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USAID in the News
Weekly Briefing (4/25/2011–4/29/2011) April 25 NextGov reported that NASA and USAID have signed a pact to share more satellite data and mapping tools with international partners for disaster response. The five-year memorandum of understanding covers several initiatives funded through both agencies that focus on global health, hunger, disaster relief and environmental dangers. April 27 AFP, [...]
Polio Immunization Efforts Showing Positive Results in Southern Sudan
USAID, the United Nations, the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS), and other international partners launched a polio immunization campaign March 28 in southern Sudan, where the crippling disease re-emerged in 2008. “Due to the efforts of the GOSS, development partners, and people of southern Sudan, the outbreak that re-emerged in South Sudan in 2008 has [...]
Providing the Advantage of Literacy to Family Farmers in Burundi
Marie Habonimana is a thirtyish Burundian farmer and livestock herder who was illiterate until several months ago when USAID provided her with an opportunity of a lifetime. Marie lives in the hilly north-central Muramvya Province known for its tea plantations and eucalyptus trees. When USAID’s Burundi Agribusiness Program introduced literacy training in her community in [...]
Working Together to End Stigma and Discrimination Against HIV/AIDS
Stigma and discrimination are two factors that continue to drive the HIV/AIDS epidemic forward. Employees face discrimination at work, women and men are afraid to get tested and run the risk of being ostracized by family and friends, and children are turned away from schools. Stigma and discrimination based on HIV status are wrong, and [...]
Deputy Administrator Announces Initiative to Include Women in Peace Processes and Meets Returnees in Southern Sudan
In a speech at Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan, on April 9, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg announced a new USAID global grant initiative to increase women’s participation in peace processes. Grants of up to $2 million each, totaling up to $14 million, may be made available for projects that support UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which calls for women’s involvement in all aspects of peace and security, recognizing their leadership in peacemaking, and ending sexual violence in conflict.
In The News: 4/11/2011–4/15/2011
April 12: An article in the Washington Business Journal wrote that USAID will increasingly give contracts to companies in the countries where the projects are performed. Administrator Shah said that, “Instead of continuing to sign large contracts with large contractors, we are accelerating our funding to local partners who have the cultural knowledge and in-country [...]
Accidental Empowerment
USAID in the News: 4/4/2011–4/8/2011
April 4: Bloomberg News reported that USAID will send a team into Libya to provide humanitarian relief in the face of the current conflict. Mark Ward, USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, said that one of the team’s first tasks will be to “contact those opposed to Qaddafi, [...]
World TB experts convene, work to blaze the trail to slow disease spread
As featured in Science Speaks by Meredith Mazzotta “As you and I both know, people that dedicate their lives to global health are special,” said U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID) Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah at the opening session of the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board Meeting, taking a moment to recognize the passing of [...]
On World Health Day WHO takes on Drug Resistance
Featured on Science Speaks by Meredith Mazzotta In honor of World Health Day 2011 (April 7), the World Health Organization (WHO) released a six-point policy package to combat the spread of antimicrobial resistance, a problem the organization says is not new but is becoming increasingly burdensome, dangerous and costly. “The world is on the brink [...]
