The SANREM CRSP LWA cooperative agreement is designed to allow maximum flexibility to USAID Missions and Regional Bureaus to quickly initiate, design, and manage country and region-specific activities without lengthy competitive awards processes. The LWA mechanism follows the guidelines of Contract Information Bulletin 99-10 Leader/Associate Assistance Instruments (May 14, 1999). The caveat to designing an Associate Award is that it must be consistent with the general program description of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management CRSP Leader award.
Following are summaries of SANREM CRSP Associate Awards and other activities, with links to details.
Ethiopia
Productive Safety Net Program – In April 2009, a team including SANREM CRSP Program Director Theo Dillaha traveled to Ethiopia to begin the design phase of a “train the trainers” program leading to improved design, construction, and maintenance of environmentally sustainable rural feeder roads across the African nation. Details are on the Ethiopia overview page and the website of Virginia Tech's Office of International Research, Education, and Development (external link), which manages the SANREM CRSP.
Madagascar
Technical Assistance Award – Before being shut down in 2004, a logging company used heavy machinery to build the 17 kilometer road through the formerly pristine Didy reserve in Madagascar, then harvested the timber beside the road. Scientists feared that the swath would disrupt migration of lemurs, which typically travel through tree canopies. At the request of USAID and funded by a technical assistance award, a team including SANREM CRSP Program Director Dillaha visited Madagascar in 2005 and 2007 to study restoration activities and progress. Details and a link to the team’s final report are on the Madagascar overview page.
Southern Sudan
Agricultural Higher Education Associate Award – The SANREM CRSP received an Associate Award in 2008 from USAID’s Sudan Mission to evaluate higher education needs in agriculture and natural resource management in Southern Sudan. Because the region’s higher education system collapsed during more than 50 years of civil war, few well-trained Sudanese are available to deal with agriculture and natural resource issues. SANREM’s goal is to evaluate education and human resource needs in Southern Sudan and to develop higher education curricula to meet these needs. Details and links are on the Southern Sudan Associate Award page.
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)
The SANREM CRSP received an Associate Award in 2007 from USAID's Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade (EGAT) to study payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs in developing countries in collaboration with the BASIS CRSP. The study expanded the SANREM Knowledgebase to consolidate knowledge on PES projects in developing countries and developed regional reviews of payments for hydrologic services in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Details and links are on the PES Associate Award page.