Weekly Briefing (5/21/2012 – 5/25/2012) May 21: Last Friday, President Obama outlined a public-private partnership to work on global poverty issues ahead of the Group of Eight summit in Camp David. On the eve of the summit, USAID unveiled the New Alliance for Food and Nutrition Security, a program designed to lift 50 million people [...]
Tag archives for Sanitation
New Facility Ensures Better Health for Filipino Children
One of the leading causes of illness in the Philippines is diarrhea. It kills more than 27 Filipino children under 5 each day, and poor sanitation costs the Philippine economy nearly $2 billion each year. I was reminded of these staggering figures as I journeyed six hours north of Manila to San Fernando City, La [...]
USAID in the News
Weekly Briefing (7/18/2011 – 7/22/2011) July 19 At a special State Department briefing on the Horn of Africa, CNN reported that USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg stated that the Agency’s Famine Early Relief Warning System predicted the crisis and in August 2010, started pre-positioning supplies in South Africa and other areas near the crisis region. [...]
WASH for Life: Testing Promising Solutions and Scaling Proven Successes in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Dr. Maura O’Neill is the Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Counselor to the Administrator at USAID. In 2008, the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire brought the issue of unsafe sanitation to the silver screen. Audiences cringed as young Jamal is forced to jump into the open pit of feces in which he was previously seen relieving [...]
On World Water Day, Rain Water Harvesting Highlighted in Zimbabwe
By Cary Jimenez, Development Outreach and Communications Officer at USAID/Zimbabwe USAID/Zimbabwe commemorated World Water Day 2011 on March 23 with a special ceremony to draw attention to the efficiency and effectiveness of rainwater collection as a way to provide clean water to families and schools. The event took place at the Tasimukira Primary School in [...]
U.S. and World Bank Strengthen Water Partnership on World Water Day
By: Christian Holmes, USAID’s Global Water Coordinator On March 22nd, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and World Bank president Robert Zoellick signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) committing to a stronger partnership on water issues. The agreement, signed at a World Bank ceremony on World Water Day, will bring the U.S. government and World Bank [...]
Making the Unavoidable Unacceptable
Submitted by John Oldfield, Managing Director of the WASH Advocacy Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy effort in Washington DC entirely dedicated to helping solve the global safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenge. Its mission is to increase awareness of the global WASH challenge and solutions, and to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources [...]
A Look Ahead to World Water Week 2011
Written by Christian Holmes, USAID’s Global Water Coordinator As we enter World Water Week 2011, it is a good time to reflect on the significance of this vital resource that we often take for granted here in the United States, but is such a precious commodity in many other parts of the world. For me, [...]
Providing Safe Water to Cities in India
By: USAID/India For many Indian cities and towns facing the challenges of growing populations and urban expansion, providing direct access to clean, affordable, and reliable drinking water is a significant challenge. Currently, only a fraction of the urban population has direct access to clean piped water, often because of inadequate and inefficient supply systems. The [...]
USAID @ UNGA: Addressing the Global Water and Sanitation Challenge
Submitted by Chris Holmes This morning at an event at the UN Summit titled, “Addressing the Global Water and Sanitation Challenge: The Key to the MDGs,” USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah discussed the United States’ efforts and renewed attention to ensure water security world-wide. Perhaps no single issue is as important to achieving all of [...]
