An Electronic Journal of
the U.S. Department of State
August 2005

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CONTENTS

About This Issue
The Editors

Unleashing Growth Through Sound Development Policies
Andrew Natsios, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Five years ago, 189 nations agreed to join forces in a fight against poverty, illiteracy, hunger, lack of education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, disease, and environmental degradation. As countries gather this year in New York to assess progress in this effort, says Natsios, with a continued commitment to effective economic institutions and reform, the global community has a good chance of reaching the goals it set for itself at Monterrey and in the Millennium Declaration.

Dimensions of Development
An Interview With Steve Radelet, Center for Global Development, and Nicholas Eberstadt, American Enterprise Institute

Although the world may see substantial progress in development over the next decade, it may be difficult to meet the standards for 2015 set in the development goals, says Radelet. Eberstadt says that progress in reducing poverty in most parts of the world has been encouraging, except in sub-Saharan Africa, where HIV/AIDS has resulted in a reversal in many of the health care indicators.

The Global Development Alliance
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

Public-private partnerships are proving effective in targeting funds and in providing new technologies, intellectual capital, market presence, and business expertise to address today’s development problems around the world.

Fighting Poverty With Profits
Zenia Tata, Executive Director, International Development Enterprises

Simple, low-cost pumps and low-cost drip irrigation technologies have created new markets for Nepali and Zambian farmers, enabling them to sharply increase incomes and feed their families.

Expanding Ethiopia’s Agricultural Exports
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
Through a USAID grant, farmers in Ethiopia have organized cooperatives and increased production and foreign sales of high-quality beans at four times local market prices.

The Africa Education Initiative
Laura Lartigue, USAID

A U.S. presidential program that is providing textbooks for schools, scholarships for girls, and training for teachers has already significantly boosted primary school enrollment in Guinea.

Teaching a Child to Dream
Richard Nyberg, USAID
Substandard facilities and untrained teachers faced school children in Senegal, until changes were made that brought together school administrators, teachers, parents, women’s associations, and local organizations.

Educating Girls in Kenya: New Horizons
Aleta Williams and Sharon Mangin Nwankwo, USAID
USAID and Maasai Education Discovery, a nonprofit organization based in Boston and Kenya, are providing new educational opportunities for girls from the semiarid grasslands of Kenya.

Treating Child Malaria in Rwandan Communities
Julia Ross, Communications Manager, The CORE Group

In five Rwandan districts, a community-based program is educating parents to identify danger signs associated with malarial fever and to treat the illness promptly.

Improving Health Care in Rural Ethiopia
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
Essential Services for Health in Ethiopia trains community-selected volunteers who work with health professionals to encourage basic health care and immunization.

Improving Maternal Health
Donna Vivio, Director of the JHPIEGO Maternal and Child Health Center (MCH), and Barbara Kinzie, MCH Senior Adviser

A program to train midwives and other skilled birth attendants in more than 25 countries aims to reduce the number of women and girls who lose their lives to complications from pregnancy and childbirth.

Battling the AIDS Pandemic
Matthew Hanley, HIV/AIDS Technical Adviser, Catholic Relief Services

With clinics and hospitals inaccessible to many rural Africans infected with HIV/AIDS, Catholic Relief Services has developed a program of volunteers to provide counseling, health care, and supplies at the community level.

Empowering Women: A Wise Investment
Emily Sollie, Manager of Media Relations, Lutheran World Relief

Providing women in Burkina Faso with motorized presses to process karité butter—along with business management training—has given these women enough money to buy clothes and medicine and has enhanced their status in community decision making.

Promoting Women’s Legal Rights in Benin
Sandrine Dossou-Yovo, USAID
An aggressive public awareness campaign, combined with continuing education for judicial officials, holds the promise of greater legal, civil property, and human rights protections for women in Benin.

Cambodian Women Running for Peace
Bureau for Asia and the Near East, USAID
Women for Prosperity, a nongovernmental organization working with Cambodian politicians, voters, and the media to advocate for the greater inclusion of women in government, has trained more than 5,500 women to run for and hold political office.

Protecting Namibia’s Natural Resources
Kristina Stefanova, USAID.

By establishing 31 nature conservancies, Namibia is protecting the country’s natural resources, boosting income, and providing increased medical services for indigenous populations.

Seeing the Landscape in New Ways
Winrock International
Using multi-spectral, three-dimensional, aerial digital imagery, governments in Central and Latin America have a better tool to measure and monitor land use, biodiversity, habitat production, and water quality.

Preserving Russia’s Forests
Winrock International
Through its Forest Resources and Technology Project, Winrock International is assisting Russia in reducing wildfires, containing damaging gypsy and Siberian moths, and helping residents make money from the forests without cutting them down.

Bibliography

Internet Resources