USAID/OTI Burundi Field Report
November 2003
Program Description
From March 2002 through August 2003, OTI supported the Burundi Initiative for Peace (BIP), implemented through the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES). The BIP provided small grants to indigenous civil society groups, the media, and the transitional government to promote good governance and the active and informed participation of citizens in support of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Accord (APRA). For the first year of its program, OTI also supported the Legislative Strengthening Initiative, implemented through the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). In this initiative, by promoting increased cooperation among legislators from different political parties and greater interaction between legislators and their constituents, OTI enhanced the roles of Burundian legislators in promoting peace and reconciliation.
Since December 2002, the peace process has advanced considerably. Most significantly, in November 2003, the Government of Burundi (GOB) and the main Hutu rebel group, the National Council for the Defense of Democracy-Forces for Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD), finalized their power-sharing agreement. As a result, concerns are shifting to local capacities to reintegrate refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and ex-combatants, whose returns are expected to increase significantly in the upcoming months. In response, OTI is redesigning its program to support community reintegration through community-based leadership development, vocational skills training, small-scale infrastructure reconstruction, and the accurate, balanced and timely dissemination of information via the media. OTI's anticipates this new program will begin in February 2004.
COUNTRY SITUATION
CNDD-FDD DELEGATION ARRIVES IN BUJUMBURA - On November 7th, a CNDD-FDD delegation, headed by CNDD-FDD Secretary-General Hussein Radjabu, arrived in Bujumbura to prepare for the return of CNDD-FDD leaders scheduled to join the transitional government and the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Commission (JCC) before the end of the month. This landmark visit was Mr. Radjabu's first official visit to Burundi since civil war erupted in 1993.
GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES NEW MALARIA TREATMENT - With support from the international community, the Government of Burundi launched a new malaria treatment and promised to make it available in all public hospitals and health centers, private hospitals and pharmacies. The government introduced the new therapy after studies revealed that the old one failed to cure more than 25 percent of patients. Malaria is the leading cause of mortality in Burundi, killing more people than AIDS or war.
GOVERNMENT AND REBEL GROUP FINALIZE POWERSHARING AGREEMENT - On November 16, at the twentieth summit of the Great Lakes Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the GOB and the CNDD-FDD led by Pierre Nkurunziza finalized a power-sharing agreement. Senior government officials from eleven countries in the region who attended the event praised the accord. They also urged the Forces nationales de liberation (FNL) rebel faction led by Agathon Rwasa to enter negotiations with the government within three months or face the consequences of regional action. Finally, they urged the international community to provide much-needed support to the peace initiative, and asked the United Nations to consider sending a peacekeeping operation to Burundi.
APPROXIMATELY 12,000 CIVILIANS DISPLACED BY FIGHTING - As a result of recent fighting between the army and the FNL, approximately 12,000 civilians have left their homes in Burundi's western province of Bujumbura Rural. Since fighting between the two forces and between the FNL and CNDD-FDD intensified in September, more than 60,000 people have been displaced in the province.
REBELS SHELL BUJUMBURA - In an overnight shelling of the capital, the FNL killed five people and hit the home and car of two diplomatic officials. FNL spokesman Pasteur Habimana stated that the attack was in response to recent army attacks on FNL positions. During those earlier attacks, four civilians were killed. Later in the month, another 11 people were killed as the FNL and the army fought in a neighborhood in the capital three miles from the city's center.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CONTINUE - According to a new U.N. report, women and the Batwa people continue to bear the brunt of human rights violations in Burundi. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burundi, Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum, reported that between March and August she witnessed no improvement in economic, social and cultural rights. Continued hostilities between the FNL and the military have been worsening an already dismal human rights situation.
AGRICULTURE AND HEALTH TOP SECTORS TARGETED IN U.N. FUNDS APPEAL - In their Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP) for 2004, the United Nations and NGO partners are requesting $71.1 million for Burundi. While the majority of those funds are designated for the health and agriculture sectors, funds are also requested for water and sanitation, education, human rights and the rule of law. Some of that assistance is aimed at supporting the APRA and the political transition. According to the U.N. Development Program's Human Development Index for 2003, Burundi ranks 171 of 175 countries. The United Nations reports that, in spite of political progress, the humanitarian situation worsened during 2003, with fighting displacing approximately 10,000 people and traumatizing more each month.
FOOD INSECURITY CONTINUES TO PLAGUE BURUNDI - Although the July to October agricultural season produced satisfactory harvests, the short season and the marginal land utilized for it meant that it could not contribute significantly to food security. According to the FAO, natural causes, undeveloped markets and the ongoing conflict negatively affected food security during 2003. FAO reports that the number of households receiving agricultural assistance has risen from 103,337 in 1999 to 210,000 in 2004 and may increase to 250,000 in the near-term.
CNDD-FDD LEADERS JOIN GOVERNMENT - On November 23rd, President Domitien Ndayizeye adjusted his cabinet to incorporate CNDD-FDD members. CNDD-FDD leader Pierre Nkurunziza will become Minister of State for Good Governance, the third most important position in the country after the President and Vice-President, with involvement in all matters related to state security and government appointments. Three more CNDD-FDD members will also take up positions in President Ndayizeye's cabinet. In addition, in accordance with the power sharing agreement, the CNDD-FDD will receive 40 percent of posts in the army staff and 35 percent in the police, two posts in the bureau of the parliament, and 15 seats in the parliament. A date for the swearing-in of the new ministers has not been announced.
HIGHLIGHTS
A. Narrative Summary
OTI has completed the design of a new program for Burundi and is now identifying implementing partners. The new program, which will begin in Gitega and Ruyigi, will support community-based reintegration and contains four components: 1) a community-based leadership program; 2) vocational skills training; 3) small grants; and 4) media activities.
The community-based leadership program is the core component of the program. Through it OTI will help communities reintegrate displaced populations and ex-combatants by promoting broad-based cooperation in identifying and resolving community needs. Simultaneously, OTI will be undertaking vocational skills training aimed at providing returnees and other vulnerable populations with marketable non-agricultural skills. The two components will dovetail to the small grants component, in which groups who participated in the community-based leadership program will design and implement projects that respond to community needs. Whenever appropriate, individuals who participated in the vocational skills training will provide labor and inputs to the projects. Through the media component, OTI will help indigenous radio and television stations disseminate accurate, timely and balanced information and positive messages about the peace process and political transition taking place.
In October and November, OTI sent a team to the provinces of Gitega and Ruyigi to identify potential skills training centers for the vocational skills training component of the program. As a result of the team's meeting provincial and ministerial authorities, the authorities granted OTI usage of centers, promised to help facilitate program implementation, and agreed to establish ongoing collaboration to ensure complementarity between OTI's program and government-sponsored vocational skills training programs. The teams also evaluated the potential centers to determine their rehabilitation needs prior to the initiation of skills training courses.
OTI's international media consultant is designing a media survey that will produce accurate information on existing media, and will help determine their coverage and needs. This survey will help in formulating the OTI media program component. During November, OTI launched a weekly radio series entitled "Ordinary people doing extraordinary things," which is being aired by the National Radio and Television of Burundi. In the series, which promotes civic action, OTI is introducing stories of how ordinary citizens successfully work together to resolve their own problems, with the goal of inspiring others to do the same. In its first show, OTI interviewed Georgette Mahwera, head of the Association of Women for the Development of the Zone of Kinama (ABANIKI). An ethnically mixed group of women living in the predominantly Hutu zone of Bujumbura created ABANIKI in 1995 to establish links across ethnic divisions. In the beginning, the women promoted visits among women of different ethnicities, then offered courses in basic math, accounting and literacy, and later founded a cooperative to cultivate rice and other goods for both consumption and marketing. ABANIKI serves as a model for women in Kinama and other zones affected by conflict by showing that groups can overcome hardships through solidarity, perseverance, and commitment. To further encourage civic action through shared personal experiences, OTI is launching a television program for youths who have been inspired by experiences outside of Burundi. In the program, youths will talk about how the lessons they learned abroad can help promote peace and reconciliation at home, with the goal of influencing other youths to take action.
B. 2002 Grants Activity Summary
The BIP program is completing its close-out. Of the 72 grants that had been issued during FY 2003, 67 have been successfully closed out. The five remaining grants will be closed out by mid-December, at which point the program will officially end.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
OTI/Burundi's immediate priority is to contribute to the success of the national DDRR program, which is part of the APRA. OTI/Burundi has been participating in national-level discussions about the program and looks forward to assisting on the local level once its new program begins in February 2004. OTI/Burundi Country Representative Cyndi Scarlett will spend part of December and January in OTI/W meeting with Washington-based counterparts and assisting with the OTI/W portion of the new program's start-up.
For further information, please contact:
In Washington, D.C.: Carlisle J. Levine, Program Manager at 202-712-0955 or clevine@usaid.gov
|
