|
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
THE REGIONS
In this section:
Ecuador Jungle Chocolate Begins to Flow From
Amazon Region Cacao Beans
Mali Communities Study Fiscal Management
Documentation Center Gives Voice to Victims of
Genocide
Serbia Uses Baltimore System to Reform Service
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Ecuador Jungle Chocolate Begins to Flow From Amazon Region
Cacao Beans
 |
|
A farmer admires the size of a cacao bean. Before a
USAID partnership began three years ago, small farmers
in this region of Ecuador exported very little processed
chocolate. Now the cacao beans are processed in the
country and shipped to markets worldwide.
Satré Comunicaciones
|
Ecuador had been a leading exporter for 40 years of cacao
beans used to produce chocolate, but it only began to export
processed high-value chocolate from its Amazonian region three
years ago.
Small farms in the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos
have been able to increase incomes by working with a project
that turns the raw beans into tasty products ready for world
markets.
Yachana Gourmet, seller of high-end chocolate products,
is the result of a partnership between USAID/Ecuador, the
Ecuadorian-Canadian Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank,
and the community.
“This initiative shows the richness and success of
building public-private alliances, mobilizing new ideas, and
merging efforts and resources,” said Adolfo Franco, assistant
administrator for the Bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The process begins early in the morning when families in
a minga, or collective, harvest the cacao fruits, open them,
scoop out the cacao beans still covered in sweet and fruity
pulp, and transport them to the banks of the Napo River where
Yachana Gourmet buyers are waiting.
The day’s harvest is transported to Yachana’s
cacao collection center in the rainforest community of Agua
Santa where its transformation into Jungle Chocolate begins.
The beans are placed in wooden boxes, covered with banana
leaves to maintain temperature, and fermented to develop the
cacao’s rich, chocolate flavor.
Next, the Yachana team spreads the beans out on wooden platforms
to slowly sun dry. The best beans are toasted until they acquire
a rich, nutty flavor characteristic of dark chocolate. The
beans are then transported to Yachana Gourmet’s production
facility in Quito, where they are ground and the beans separated
from their husks to create chocolate “nibs”—little
bits of cacao.
Nibs are mixed with macadamia nuts and pineapple and then
packaged and shipped to markets worldwide as nibs, nibs-and-fruit
mixes, and chocolate paste.
Cacao processing is changing the lives of the 14,000 people
involved in the Yachana Gourmet chain of production. Farmers
who sold raw beans for $15 per 100 pounds now get $70 per
100 pounds from Yachana for processed beans. In addition,
average harvests are rising from 300 to 800 pounds per hectare.
Many farmers have doubled their net income, said Mike Magán,
deputy assistant administrator for the Bureau for Latin America
and the Caribbean. And parents say they are now able to send
the kids to better schools because of their increased incomes.
Magán, who recently visited the project, said that
in five years chocolate exports in cacao producing countries
in this region could expand from the niche markets they are
now.
In addition to Ecuador, Colombia is close to being capable
of exporting chocolate and Peru and Bolivia are good candidates.
Right now the South American output is dwarfed by the cacao-producing
countries in West Africa like Côte d’Ivoire, which
produces nearly 40 percent of the world’s cacao beans.
“It’s a question of putting the necessary resources
and private sector backing into this,” said Magán,
who saw Yachana Gourmet in action along with officials from
Kraft Foods Inc. and Mars Inc.
“It’s very exciting … when you can see a
light at the end of the tunnel,” Magán said of
his recent trip. “In the out years, this will not just
change people’s lives, but it has the potential to become
a big part of economies.”
 |
|
In Ecuador, a woman harvests cacao beans that will
be processed into chocolate. A three-year USAID project
is helping farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon harvest
and process cocoa beans, and sell the resulting chocolate
worldwide.
Satré Comunicaciones
|
AFRICA
Mali Communities Study Fiscal Management
 |
|
Sékou Coulibaly, prefect of San, explains the
importance of financial management training for Mali
communes.
USAID/Mali
|
CIRCLE OF SAN, Mali—When regional prefect Sékou
Coulibaly recently visited all 25 local communes, he found
that just one was in full compliance with the laws and regulations
on fiscal management that he is responsible for monitoring.
Members of that compliant commune, Niamana, it turns out,
had been trained by the USAID/Mali-funded Programme de Gouvernance
Partagé (PGP). The project works with local governments
to boost their workers’ skills and give them the knowledge
to manage local resources effectively and transparently.
The training—designed for commune-level accountants,
mayors, subprefects, and secretaries general—included
financial management, accounting, budget planning, and fiscal
tracking. Participants also learned how to fill out forms
for receipts and expenditures, calculate totals, and set up
appropriate bookkeeping based on actual figures from their
communes.
Convinced the other communes could get up to speed, Coulibaly
secured a commitment from World Vision to cover part of the
cost of providing training to some of the other communes.
Most of the communes had procedural manuals from a 2003
training program, but in 20 communes surveyed, none were being
used. Some of the community leaders said the new training
gave them a fresh start.
“There were many aspects of financial management that
we did not understand. Because of this training, we now know
how to manage expenses and receipts, and we can now put our
finances in order,” said Bougouzinè Dembélé,
the secretary general of the Prefect of San.
Boubacar Bibi Koté, the mayor of the Commune of Sy,
added: “We were confronted by misunderstanding of financial
procedures. The training has given us a better comprehension
of financial management, and as mayor, I will see to it that
we strictly apply proper financial and budgetary procedures
in my commune.”
Other circles are now seeking funds for similar training.
The Circle of Ansongo, for example, was successful in obtaining
funding from a Dutch NGO. The PGP project will furnish the
trainer for all seven communes in the circle, with the Dutch
covering all other costs.
The PGP’s annual report found that the result of these
training sessions includes significantly improved tax collection
procedures and the commitment of the population to pay taxes
because they have confidence that their scarce resources will
be well spent.
“There is greater transparency in the use of public
funds, a system of checks and balances, a better utilization
of public resources, and improved budget planning for public
services, like schools and health centers—all essential
and fundamental elements of successful decentralization,”
the report concluded.
Coulibaly is convinced that the training will have a lasting
impact on the fiscal health of the region he monitors. “The
collection agents and I will be better able to monitor tax
revenues and to provide better technical assistance in financial
matters to the communes,” he said.
ASIA AND THE NEAR EAST
Documentation Center Gives Voice to Victims of Genocide
 |
|
A group of Buddhist nuns looks at bones and clothing
at a memorial at Choeung Ek Killing Site, Phnom Penh,
Feb. 26, 2006.
USAID/Cambodia
|
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia—A USAID-funded documentation
center is providing critical materials to help Cambodia’s
new Khmer Rouge tribunal bring the perpetrators of almost
13 years of civil war to justice. Information is also provided
to survivors and their families, scholars, and the public.
The Center, only one of two such efforts in the world, archives
documents, photographs, and other information pertaining to
the history of Democratic Kampuchea and the Khmer Rouge. It
is the world’s largest repository of primary materials
on the Khmer Rouge.
At least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, forced
labor, disease, or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime
from 1975 to 1979. The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic
elections and a ceasefire, but it was not until 1993 that
UN-sponsored elections helped restore some semblance of normalcy
under a coalition government. The remaining elements of the
Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999, ending almost 30 years
of civil war. Today, some of the remaining leaders are awaiting
trial by a United Nations and Cambodian government-sponsored
tribunal for genocide and crimes against humanity. They are
slated to be brought to trial in early 2007.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has a $2 million
endowment from USAID, holds documents that will likely provide
the bulk of the evidentiary materials used at the Khmer Rouge
tribunal. The Center will receive annual earnings from the
principal invested to fund its core activities and programs.
Despite the 27 years that have passed since Pol Pot, the
leader of the Khmer Rouge, was ousted from power, many Cambodians
do not know what happened to those who went missing. For the
past decade, the Center has used cadre biographies, confessions,
and other information to help several hundred Cambodians learn
the fates of the disappeared.
One such missing person was Huot Sambath, who served as
a parliamentarian and Cambodia’s minister of foreign
affairs between 1962 and 1964, and ambassador to Yugoslavia
from 1970 to 1976. The Center was able to give his son 12
confessions he made before his execution at the Tuol Sleng
prison. A family friend wrote, “Thank you for providing
Rami the photos, records, and translation for his father….
Rami last saw his father at age 6. It has been 30 years that
Rami has been seeking answers about his father’s death
at Tuol Sleng.”
The Center maintains four databases containing over 53,000
documents, including cadre biographies, Khmer Rouge notebooks,
prisoner confessions, execution logs, and telegrams. It also
contains over 3,000 interviews and 6,000 photographs of prisoners
at Tuol Sleng, the main prison and torture site during the
genocide, as well as digital information on almost 20,000
mass grave sites. All material is on microfilm and being digitized.
With its funding from USAID, the Center will boost its ability
to collect living history through interviews. Radio programs
and films will also be made, educating the public about the
tribunal.
Jonathan Addleton, former USAID/Cambodia mission director,
said “of all the civil society organizations supported
by USAID, this organization is one that we envision will remain
serving forthcoming generations 20, 50, or 100 years into
the future. We sincerely hope that this endowment will help
the Documentation Center obtain their vision of a permanent
center.”
EUROPE AND EURASIA
Serbia Uses Baltimore System to Reform Service
 |
|
A billboard in Serbian language prompting citizens
to call their municipality for any concerns.
Andrej Popovic, DAI
|
INDJIJA, Serbia and Montenegro—This small city
is some 5,000 miles away from Baltimore, Md., yet both—and
another Serbian town, Para´cin—use the same municipal
management system.
In May 2004, a group of Serbian local government officials
from the two cities visited Baltimore to learn about CitiStat,
a system developed in Baltimore to identify and fix problems
in local government. The system relies on the active participation
of citizens, who can report concerns through various channels,
and on proactive management by municipal officials, who use
a comprehensive data tracking system and then develop and
implement timely and effective solutions to identified problems.
The visit was sponsored by the USAID-funded Serbian Local
Government Reform Project (SLGRP), which promotes effective,
accountable, and transparent local government in more than
70 Serbian municipalities, including Belgrade and 12 constituent
municipalities.
Serbian officials met with Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley,
attended CitiStat public meetings, and visited local administration
departments. Then they returned home to build their own systems.
In the 18 months since System 48’s launch in Indjija,
resident concerns reported to the Citizen Assistance call
center—established in August 2004—have averaged
450 per month. This call center uses automated routing to
make it available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and generates
work orders for the appropriate public enterprise or department.
Through System 48, Indjija’s public officials have
removed illegal waste dumps, improved electricity fee collection,
reorganized city lighting, and instituted an automated public
parking system. Parking collection rates have doubled, and
collections have already exceeded the $34,000 investment cost—reaching
$73,000 in the first year alone.
Indjija’s mayor, Goran Jesi´c, said System 48
is improving local governance by enhancing services and cutting
operating costs, and it has yet to reach its full potential.
He said the city plans to expand the system to cover additional
public enterprises and departments.
At a recent municipal Best Practices Fair, Serbian mayors
voted System 48 the most innovative practice of 25 municipal
presentations.
In Para´cin, an InfoStat office was set up and a fiber-optic
wide-area network was installed, linking all municipal departments
and public utilities to facilitate data sharing and performance
monitoring. This enables the office to review and analyze
department and utility performance data and report to the
mayor on progress. Through InfoStat, performance standards
were established for municipal departments and utilities.
Each month, these departments are required to publicly present
their progress on meeting those standards.
SLGRP is a five-year, $30 million project that began in
October 2001. Implemented by Development Alternatives Inc.,
the project aims to improve municipal management in the areas
of citizen participation, information technology, financial
management, communal enterprise management, and public procurement.
DAI staff contributed this article.
Back to Top ^
|
