Sub-Saharan Africa
ETHIOPIA
USAID Evaluation of the AMARA Agriculture Program
USAID Watershed Management Needs Assessment
The project included the provision of training and the implementation of a management and process assessment of
the Amhara State Agricultural Extension Service in Ethiopia.
Strategic policy and interventions to stimulate sustainable change in watershed protection & management were
assessed. Institutional strategies to improve coordination and operational performance within the ministries and
regional and local agencies responsible for natural resources protection, conservation & management were
developed. Recommendations were made for greater focus, funding and leverage for critical technical support
services to rural residents living in watershed areas.
KENYA
USAID Agricultural Development Support Project
USAID Gender Impact Program Assessment
Provided training and implemented a management and process assessment of USAID/Kenya Agricultural
Development Support Project (ADSP).
The assessment included a review and analysis of a decade of USAID/Kenya Gender Programs.
Work included the creation of mission and sector-specific databases. Case studies were researched and reported.
Mission materials and literature were compiled and assessed. Work plans, country reports, a synthesis report,
definitions and methodologies related to deliverables were submitted to USAID/Kenya.
A dissemination workshop was convened for USAID Program Officers, Women in Development Officers from all
regional Missions, and Africa Bureau personnel to review the results of the gender assessment and to discuss and
develop regional approaches to gender considerations. Workshop results including regional approaches were
captured in the final report submitted to USAID/Kenya.
MADAGASCAR
Environment and Biodiversity Stocktaking Assessment
The assessment included work with USAID Environment and Rural Development Program staff to review 15 years of
USAID/Madagascar experiences in environment, rural development and food security program areas.
Identified best practices and lessons learned while assisting USAID/Madagascar and its partners with identifying
options, opportunities and competitive advantages for planning future environment and rural development activities.
Policies, issues, strategies, government and donor-funded programs in biodiversity, tropical forest management,
carbon sequestration, climate change and eco-agriculture were assessed.
MADAGASCAR
USAID Environmental Threats and Opportunities
The USAID Environmental Threats and Opportunities Assessment (ETOA) describes the status of necessary actions
to conserve biodiversity and tropical forests. The ETOA examined the state of biodiversity and forest conservation in
Madagascar, the actions necessary to conserve tropical forests and biological diversity, and the extent to which the
actions proposed for support by USAID/Madagascar meet the needs thus identified. The ETOA is intended to serve
as a planning tool to assist USAID in integrating environmental concerns into existing and proposed programs. The
assessment is necessary for the purposes of complying with sections 118 and 119 of the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, and critical to informing Operational Plans and the Country Assistance Strategy.
Designed, implemented and reported the ETOA and its associated FAA 118/119 annex for USAID. Evaluated tropical
forestry, terrestrial and marine biodiversity conservation issues in consort with past, current and planned donor efforts
to address these problems.
USAID was presented with a priority list of activities, concentration areas, climate change issues (threats and
adaptation) and environmental policy focal points.
MADAGASCAR
Landscape Development Interventions in Madagascar:
Intensification of Agriculture Practices in Conservation Zones & Conservation Enterprise Promotion
The project addressed the biodiversity loss and related agrarian crises in Madagascar caused largely by slash-andburn agriculture and free-range livestock production. Though 70% of Malagasy depend on the nation’s agricultural
output, in many regions destructive practices have led to decreased output per capita over the past decade.
Pressures on forests are increasingly severe. The overarching objectives are to develop more sustainable, productive
use of natural resources; reverse the trend toward agricultural intensification; help people generate greater incomes;
and assist conservation enterprises.
Work with national, regional and local partners and beneficiaries promoted sustainable, profitable agricultural systems
and enterprises in strategic zones where actions have the most impact on biodiversity conservation -- in Mahajanga,
including the Ankarafantsika ICDP.
Five aspects of the technical approach: 1) An efficient eco-regional planning method to determine conservation
priorities and strategic zones of intervention; 2) Sedentary, sustainable, high yielding agricultural systems that draw
large numbers of farmers away from destructive practices and the access to credit and inputs to support these
systems; 3) Profitable conservation enterprises that will provide income and demonstrate alternative, sustainable
uses of the natural resources base; 4) A participatory approach that gives responsibility to farmers, draws on their
knowledge, contributes new ideas and creates a sustainable, high-yielding agro-ecological system; 5) Productive
partnerships with government, EP2 executing agencies, NGO and private sector actors at the international, national,
regional and local levels.
The project resulted in the development of innovative methodology for defining biodiversity conservation priorities at
the ecosystem and landscape unit levels; and strategic development approaches for addressing key challenges to
biodiversity conservation in Madagascar.
MADAGASGAR
USAID Cyclone Recovery Program Evaluation
Conducted a process evaluation of a two-year disaster relief project. Assessed and reported on environment,
biodiversity, agriculture, infrastructure and institutional development activities.
MALAWI
Evaluation of USAID’s Strategic Objective: “Increased Agricultural Incomes on a Per Capita Basis”
Assessment of the development impact of and lessons learned from the group of activities comprising USAID/Malawi’s
Strategic Objective One (SO1): “Increased Agricultural Incomes on a Per Capita Basis.”
The evaluation included an assessment of the success of Non-Project Assistance (NPA) activities on the Government
of Malawi’s policy reform efforts, and an identification of the group of activities design and implementation strengths
and weaknesses as well as lessons learned. The team’s assessment will guide the Mission’s decision to implement
future activities of a similar nature.
RWANDA, TANZANIA and UGANDA
USAID Gender Impact Program Assessment
The assessment included a review and analysis of a decade of USAID Gender Programs in Rwanda, Tanzania and
Uganda.
Work included the amassing of data and the creation of mission and sector-specific databases as well as a
comprehensive inventory across missions/countries.
Case studies were researched and reported on in all three countries. Materials and literature from each mission were
compiled and assessed. Work plans, country reports, a synthesis report, and definitions and methodologies related
to deliverables were submitted to USAID/Kenya as well as to the Missions in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
A dissemination workshop was convened for USAID Program Officers, Women in Development Officers from all the
regional Missions, and Africa Bureau personnel to review the results of the gender assessments implemented in
Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda – and in Kenya.
Workshop discussions led to the development of regional approaches to gender considerations. Workshop results,
including regional approaches, were captured in the final report submitted to USAID/Kenya and to the missions in
Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
RWANDA
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USAID Environmental Threats and Opportunities Assessment (ETOA)
The Environmental Threats and Opportunities Assessment included an assessment of biodiversity and tropical
forests in Rwanda as well as a FAA 118/119 annex pursuant to requirements of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA)
Sections 118 and 119 and related to USAID guidance.
The ETOA prioritized USAID/Rwanda tropical forestry and biodiversity conservation activities and identified directions
for environmental policies to be incorporated into the USAID/Rwanda 5-year plan.
SUDAN
USAID STAR Disaster Assistance Program
The evaluation of the USAID Sudan Transition and Rehabilitation (STAR) Program took plae in the Bahr el Ghazal
and Equatorial Provinces.
The multi-faceted program supported good governance, participatory democracy, grants and credit for small
enterprises (especially agricultural) and peace initiatives within stable, opposition held areas of Southern Sudan.
ZAMBIA
USAID Community-Based Natural Resources Management Program
An evaluation of USAID’s support to Zambia's ADMADE—a community-based natural resource management
program – was conducted to determine whether USAID investments had achieved their desired impacts,
Recommendations were made to suggest how experiences gained might influence ongoing and future USAID and
other institutions' investments in natural resources protection, conservation & management.
The assessment focused on significant ADMADE Program community-based results including the increasing of rural
incomes and improving food security.