VZCZCXRO5120
RR RUEHLN RUEHSK RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0301/01 0691332
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101332Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0127
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 0037
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 0200

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000301 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID PCUL SOCI EFIN TBIO TI
SUBJECT: BRINGING HOME NEW IDEAS -EXCHANGES IN ACTION 
 
DUSHANBE 00000301  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. Summary: City planners, loan managers, librarians and 
hospital administrators - groups of each of these have visited 
the United States in the last seven months under the 
USAID-funded Community Connections program. This program for 
mid-level professionals provides many benefits.  Participants 
get new ideas that help them tackle their job with new energy. 
It helps create networks of professionals to support ideas and 
share experiences, and it gives key people in Tajikistan a 
better understanding of the United States. For a country as 
remote and isolated as Tajikistan, it can literally open up new 
worlds. End Summary. 
 
 
 
A Range of Benefits 
 
 
 
¶2. What do city planners, loan managers, librarians and hospital 
administrators have in common?  In the last seven months the 
USAID-funded Community Connections Program has sent a group of 
ten of mid-level professionals from each specialty on a three 
week visit to a mid-size U.S. city for professional cultural 
program. While in the United States participants stay with an 
American host family. The city planners visited Jackson 
Mississippi, the loan managers Bluefield, West Virginia, the 
librarians visited Lincoln, Nebraska and the hospital 
administrators were in Charlotte, North Carolina. Participants 
are drawn from around Tajikistan, and as a rule do not speak 
English and have limited, if any, travel abroad. 
 
 
 
Pre-Departure Nerves 
 
 
 
¶3. Though pleased to have been chosen, before going many are 
apprehensive about what they will experience in the U.S. 
Negotiating the cultural and linguistics barriers of home stays 
is of high concern. They tend believe that hostility towards 
those from Muslim countries is high and expect to experience 
some personal animosity. They are unsure that what they learn in 
the United States will really be relevant to their life at home, 
and their travelling companions are strangers. 
 
 
 
The Big Change 
 
 
 
¶4. When they return home they come straight from the airport 
where they debrief USAID, Embassy and program staff as well as 
local press about their trip. Though travel-worn and jet-lagged, 
the change is palpable. They express great warmth for America 
and have established what they expect to be enduring friendships 
with host families and others in the host communities.  They 
have forged friendships and the basis of a network among 
themselves, and they have gotten new ideas about how they can 
improve their work and their service to communities. Almost 
invariably, among the first questions that journalists ask is 
how what they saw in the United States. can apply in Tajikistan, 
but the participants are ready with answers. Often what may seem 
commonplace to us, has struck them with the force of revelation. 
 
 
 
Southern Hospitality for Planners 
 
 
 
¶5. For the city planners, who visited Hattiesburg as well as 
Jackson, perhaps the most striking aspect was community 
engagement--the town hall meetings, the publications of notices 
and periods for public comment, explanations by officials of the 
rational behind planning decisions, and coverage by the press of 
planning issues. One participant noted that a City Council 
member had a meeting in his ward for voters to discuss a 
proposed city project. They also were interested in how a 
variety of issues are taken into account-traffic, noise, demand 
of for additional city services, whether water and sewage or 
police patrolling, environmental impact, revenue implications 
and financing. Another interesting aspect was the close 
collaboration between the private sector and city government. 
Though Tajik law and practice is considerably different, most 
participants felt they saw a number of things that could be 
usefully adapted to in Tajikistan to make city planning more 
inclusive and effective. 
 
 
 
 
DUSHANBE 00000301  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
Banking Crisis Backdrop 
 
 
 
¶6. With the banking situation reaching a crisis point during 
their October 2008 visit, the Americans involved with this trip 
felt it was perhaps a bit ironic to be passing on our wisdom to 
Tajiks at this point. The group, however, remained unfazed by 
the events unfolding around their ears and participants were 
mainly struck that Federal Reserve officials still took the time 
to meet with them during a stop in Washington D.C., despite 
attending to the crisis. They were interested in community 
banking and project finance, and the thing that clearly made the 
biggest impression was the concept of credit bureau that would 
give banks better information about the credit history of 
borrowers and allow them to more accurately judge creditworthy 
and asses risk.  A majority seemed determined to work together 
organize something similar in Tajikistan, judging it as the most 
important next step to developing the banking sector. Ideas for 
improved staff training were another area which yielded rich 
results. 
 
 
 
Librarians Shake off the Doldrums 
 
 
 
¶7. The Program Coordinators said pre-departure the librarians 
probably the most gloomy set of participants yet seen.  The 
post-Soviet years have not been kind to libraries and their 
keepers as they fell to bottom of the resource chain and have 
been neglected and ignored.  In contrast, since coming back they 
have been one of the most active alumni groups, getting together 
and sponsoring a seminar per month on various library issues. 
Aside from the sea of red shirts at the annual Oklahoma/Nebraska 
Football game, the librarians perhaps were struck most by 
drive-by/night depository, where patrons could return books 
without actually checking-in.  In fact, similar practices that 
symbolize the level of trust in U.S. society are often some of 
the most striking things to participants in all programs. They 
also marveled at "community center" aspect of public libraries- 
with children's programs, movies, music and software, and 
accommodation for the homeless. Though highly taken with level 
of technology in U.S. libraries, perhaps the most relevant 
concept was treating patrons as customers rather than 
supplicants. 
 
 
 
Preventive Medicine Strikes a Chord 
 
 
 
¶8. Like their colleagues from Mississippi, the hospital 
administrators were pleased to get the chance to see the Ocean 
and felt the warmth of Southern hospitality.  Professionally 
they seized on preventive medicine, and especially promoting a 
healthy lifestyle to reduce the need for medical care, important 
concepts to promote in Tajikistan.  Given the weak state of 
health care in the country, they felt helping people avoid 
illness and accident was even more urgent. Proper nutrition, 
breast-feeding, potable water, anti-smoking campaigns, 
occupational safety, anything that would reduce the chances that 
people need medical treatment was worth looking at promoting in 
Tajikistan.  One doctor noted she was surprised but pleased to 
see that handwashing campaigns were a permanent ongoing feature 
in high-tech U.S. medical facilities despite the high levels of 
education among staff.  This is notable because, because Tajiks 
often feel that donor handwashing campaigns are patronizing, 
implying that Tajiks are too unsophisticated to know about such 
a basic practice. 
 
 
 
¶9. Comment: Although exchanges are mainly seen as long-term 
investments, we can see visible results almost immediately from 
these exchanges of mid-level professionals. They return to 
Tajikistan which a much better understanding of and positive 
feelings toward the United States and take these impressions 
home with them.  They have almost always had their minds opened 
to news possibilities that let them take a fresh look at how to 
organize their work and interact with the community.  They have 
a built - in support network of professional contacts who share 
their experience and understanding, and who can provide moral 
and practical support if they try and implement change. The 
program also provides support to program alumni to remain in 
touch with each other and with U.S. contacts. For a country as 
remote and isolated as Tajikistan, the program literally opens 
up a new world. 
JACOBSON