Aid in Action
U.S. Government Signs Agreements with Burundi Signaling Renewed Development Partnership
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
Photo: US Embassy, Burundi
Left to right; Mme. Alice Nibitanga, USAID/Burundi Program Development Specialist, USAID/EA Regional Director Cheryl L. Anderson, Ambassador Patricia N. Moller, Mme. Antoinette Batumbwira, and Burundi Minister of External Relations.
On September 18, 2008 Ambassador Patricia N. Moller and USAID/East Africa Regional Director Cheryl L. Anderson signed three Assistance Agreements with the Government of Burundi (GOB), represented by the Minister of External Relations, Madame Antoinette Batumubwira. The signing of the Assistance Agreements, along with a Bilateral Agreement executed between the two governments on December 12, 2007, is a pioneering effort and puts into place a renewed development assistance partnership in Burundi following the country’s emergence from 13 years of civil war.
The Assistance Agreements are supportive of the USAID-managed Foreign Assistance Framework objectives of Peace and Security, Governing Justly and Democratically, Investing in People, and Economic Growth at an assistance level of over $15 million in year one.
Photo: US Embassy, Burundi
From left to right; Msr. Callixte Mutabazi, Managing Director, Interbank Burundi S.A., Ambassador Patricia N. Moller, Mme. Alice Nibitanga, USAID/Burundi Program Development Specialist, USAID/EA Regional Director Cheryl L. Anderson, Msr. George Coucoulis, President, Interbank Burundi S.A.
At the same time, Ambassador Moller and USAID/EA Regional Director Anderson signed Burundi’s first Development Credit Authority (DCA) loan guarantee program with Interbank Burundi S.A., which guarantees $3,000,000 of loans to USAID-supported agro-enterprises and micro-finance institutions over seven years. Interbank Burundi S.A. is the first Burundian bank to participate in a USAID-sponsored loan guarantee program. The DCA will work closely with USAID/Burundi’s five-year Agribusiness Program to link potential borrowers to the DCA.
Finally, USAID and the US Embassy took the opportunity of this historic occasion to sign a Letter of Intent with the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands expressing their intent to develop the first Burundi business incubator which will seek to provide an array of business services to start-up businesses in Burundi. This project is the direct result of the Dutch Government’s offer to USAID to implement this three year, €1.5 million program, which will be executed under USAID’s Gift Authority, to support private sector development in the country. Since USAID/Burundi was designated by the GOB as the lead donor of coordination of private sector development, this partnership was seen as a way to support donor coordination objectives of the Paris Declaration on AID Effectiveness.
The US Mission to Burundi and USAID/EA, which provides integral technical support to USAID/Burundi, are excited to announce this new level of partnership with the Government of Burundi, Interbank Burundi S.A., and the Dutch government, for the broader opportunities towards meeting important development objectives that these agreements represent.