United States-Asia Environmental Partnership : five-year review

Individual sections examine: the continuing relevance of the organizing premises for the Partnership and the rationale for a continuing USAID engagement in Asia, and four specific aspects of USAEP operations: its definition of the development problem; its geographical focus; the place it accords trade; and whether it is results-oriented. Stated summarily, the review concludes that the Partnership has correctly defined an important development issue -- the opportunity for a "clean revolution" in Asia. It is operating in the right set of countries, although China and Vietnam should be included, with the right mix of U.S. interests and partners, to which the U.S. Department of State and the foreign policy establishment could be added. However, to reach its goals, the Partnership must (1) adopt a pro-active and more extensive operational approach, focusing on energy and urbanization in addition to industrialization; (2) enrich its technology transfer activities to embrace process innovation, information dissemination, and international technology cooperation; and (3) dramatically increase the number of Asian partners. (Author abstract, modified)