mitigate a lot of disinformation and rectify a lack of
information. We looked for ways to disseminate better-quality
information, and at the same time create forums for public
debate.
We put two offices in the east because that was where periodic
bouts of local violence were erupting.
Q: What were some of the challenges the program faced?
A: So much in this country has been neglected and even destroyed:
schools, clinics, hospitals, feeder roads, markets, and irrigation
networks. We put together a small-grants mechanism to do these
projects. For each, we ask the communities to donate labor.
Q: Where do you think the program succeeded?
A: Our projects disseminated better explanations of the
history of what has happened here, and what federalism, decentralization,
and devolution all mean. We’ve done a lot to encourage
different groups to work together, especially in the northeast
and north-central parts of the country.
In the Trincomalee area in particular, our livelihood projects
and vocational training had a very positive effect on the
atmosphere at the community level, bringing different ethnic
groups together.
Q: How did the tsunami affect the program?
A: The tsunami…has changed the energy of the donor
community… People who need support in this country are
not just tsunami victims. The tsunami has created tensions
in this country that are themselves destabilizing by creating
dissatisfaction among people who are not receiving as much
assistance as some others.
Q: The tsunami struck the heart of the OTI program
areas. How did OTI’s presence in the east affect the
relief efforts?
A: Having those offices out there really helped to inform
things and to support the initial response.
EUROPE AND EURASIA
Water Eases Kazakhstan’s Rural Migration
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Yassy woman stands in front of new irrigation canal
built with USAID funding.
ACDI/VOCA
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TURKISTAN, Kazakhstan—Yassy, a community near
this economically depressed city prone to religious extremism,
has been swelling in size as urban residents migrate to rural
regions, displacing farmers and putting pressure on the already
heavily used land.
But mounting tensions were eased after USAID—through
a Central Asia regional project—helped the Yassy community
build an irrigation system that benefits all local farmers.
Seven kilometers of irrigation channels were mechanically
and manually dredged.
Two wells were also rehabilitated, including installation
of a new electric pump, filter, and pipes. Now some 900 hectares
of irrigated land are suitable for planting grain, vegetables,
fruit, and trees.
USAID provided more than 60 percent of funding, or nearly
$14,000, for the irrigation project. This is one of hundreds
of community projects being implemented throughout Central
Asia through the Community Action Investment Program (CAIP),
a three-year, $22.2 million effort.
The Yassy project created 950 long-term and 100 short-term
jobs. Region-wide, CAIP has provided over 14,000 short-term
and 5,700 long-term jobs.
Galymzhan Djalilov, a Yassy farmer, said he was happy with
the irrigation canal rehabilitation project.
“When I decided to start my own farm, I bought a garden
plot close to the irrigation canal. However, due to the poor
irrigation system, my trees started to dry up and did not
bear fruit. I worried that my investment and hard labor of
three years had been wasted,” he said. “Now I am
confident that my garden will survive.”
Program staff collaborated with the local water users’
association, which is responsible for ensuring the equitable
distribution of water and the monitoring of the channel for
general maintenance.
In Kazakhstan, CAIP provided nearly $2.3 million in small
grants, and more than $1.3 million has been provided by in-kind
contributions and cash by participating communities. The program
has put together communities, municipal officials, and business
to work on building roads, water systems, and community centers
and rehabilitating schools.
“Our programs aim to increase communities’ ability
to work together to reduce the sources of conflict,”
said USAID’s Kimberly Delaney.
“We’re now beginning to make a long-term, lasting
impact,” said Delaney, director of the Democracy and
Conflict Mitigation Office.
ACDI/VOCA, CAIP’s implementer in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,
is a nonprofit organization that promotes broad-based economic
growth and the development of civil society by working on
community development, business development, financial services,
and agribusiness systems.
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