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LAC Regional
>> Regional Overview >>LAC Regional Overview
Development Challenge Summary Tables
Program Summary
Previous Years' Activities
2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 199715
Introduction
The Summit of the Americas process, which began with the landmark event in Miami in 1994, and was followed by Summits in Bolivia and Santiago, continues to influence both the U.S. foreign policy agenda in the Western Hemisphere as well as the LAC Regional program. The Summits and the coordination process leading up to each Summit served as a catalyst in forging a vision for regional development among the countries in the hemisphere. Through technical cooperation and donor coordination, significant resources have been directed to the region to support specific development initiatives. USAID has taken a lead role for initiatives related to local government and property registration, and has also been active in shaping the Summit agenda across all sectors. The most recent Summit was held in Quebec, Canada in April 2001. It focused on three broad themes: strengthening democracy, creating prosperity, and realizing human potential; however, trade and the creation of a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) was the centerpiece of the Summit. Within each theme, there were action plans and program initiatives for specific areas such as anti-corruption, good governance, education, health, trade and investment and telecommunications.
The Development Challenge
The long-term trend toward consolidating democracy and achieving economic growth in t e region remains generally positive. The victory in 2000 of an opposition party candidate for President in Mexico was an important triumph as was the election of an opposition party member for Vice-President in Paraguay. Nonetheless, there were some troubling political developments during 2000. The U.S. Department of State categorized six countries in the region as having major human rights abuses up from one (Cuba) in the previous year. The Andean region presented the greatest challenge lead by the violence in Colombia. Ecuador installed its fifth president in five years and experienced a short coup. In Peru, President Fujimori was forced to resign in response to charges of corruption among top leaders and election rigging. Constitutional authority was also threatened in Venezuela and Haiti. These events demonstrate the fragility of democracy in the region and the continued need to support democratic norms and processes through U.S. foreign policy dialogue with regional leaders and through program assistance.
Overall, economic growth for the region was positive in 2000. Among commodity producers, petroleum exporters benefited from very strong demand and high prices. Too often, however, strong revenues were an excuse to ignore or defer badly needed economic reforms. As commodity prices correct and the world economy slows, the need for serious structural change will become even more apparent than in the past. Without reform, many economies in the region will be left behind by a growing worldwide focus on rules-based trade, transparency, and the rule of law; and by productivity increases demanded by global competitiveness.
The economic situation reflected some of the uncertainty of the political situation in the region. While there were problems, no serious economic crises developed. The Dominican Republic complemented its political stability with sound economic management and continued growth.. Ecuador, which weathered a short coup and then returned to democratically led government, resolved the resulting banking crisis by dollarizing its economy. This restored economic stability, but the effect of dollarization on economic growth remains to be seen. El Salvador also dollarized its economy, though its stabilizing effects may have been lost in the aftermath of the earthquakes. Both Nicaragua and Guyana have put off badly needed reforms prior to their 2001 elections despite concerted pressure by the donor community.
Two years since devastating hurricanes ravaged Central America and the Caribbean, the region is still dealing with the long-term aftermath. Reconstruction efforts are in full implementation and the governments of those affected countries are using the disasters as an opportunity to rebuild smarter by incorporating disaster mitigation techniques and environmental considerations into the planning and reconstruction process. In early 2001, a powerful earthquake that killed some 827 people and left up to 200,000 homeless struck El Salvador. Two subsequent earthquakes raised the death toll to over 1,100 and the number of homeless to 1.5 million. Damage estimates are over $2 billion. Lessons learned during the hurricane relief effort, especially those related to donor and PVO coordination and managing relief donations, have been invaluable as the international community responded to the latest tragedy. The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters has highlighted the need to integrate disaster mitigation techniques much more thoroughly with development programs.
Other Donors
Regular consultations with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and other regional and international institutions allow USAID to promote U.S. foreign policy interests in the region, influence development policy, and help shape the direction of other donor's programs. In health, USAID works with the World Bank, the IDB and PAHO to standardize the methodology used to develop national health accounts in the region. In the environment, USAID has worked closely with bilateral donors such as the Switzerland and Norway, the IDB, and commercial lenders to mobilize financing to support the adoption of cleaner production and environmental management systems by industries in the region.. In education, a 1999 joint USAID/IDB meeting to discuss regional education programming was followed up in 2000 by joint project development and implementation in six LAC countries. In the democracy sector, USAID successfully launched the International Forum for Cooperation on Local Government that provides a mechanism for carrying out the Summit of the America's mandate to share donor experiences and information on local government practices and ' activities. Finally, in the area of economic growth, USAID has led the donor effort to create a Central American Council on Real Property Registry which will help modernize the property registry process in Central America and help the poor obtain title to their land.
FY 2002 Program
Over the coming years, the LAC Regional program will deepen its work with regional institutions, alliances, and networks and increase its activities focused on influencing the policies and programs of other donors and regional players to more closely complement and support USAID development objectives. Ongoing programs in democracy, economic growth, education, the environment , and health will be fine-tuned to ensure sustained results. Several new initiatives will be launched to promote greater use of information and communications technology to further development in LAC countries, facilitate education policy reform and address the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the region.
In FY 2002, the LAC Regional democracy program will continue to support Summit initiatives in public sector legitimacy, human rights/rule of law and pluralism. The public sector legitimacy activities will focus on sustainable efforts to reduce corruption in the region. The local governance program will work through regional organizations to strengthen national municipal associations through networking and information exchange.
The regional human rights program will continue to support human rights advocates and justice reformers to promote increased access to justice and reduce crime. To this end, the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights will redirect its programming to focus on access to justice, political participation and human rights education. Complementing these efforts, the newly created Justice Studies Center for the Americas will engage donors and LAC countries to share information and promote justice sector reform. Support for increased pluralism will be accomplished by expanding the Inter-American Democracy Network to new civil society organizations (CSO) across the hemisphere. Competitive grants will be awarded to CSOs to establish partnerships with governments and the private sector. In the economic growth area, the LAC Regional program will continue to support the participation of LAC sub-regional trading blocs in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process. The program has worked with the sub-regional trading blocs of the Caribbean and Central America to facilitate their entry into an FTAA. Starting in FY 2001 and continuing into FY 2002, the geographic focus will shift to the Andean countries. USAID will continue to help countries meet their World Trade Organization obligations, accelerate implementation of priority business facilitation measures, and foster increased civil society participation in the FTAA process. USAID will coordinate this technical assistance with other donors and U.S. Government partners, especially the Department of State and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. USAID will also continue its work to improve the access of the poor to income-generating market opportunities through the creation of an enabling environment. In FY 2002, the LAC Regional program will work with key civil society partners, e.g., the Institute for Labor and Democracy (ILD) and other donors, e.g., the World Bank and the IDB, to improve property registration systems that enhance security of land rights and facilitate market access. In micro-finance, activities will strengthen the environment for sustainable micro-finance through improving regulatory systems and promoting the adoption of new technologies and best practices. The LAC Regional program will also launch an information and communications technologies (ICT) initiative to help LAC countries use ICT to further their development goals.
The LAC Regional program has played a key role in propelling education to the top of the region's policy agenda by successfully focusing on high-priority policy issues, documenting the shortcomings in existing educational systems, and developing a broad-based constituency for reform. Building on this success, the LAC Regional program will continue to work with regional, national and local groups to galvanize support for educational reform as well as other donors in the region to set the policy reform agenda and improve educational performance in schools. The program is being redesigned to focus more attention on building sustainable institutions that can translate policy analysis into educational practice. The Summit-related areas in which the LAC Regional program will continue to work are: strengthening local control and accountability in education, improving education delivery through partnerships with the private sector, improving educational quality by boosting teacher performance, offering more- choice in schooling, educational technology, early childhood education, and pilot programs targeting disadvantaged, at-risk populations.
The LAC Regional biodiversity and natural resource management activities have had significant impacts throughout the region. The Parks in Peril (PiP) program is the largest and most successful site-based conservation project in LAC. Working in 15 countries through local NGOS, the program has improved the conservation status of 37 protected areas covering over 28 million acres in one of world's most biologically rich and threatened region. In 2001, the LAC Regional program launched a second phase of the PIP program. Taking advantage of the partners and sites strengthened in the first phase, a network will be formed to create national systems of conservation areas and to promote the effective management of cross border critical areas. In addition, our regional activities will continue to support Summit of the America environment initiatives, such as promoting public participation in international agreements affecting natural resource management.
During FY 2002, the environmental partnership program (US-LACEP) will enhance the understanding of and commitment by LAC governments to address critical trade-related environmental issues. Broader dissemination is planned of USAID-developed guidelines for sustainable harvest of non-timber forest products and results of the seven-country forest sector review. The program will also focus on sanitation in small towns as part of its water and sanitation decentralization activities. A major focus of cleaner production will be developing regulatory frameworks, addressing financing constraints and promoting the transfer of U.S. environmental technology and know-how. The program will successfully introduce replicable models for environmentally sound development in the areas of forestry, water, and cleaner production into at least one LAC sub-region or trading bloc.
In FY 2002, the LAC Regional program will focus on removing barriers that block equity of access to quality health services and on building sustainable local capacity to ensure basic health care. The program will disseminate lessons learned for a decentralized model of maternal health care that was developed with the active participation of local mayors, governors and civil society. As the region moves closer to the goal of eliminating measles, greater emphasis will be placed on the role of private sector health providers in achieving universal immunization. In addition, public sector commitment to 100% local financing of childhood immunization, including those to combat hepatitis B and haemophilus influenza B will be sought. To help countries formulate policies to prevent and mitigate HIV/AIDS, the program will foster regional information sharing and comparison of alternative strategies. In concert with PAHO, the program will work to combat antibiotic resistance to protect the capacity of health services to treat common illnesses, adding tuberculosis to the infectious agents under study. Working with PAHO, the IDB and the World Bank, USAID will promote universal and comparable national health accounting throughout the region. In addition, the LAC Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses program will be supported through the Healthy Child 2002 Regional Initiative launched by PAHO, the First Ladies of the hemisphere and non-governmental organizations with the aim of preventing 100,000 child deaths in the Americas by 2002.
Finally, the Hurricane reconstruction program will be winding up its activities during FY 2002. The Peru-Ecuador Border Region Development program, included in the FY 2001 Budget Justification under the LAC Regional program, will be reported under each of the Peru and Ecuador programs. Separate objectives have been approved as part of each bilateral program under which the results of the border efforts will be reported.
Activity Data Sheets
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Last Updated on: February 12, 2003 |
