Office and Departments

Democracy and Development Office (D/D)

The Embassy established a Democracy and Development section to monitor and administer foreign assistance programs following the 1995 closure of the USAID Mission, and to identify alternative sources of USG funding to meet development and humanitarian needs.  During the 1995 – 2008 period, it has overseen the implementation of USG-funded programs totaling $76.5 million, exclusive of the Darfur refugee crisis.  In 2009, the D/D section is administering a portfolio of 23 activities and is staffed by a U.S. personal services contractor and a host country assistant.  The most significant projects currently comprising the D/D portfolio include:

The Embassy established a Democracy and Development section to monitor and administer foreign assistance programs following the 1995 closure of the USAID Mission, and to identify alternative sources of USG funding to meet development and humanitarian needs.  During the 1995 – 2008 period, it has overseen the implementation of USG-funded programs totaling $76.5 million, exclusive of the Darfur refugee crisis.  In 2009, the D/D section is administering a portfolio of 23 activities and is staffed by a U.S. personal services contractor and a host country assistant.  The most significant projects currently comprising the D/D portfolio include:

Special Self-Help (SSH).  This program funds small, community-based activities which can be quickly implemented and have a significant impact on the economic and social well-being of beneficiary populations.  As the name suggests, a major element of this program is the local contribution, or “self-help” component, made by the community to the project, whether it be in-kind or in local currency.  In this manner, the Embassy demonstrates U.S. support for communities willing to make an effort to help themselves.  Examples of projects funded from SSH include classroom construction, water well installation, skills training for women’s sewing cooperatives, food processing through the purchase and installation of diesel-powered grinding mills, animal husbandry, vegetable gardening and reforestation efforts. 

The project produces tangible results, improves beneficiary lives, while increasing self-confidence in a community’s ability to resolve its own issues.  The SSH program is in much demand, with more than 300 proposals from local communities received each year.  Embassy receives an annual budget allowance of $60-$80,000 which results in the funding of 5-10 proposals.  In FY 2008, the Embassy was able to fund six SSH activities.

This Self-Help activity in the Lake Chad region resulted in the hand-drilling of a borehole, capped by a hand pump, for use as a water well.  The village contributed 25% of the budget and is responsible for maintaining the well following installation.  The percentage of Chadians having access to clean water has increased from about 20% in 1995 to 36% in 2008. 

Democracy and Human Rights Fund (DHRF).  Similar to the program above, DHRF allows the Embassy to fund several small, locally-generated projects each year from an annual budget allowance.  However, as the name suggests, this program focuses on human rights promotion and the consolidation of democracy.  Used extensively by the Embassy in the late 1990’s to assist the Chad government conduct its first multiparty elections, it has more recently been used to support the activities of local human rights associations and share in the costs of creating community radio stations. 

The focus is almost always on producing tangible results in a short time period.  Projects recently undertaken include the creation of para-legal clinics throughout the capital where people go for free legal counsel, participating in the start-up costs of a periodical promoting tolerance and diversity, and funding efforts to end the practice of female genital mutilation.

U.S. Ambassador Marc M. Wall (standing, center) traveled to Faya Largeau in 200X in order to inaugurate a community radio station funded jointly by a local development association and the Embassy’s Democracy and Human Rights Fund.

Africare Batha-Ouaddai Food Security Initiative (BOFSI).  This is a five-year (2008-12) food aid sales project resulting in the annual importation by Africare, a U.S. private voluntary organization, of 23,500 MT  American wheat flour and bulgur wheat, most of which is sold to grain merchants in the capital, with sales proceeds going towards development activities in chronically food-insecure areas of central and  eastern Chad.  The focus is on introducing appropriate technology to make better use of scarce water resources for farming, improved postharvest storage and processing practices, with a nutritional component that promotes vitamin A supplementation, water purification and improved dietary habits.  Africare has partnered with another U.S. private voluntary organization, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), on this project.

Peace and Development Project.  This is a multi-year development project, initiated in 2005, which mitigates the potential for terrorism and extremism by improving local governance, empowering at-risk youth, and delegitimizing destructive and hostile ideologies that advocate violence.  

The project is funded by USAID and is implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), with subcontractors Africare and Equal Access for components focusing on youth and the media.  Specifically, the project will identify job opportunities for unemployed youth and provide training as necessary.  It will also promote interfaith dialogue and improved communication and access to information by strengthening community and private radio stations.

Reaching out to nomadic communities, the Peace through Development project funded this two-room school house for a community of herders in Chad’s northwestern Kanem region.
 
Population Census.  A population census has not been conducted in Chad since 1993.  The political opposition, which previously boycotted elections, has included among its preconditions for participation in the 2010-11 election cycle, the completion of a new population census which would then serve as a baseline for an electoral census.  The overall census budget is estimated at $25.4 million, with the Chad government committing to 50%.  Remaining critical costs will be covered through a multi-donor effort in which the U.S. is participating.

Strengthening the Justice Department.  Initiated in FY 2005, this $210,000 project strengthens the capacity of Chad’s Justice Department with equipment, legal texts and training.  Specifically, 80 manual typewriters were bought and distributed to jurisdictions both in the capital, where the supply of electricity is irregular, to rural courts where electricity doesn’t exist.  So much were these typewriters appreciated, an additional forty were requested and are on order.  This project funded training workshops in 2007 for magistrates, judges, court clerks and criminal investigators.  It has also provided the courts with legal documentation.

Water Supply.  This project will produce garden wells (below, right) in eastern Chad, thus increasing access to potable water and improving food security by promoting the creation of vegetable gardens adjacent to the wells. Landmine Victim Assistance.  Two grants of $65,000 each help to defray the operational costs of a clinic in the capital which provides artificial limbs to landmine victims and others with ambulatory challenges.  The clinic also receives technical assistance and funding from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

 

The Global Fund to combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  The Global Fund is a mechanism which allows the donor community to disburse significant levels of monetary assistance to countries combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.  It is managed by a Global fund office in Geneva and the U.S. is a major contributor, covering one-third of the overall budget.  In Chad, projects have been approved for all three components.  A Country Coordinating Mechanism meets periodically to review performance and future plans.  The U.S. is one of two bilateral donors that has a seat on the CCM, currently filled by the Embassy’s D/D officer.   

Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS Net).  This is a centrally-funded project implemented by a USAID institutional contractor to provide credible and timely information on the food situation, crop production and the possibility of famine so that decision-makers can take appropriate action and mobilize resources in time to save lives and lessen human suffering.

West Africa Cotton Improvement Program (WACIP).  This is a regionally-funded project implemented by a USAID contractor in four West African countries: Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin.  The objective is to make cotton more competitive on the world market by introducing improved technologies and increasing the value added to cotton products.

Primary school pupils in Massakory who are benefiting in 2009 from the Ambassador’s Girls’ Scholarship Program

Ambassador’s Girls’ Scholarship Program (AGSP).  This project, initiated in 2001, encourages parents to allow their daughters to attend school.  There are sixty participating schools within a 150 km radius of N’Djamena where 6,000 girls and their villages are provided with school supplies and labor-saving machines to encourage parents to let their daughters attend school.  The project is currently implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED).

Civic Education.  In 1998/99, the Embassy’s D/D and Public Diplomacy sections undertook a joint effort to support a group of Chadian educators in their attempt to develop a standard civics education program for Chadian schools.  This resulted in a detailed course outline for grades 1-12.  Three years later, D/D demarches with the Ministry of Education resulted in the funding of a a pilot project in six test schools, deemed to be conclusive.  A national curriculum center had by this time begun developing civic education textbooks, in French and in Arabic, adapted to Chadian culture.  The D/D section helped fund this effort and then, when the textbooks had been completed, State Department funding was secured to cover the printing costs for 35,000 copies.   A second printing of 45,000 copies is in progress.