Guinea U.S. Foreign Assistance Performance Publication FY 2009

Following the December 2008 coup, the USG suspended assistance to Guinea, except for humanitarian and democracy-promotion assistance. The primary goal of USG assistance was to engage fully with Guinean and international efforts to achieve a transition to civilian, democratic rule through credible legislative and presidential elections. USG assistance used a strategy of improving governance and supporting civil society across sectors, with the goal of both strengthening democratic institutions and achieving sector-specific improvements, such as in health and agriculture. The assistance portfolio included programs to improve local governance and support decentralization, a health program focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, improving maternal and child health, and supporting access to quality family planning and reproductive health services, and a Food for Peace program to improve food security and nutrition in selected areas. Significant results were achieved at the local level, as well as on the technical side of elections preparations, despite the deteriorating political and security environment. However, assistance fell short of meeting a number of targets in all sectors due to the suspension of some planned assistance, sporadic civil unrest, and the postponement of the elections. In the electoral process, USG assistance helped Guinea make notable progress in preparing for elections and also supported significant improvements in local governance, strengthened civil society and the media, and increased citizens' participation in governance and political processes. USG assistance enabled the registration of more than four million eligible voters using a biometrics system, trained 1,325 political party representatives, and helped 47 political parties to agree on a code of conduct. In the health sector, the USG's long-term goal for Guinea is to improve governance and transparency to build Guinea's capacity to deliver better health care services. Despite challenges, including a low government budget for health, rampant corruption, and poor governance, USG assistance made substantial progress in improving healthcare at the community level. USG assistance helped health facilities and laboratories provide voluntary counseling and testing services for HIV/AIDS, supported community-based health co-management committees, and made advances in increasing contraceptive prevalence. In the agricultural sector, the USG's agricultural assistance to Guinea is principally through the Food For Peace-funded "Food Security and Livelihoods" project. This program improved food security and promoted agricultural enterprise development in Pita and Telemele, two of the most impoverished areas in Guinea. USG assistance supported grassroots-level agriculture and forestry institutions, increasing their organizational capacity to manage staff and provide resource users with useful technical information and inputs. This included supporting over 75 community-based farmer organizations with training and technical assistance, resulting in more than 2,000 farmers adopting new farming technologies, and over 7,700 rural households having more food and income.