Editor’s note: We’ve just received several blog pieces from Byron in Congo. Without adequate Internet service to send them at the time, he wrote anyway and saved them up. Here is the first.
August 24, 2009
Today, was our first day back in Kinshasa, Congo. Our first call was at the USAID office, where we learned that our microenterprise project is on track for approval. They hope the papers will be available within the time we are in Congo. USAID is also developing some new agricultural projects that may be of interest to us. They were eager to connect to others working in development. Most exciting, we heard that the Deputy Prime Minister is pursuing a project with the World Bank to develop $120 million in projects in Équateur Province (which includes the Ubangi area). Half is proposed for infrastructure and half for agricultural development. They also pointed us to Dr. Mahungu at the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), who is working with several groups to institute growing much better varieties of cassava. We visited him and learned that they have also developed new methods of processing cassava to preserve taste while minimizing cyanide residues.
At CDI Bwamanga [the Catholic development agency] we learned more about their road development projects. They have progressed well on the Gemena-Karawa road but are not finished. They are building log bridges, so cement bridges would be very welcome in some places. They hope to extend the road to Businga in the near future, but that depends upon funding by the European Union. CDI are interested in a partnership with us regarding future USAID projects and for promoting coffee production.
QUESTION of the day: How can we help CEUM to develop the leadership skill required to manage $1 million-plus projects?
At last, I found this post again. You have few useful tips for my school project. This time, I won’t forget to bookmark it.