PASA participating agency service agreement between the Agency for International Development and the US Dept. of Agriculture/Office for International Cooperation and Development [: 907-1526 famine mitigation activity]

The project, whose principal geographic focus will be Africa, will be implemented through a PASA with the U.S. Department of Agriculture"s Office of International Cooperation and Development (USDA/OICD). USDA/OICD will assemble expert teams who will improve and expand existing famine mitigation activities in five technical areas, test them in the field, and make them available to OFDA and its cooperating partners through U.S. and regional training programs. The activities will be in five technical areas: early warning and rapid assessment; seeds and agricultural hand tools; livestock preservation; water conservation; and cash for work/cash transfer activities. The activities will be designed for both conflict and nonconflict situations. Teams of three to five experts will be assembled for each technical area. Within 60 days of being formed, the teams will identify two or three mitigation interventions which they recommend for development as pilot projects for field testing and three others which OFDA might wish to develop in the future. The field testing will be done by PVOs in an ongoing emergency, and should take no more than 3 months. Pilot projects that prove successful will become OFDA"s generic shelf projects for that type of intervention; their project papers will include detailed explanation of how to carry out the intervention. The team will also develop training materials for three famine mitigation workshops, one in Washington for OFDA and USAID staff and interested cooperating partners, and two in Africa for PVO field personnel and interested host country officials.