USAID continues to work around the clock to provide assistance to flood-ravaged Pakistan. Administrator Shah described the latest efforts to NPR while Mark Ward, acting director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, laid out the challenges in an interview with CNN. Dr. Shah accompanied Secretary Clinton and Special Representative Holbrooke and to New York to urge the international community to do more to support the relief effort and to announce an additional $60 million commitment by the United States; IPS covered a forum at The Asia Society before the United Nations meeting on Pakistan assistance.
USAID and the Coca Cola Company announced an initial contribution of $1 million to the Haiti Hope Project, a public-private initiative that aims to develop a sustainable mango industry in Haiti.
In other news, the AP provided further coverage of Administrator Shah’s discussion of foreign aid funding in Seattle and The Himalayan highlighted a new health program for Nepal.
Administrator Shah had mentioned during his recent visit to Pakistan that USAID continues to work around the clock to provide assistance to flood-ravaged Pakistan. But why this aid is not been able to reduce the gulf of misperceptions and misconceptions between the people of the two countries. CEDA research reveals that one of the main reasons is the misappropriation and mismanagement of USAID funding to the NGOs and their poor tracking record. Many NGOs use these funds for political maneuvering and wining of hearts and minds is very much missing in the whole distribution of aid and this need to be checked.