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Photo Gallery: Ecuador and USAID

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USAID has supported the economic and social development of Ecuador since 1942. Today, USAID works in partnership with Ecuador to assist the country in its development needs, supporting programs that strengthen democratic institutions, improve health services and promote sustainable economic growth.

View photos of USAID’s work in Ecuador over the years.

A house-to-house visitor of the Ecuadorian Malaria Eradication Service calls on a householder to inquire about any recent illnesses in the family. Any fever is a possible case of malaria and the visitor will take a diagnostic blood sample and administer anti-malaria drugs to anyone with a recent history of fever. In addition to their routine coverage of the larger cities of Ecuador, these visitors are also intensively checking two areas on the coast where malaria has apparently been completely eradicated by the anti-malaria program under the direction of SCISP, the USAID health and sanitation arm in Ecuador. If these searches fail to reveal any residual malaria during the remainder of 1962, it will be possible to call a halt to the spraying of these areas two years ahead of schedule. Photo Credit: John O. Stivers. In accordance with the guidelines of the Strategic Project of the National Planning and Economic Coordination Board (Junta Nacional de Planificación y Coordinación Económica - JUNAPLA), USAID/Ecuador's work in agriculture during the 1960s focused on promotion of agricultural enterprises concentrated in the Guayas River basin. By means of a loan, the agrarian reform was promoted to benefit rice farmers in the region. In this photo, farmers at a rice processing facility. Through the Ecuadorian Institute for Electrification (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Electrificación - INECEL), USAID provided a loan to plan and execute electric energy projects for Cuenca (Ecuador's third-largest city), Santo Domingo de los Colorados (sixth-largest) and Santa Elena. In 1967, the Electric Energy Company of Riobamba received financing to finish the electric distribution system for that city and for Guano. In 1972, another loan was negotiated, for additional support for the rural electrification plans of the country. The poster says: Ecuador has a rather unique kind of school bus. While most school buses take children to school, Ecuador's 'bibliobus' in effect brings school to the children's parents. The 'curriculum' emphasizes what adults can do to improve their own lives if they will but make the effort to utilize the knowledge they already have. The bibliobus is operated by the Adult Education Department of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. Games developed by an AID-sponsored technical assistance project involving the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts and Ecuadorian education officials are used as part of the 'entertainment' brought to rural communities. Early development cooperation with Ecuador in the 1940s was linked to the demand of strategic inputs for war such as quinine, balsa wood and rubber. In view of the importance that the agriculture sector has for Ecuador, beginning in the 1940s the Government of the United States has contributed technically and financially to its development. Programs undertaken by the Institute for Inter-American Affairs contributed to the promotion of crops such as rubber, balsa wood, hemp, and the extraction of quinine. Here, balsa wood arrives at a sawmill in Guayaquil. Under the Food for Peace Program, started in 1953 and active in Ecuador until the 1990s, more than 150 million pounds of food, including milk, soybean flour and oats, were distributed to benefit hundreds of thousands of pregnant women and breastfeeding children. In the 1970s USAID/Ecuador's first efforts in the area of family planning and responsible parenthood were launched. This program came as an answer to deficient health conditions and rapid population growth, closely linked to low standards of living, high incidences of unwanted pregnancies, clandestine abortions and a lack of access to basic services that threatened the health of mothers and children. In 2000, the financial assistance of USAID to this sector concluded, after having made important achievements in the reduction in the rate of population growth, greater access to information and to the use of contraceptive methods, and improvements in mother and child health. In view of the importance that the agriculture sector has for Ecuador, beginning in the 1940s the Government of the United States has contributed technically and financially to its development. OR In the 1990s, USAID/Ecuador started the Scholarships for Development Program. The program allowed Ecuadorian leaders in different specializations such as health, education, agriculture, municipal administration and community leadership, among others, to receive short- and long-term scholarships for studies in the United States. Approximately 45% of the beneficiaries of these scholarships were women. In the 1980s, health, nutrition, drinking water and environmental sanitation problems were grouped in a USAID/Ecuador program called “Integrated Rural Health Services System.” This program was conceived to promote a low cost system of services that was replicable at the national level. Two basic areas were defined for implementation: institutional support to those organisms entrusted with health programs for rural population, including financing of technical cooperation, training, research, vehicles and equipment; and, demonstration activities in the field in Salcedo, Quimiag–Penipe and Jipijapa, which included primary health services, the provision of drinking water, environmental sanitation and nutrition Games to develop greater fluency with words and numbers are included in an Ecuadorian Ministry of Education experiment with techniques of non-formal education. The games were devised by a team of educators from the University of Massachusetts in collaboration with Ecuadorian educators. The project was sponsored by USAID in response to a request from tdihe Ecuadorian government for technical assistance to obtain bringing more education to people who have not had an opportunity for more than two or three years of schooling. (1974) In the 1990s, USAID/Ecuador supported the Ecuadorian Ministry for Health's efforts to streamline and decentralize its services and coordinate activities with several NGOs to improve efficiency. During the 1990s USAID/Ecuador worked to address the needs of non-traditional export production sectors, including this melon producer. The effort addressed the generation of new sources of employment, concepts of alternative investment and transfer of technology and international marketing mechanisms for non-traditional agriculture, agro-industry and industrial production. Beneficiaries of this project were midsize exporters, and micro entrepreneurs. The labor sector also derived benefits, thanks to the creation of new production plants, especially in rural sectors where labor supply was available. By 1995, at least 16,000 new jobs were offered and some 2,000 entrepreneurs received direct training. USAID worked with the Exporters Federation (Federación de Exportadores - FEDEXPOR) and the National Association of Entrepreneurs (Asociación Nacional de Empresarios - ANDE). With the Ecuador Foundation, USAID was able to stimulate trade and investment in the country. In the 1990s, USAID/Ecuador collaborated with Ecuador's non-profit Corporation for University Education Development (CODEU) on a university texts program, which contributed to the improvement of higher education in the country, through the dissemination and use of texts in classrooms. This program afforded access to modern books at reasonable prices, which constituted a true mechanism for the transfer of knowledge and technology to the country. During the 1990s USAID/Ecuador worked to address the needs of non-traditional export production sectors, including this melon producer. The effort addressed the generation of new sources of employment, concepts of alternative investment and transfer of technology and international marketing mechanisms for non-traditional agriculture, agro-industry and industrial production. Beneficiaries of this project were midsize exporters, and micro entrepreneurs. The labor sector also derived benefits, thanks to the creation of new production plants, especially in rural sectors where labor supply was available. By 1995, at least 16,000 new jobs were offered and some 2,000 entrepreneurs received direct training. USAID worked with the Exporters Federation (Federación de Exportadores - FEDEXPOR) and the National Association of Entrepreneurs (Asociación Nacional de Empresarios - ANDE). With the Ecuador Foundation, USAID was able to stimulate trade and investment in the country.
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