AID is requesting $7.5 million in fiscal year 1984 for the ASHA program. Budgetary constraints and other priority development needs compel a request well below current program funding. Priority will be given to those institutions that best serve as study and demonstration centers for U.S. ideas and practices. Thank you very much. Senator KASTEN. Thank you. [The statement of Ms. Bloch follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF JULIA CHANG BLOCH ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR BUREAU FOR FOOD FOR PEACE AND VOLUNTARY ASSISTANCE AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT I am Julia Chang Bloch, Assistant Administrator of the Bureau of Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance. The FVA Bureau includes the Offices of Food for Peace, Private and Voluntary Cooperation, and American Schools and Hospitals Abroad. Our FY 1984 Development Assistance request totals $38.6 million for programs funded from the Functional Accounts and $7.5 million for American Schools and Hospitals Abroad. The predominant portion of our functional account request $33.1 million will provide support for the centrally-funded PVO grants program administered by the FVA Bureau to extend and strengthen PVO activities consistent with country development objectives. Current programs and those projected for FY 1984 focus on support of PVO field activities that address country-specific development needs. More specifically, this request includes $11.3 million in Matching Grants; $6.1 million for grants to P70 consortia; $3.2 million for grants to cooperative development organizations; $7.5 million for ocean freight reimbursement and $2.5 million for institution building and support grants. Virtually all of these grant relationships will be on a cost-sharing basis. This centrally-financed support to PVOS and cooperatives will enable them to carry out a wide variety of development programs in agriculture, rural development, nutrition, health, education, and small enterprise. It will also serve as a vehicle for support of a large number of development activities undertaken by private and voluntary organizations indigenous to the LDCs. Since nearly all of these grants require an investment of the PVO's private resources, they also constitute an important mears of strengthening collaboration between the American public and private sector as well as increasing the magnitude of the overall U.S. contribution to economic and social development. PVO programs funded by the FVA Bureau comprise only one element in the Agency's extensive and varied support to PVOS. For FY 1984, this proposed support will total over $210 million, exclusive of PL 480 Title II commodities and related ocean freight. Over 13% of AID's FY 1984 request for development assistance functional accounts, disaster assistance and Sahel development will be channeled through PVOS. AID's overall support for PVO-administered development programs has increased four-fold over the past decade. This expansion has been accompanied by an even larger increase in privately generated PVC resources. Briefly stated, the Lest Fall, AID issued a Policy Paper and Operational Guidelines on its relationship with PVOS. The Paper provides a policy framework in which AID views PVOs as its development partners, both as intermediaries for AID programs and as independent development agencies in their own right. objectives of this policy are to increase the development impact of AID-supported PVO programs; to discourage undue dependence on U.S. Government financing; to simplify management and administrative procedures relating to AID-funded PVO programs; and to insure that AID funds are used in ways that reflect AID's legislative mandate yet to do so in a way that is supportive of, and sensitive to, the unique capabilities of PVOS as agents of development. A number of actions have been undertaken or are now underway to fully implement the new AID/PVO policy. These include publication of revised provisions for PVO registration; creation of a greatly strengthened information and data base to better serve both AID and PVO needs; strengthening the role of the Office of Private and Voluntary Cocperation as a central focal point within AID for PVO relationships; and application of non-U.S. Government cash contribution requirements as a condition of eligibility for PVO grants. Our FY 84 request also includes $1 million in support of the ongoing Development Education program as directed by the Biden-Pell Amendment. This amendment authorized AID to facilitate widespread public discussion, analysis and review of issues related to world hunger and poverty and to increase public awareness of these issues. The program - which was initiated in FY 1981 - consists of three principal activities: a series of media roundtables; educational outreach to bring discussion of hunger and development into the classroom; and the development education grants program. The development education grants program introduced in FY constitutes our major program element to date. Under 1982 this competitive program, AID provides financial assistance on a cost-shared basis to PVOS to encourage a wide variety of development education activities. Projects financed to date include support for local community programs carried out in cooperation with private and voluntary organizations; activities that tap the education potential of the cooperative development organizations; and seminars and workshops for specific target groups such as women, educators, community and business leaders, minorities and youth. In addition to the preceding PVO programs, our FY 1984 request will enable continued funding of several development assistance-financed activities directly supportive of the Food for Peace program. These are elements of AID's broader effort to increasingly utilize food aid resources in ways that enhance the developmental impact of PL 480, improve the targeting of feeding programs to those in need, and foster the integration of PL 480 with other assistance resources. The largest of these activities is the Title II Outreach totalling $12.7 million were provided in 16 countries - Our development assistance request also includes funding for program support activities such as food storage and handling seminars, regional programming workshops for U.S., host country and PVO personnel, provision of technical advisory services to rescive problems in the field, and research to improve PL 480 programming and allocation. It also finances an active schedule of PL 480 and PVO evaluations. The American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) program |