Laura Rodriguez
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Faith and Development
This year’s National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 2012 capped off what was a very busy week of events for USAID and our faith-based friends and colleagues. But above the events and meetings, what was most important was the chance to connect with old friends and build new friendships, to hear personal stories from people [...]
More Good News but Crisis Continues
On Friday the United Nations declared that famine is no longer present in Somalia. This is great and welcome news to the humanitarian aid community. The newly released data shows the positive impact of the massive international effort to rush life-saving assistance to millions of people in Somalia. What we are doing is working, and [...]
USAID in the News
Weekly Briefing (1/16/2012 – 1/20/2012) January 17: The GlobalPost highlighted India’s progress in its fight to end polio and noted that the country recently marked one year since its last confirmed case of polio. The news outlet interviewed Ellyn Ogden, USAID’s worldwide polio eradication coordinator. In the published interview, Ogden discusses India’s achievement and the global outlook to end polio. January 18: On Wednesday, at the University of Delaware-Wilmington, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah joined Senator [...]
Can Mobile Money Transform a Country?
Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is rebuilding not just brick by brick, but click by click. The earthquake left behind a government in rubble, an economy in shambles, and a people living in makeshift camps, coping with enormous loss. Against this backdrop, the possibility of progress lives not just in the resilient spirit of [...]
Picture of the Week: Tanzania
In Tanzania, The Empowerment through Literacy Education Access Project (E-LEAP) helps adult Maasai women learn basic Swahili literacy skills, which allows them to have greater access to essential skills. Currently funded through our Education Sector, led by Tom LeBlanc, this program partners with Mwedo (Maasai women development organization) and began in 2007 with 150 Maasai [...]
What “Capacity Development” Means to Me
This week, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah attended the Annual Meeting of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) in San Francisco. U.S. universities share a long history of close partnership with USAID, including collaboration on agricultural capacity development activities in the developing world. See below how some of this work is reaching women researchers [...]
International Education Week: Somali Soap Opera Teaches Young People to Take Control of Their Finances
Somali youth are learning from the USAID sponsored soap opera Dab iyo Dahab that being good at math is not the same as knowing how to manage a household budget or run a business. In English, the title means “Fire and Gold.” The innovative collaboration between USAID and the Education Development Center (EDC) proves positive [...]
Engaging Universities to Address the Global Food Security Challenge
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is a national association of 217 state university systems, land-grant universities, and related organizations across all 50 states. This week, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and several Agency representatives are attending APLU’s Annual Meeting, the premier annual summit for senior leaders of public research universities, land-grant institutions, and [...]
