IDEA-NEW

IDEA-NEW is an acronym for Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West, and is a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded program in Afghanistan.[1] It works with farmers to grow different crops in provinces where poppies are frequently grown for opium production[2][3][4] and collaborates with Afghan governmental bodies[5] such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Lifestock, the Ministry of Women's Affairs and the Ministry of Counter Narcotics.[3] The fact that the program consults with local Afghans "at every stage of its operations" and uses almost all Afghan people on staff makes this project both unusual, and according to Trudy Rubin, more successful than other civilian-aid programs backed by the United States.[6]

History

IDEA-NEW took place between March 2, 2009 and March 1, 2014.[7] The project was funded by the United States government with a $150 million dollar budget and intended to operate in less-violent areas of Afghanistan.[8] A contractor, Development Alternatives Inc. leads the project.[6]

The project built a farmer's market in Qala-e-Naw.[9] They also rehabilitated the Sakha Canal in the Baharak District, starting work in 2011.[9]

References

  1. Office of Inspector General (29 June 2012). "Audit of USAID/Afghanistan's Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives For the North, East, and West Program" (PDF). Office of Inspector General U.S. Agency for International Development. U.S. Government. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  2. "Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East, and West (IDEA-NEW)". DAI. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 "About Us". www.ideanew.af. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  4. "Afghanistan – Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West (IDEA-NEW)". ACDIVOCA. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  5. "INCENTIVES DRIVING ECONOMIC ALTERNATIVES – NORTH, EAST, WEST (IDEA-NEW)". USAID. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  6. 1 2 Rubin, Trudy (28 December 2010). "Trudy Rubin: Successful Model for Foreign Aid is IDEA-NEW". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  7. "Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives — North, East and West (IDEA-NEW)". Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  8. Felbab-Brown, Vanda (2013). Aspiration and Ambivalence: Strategies and Realities of Counterinsurgency and State Building in Afghanistan. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. p. 173. ISBN 9780815724414.
  9. 1 2 Alikuzai, Hamid Wahed (2013). A Concise History of Afghanistan in 25 Volumes 1. Trafford Publishing. p. 654. ISBN 9781490714462.
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