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Archives for UNGA

Countering Violent Extremism Through Development

Posted by  on Monday, September 28th 2015     
Richard Bernardo, 18, from conflict-affected Mindanao, Philippines, now works at an automotive shop in Zamboanga City after completing a two-month course offered by USAID for out-of-school youth in the region. USAID/Philippines provides skills trainings for out-of-school youth in Mindanao to help them gain access to income opportunities. / Rojessa Tiamson-Saceda, EQuALLS2 Project

Richard Bernardo, 18, from conflict-affected Mindanao, Philippines, now works at an automotive shop in Zamboanga City after completing a two-month course offered by USAID for out-of-school youth in the region. USAID/Philippines provides skills trainings for out-of-school youth in Mindanao to help them gain access to income opportunities. / Rojessa Tiamson-Saceda, EQuALLS2 Project

Where does the fight against violent extremism fit within the broad spectrum of development?

USAID’s mission – to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies while advancing our security and prosperity – outlines the answer.

It is through USAID’s approach to development that we can prevent the underlying causes of discontent from turning into radicalization. It is this inclusive approach that also drives our commitment to advancing the Global Goals.

Over half of U.S. foreign assistance goes to countries in the midst of conflict, or trying to prevent conflict or state failure. While we have made remarkable gains, the scourge of violent extremism undermines the work we and our partners are doing.

Violent extremism impedes growth by discouraging long-term investment – not only by international corporations, but by local entrepreneurs who hesitate before setting up shop in a market or fear investing in inventory.

Violent extremists’ actions tax health systems, overcrowd hospitals, create refugees and displace people from their homes. Responding to attacks consumes government services and resources, stymieing development.

This is why we must focus more effort on preventing the growth of violent extremism before it starts.

Addressing the root causes of violent extremism successfully starts by resolving issues at the community level. While each case is different, our experience indicates it is often a combination of social and economic marginalization, unaccountable governance, and inadequate institutions, among other push factors, that are at the root of extremism.

A generation in northern Uganda lost touch with the environment during years of conflict. Children grew up in crowded IDP camps knowing little about the lands around them. USAID and the Wildlife Conservation Society are advising officials on how to bring back the wild. Koch Lii School, once used by rebels as a base, now has a Wildlife Club where students learn to perform drama on subjects related to biodiversity. / Julie Larsen Maher, Wildlife Conservation Society

A generation in northern Uganda lost touch with the environment during years of conflict. Children grew up in crowded IDP camps knowing little about the lands around them. USAID and the Wildlife Conservation Society are advising officials on how to bring back the wild. Koch Lii School, once used by rebels as a base, now has a Wildlife Club where students learn to perform drama on subjects related to biodiversity. / Julie Larsen Maher, Wildlife Conservation Society

These issues are also at the heart of what impedes economic growth. These grievances create opportunities for pulling forces that draw vulnerable people into the compelling, but ultimately empty, narratives of violent extremism.

Recognizing this, USAID developed its 2011 policy The Development Response to Violent Extremism and Insurgency to help guide the use of our tools effectively, and balance our broader development objectives with these security priorities. It affirms the necessity of identifying and addressing drivers of extremism, while remaining flexible and locally focused.

USAID manages programs that specifically address drivers of violent extremism in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. These programs are working in coordination and often through local and national governments, the private sector and NGOs to address issues of exclusion and injustice. These partnerships enhance USAID’s traditional development tools to address the drivers of extremism before they metastasize into a much larger problem.

Tomorrow’s event at the United Nations on balancing security and development will explore how USAID and like-minded partners can partner to prevent violent extremism. Development professionals care about violent extremism, and those on the security side recognize that development tools and expertise are needed to succeed against violent extremists.

We are confident that we can work together and make progress in key areas.  Already, we are making progress on a foundational step: understanding the local drivers of violent extremism and what works to address them.

A new network to support research focused on these issues, RESOLVE, was launched just last week and is supported through a partnership between USAID, the State Department and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Other efforts, like guidelines for good practices on gender and countering violent extremism by the Global Counterterrorism Forum, create operational approaches for local partnership.

As Secretary Kerry called for in the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, we have to get ahead of the next ISIL. Development that reduces the allure of violent extremist groups has immeasurable payoffs, both in terms of making us more secure and by ensuring we reach our ambitious Global Goals targets by 2030.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Russell Porter is Executive Director for the Secretariat for Countering Violent Extremism at USAID.

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Feed the Future: Progress in the Goal of Ending Hunger

Posted by  on Wednesday, January 14th 2015     

This post originally appeared on the U.S. Department of State DipNote blog.

Emiliano Dominguez Gonzalez displays his recently harvested strawberries in Honduras. Feed the Future helped nearly 7 million farmers like Emiliano last year boost harvests by using new and improved technologies and agricultural practices. / USAID-ACCESO/Fintrac Inc.

Emiliano Dominguez Gonzalez displays his recently harvested strawberries in Honduras. Feed the Future helped nearly 7 million farmers like Emiliano last year boost harvests by using new and improved technologies and agricultural practices. / USAID-ACCESO/Fintrac Inc.

For generations, the United States has been a leader in providing development assistance across the globe to alleviate suffering. But global food price spikes and resulting instability in 2007 and 2008 were a wake-up call: More needed to be done to break the vicious cycle of hunger and poverty.

The answer: Unlock the potential of agriculture as the key to reducing hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition through an initiative that became Feed the Future.

Ram Kumari Tharu displays her harvest in Nepal and smiles after collecting payment from a local trader. She’s tripled her annual income in just two years after extensive training on improved agriculture practices. / USAID NEAT

Ram Kumari Tharu displays her harvest in Nepal and smiles after collecting payment from a local trader. She’s tripled her annual income in just two years after extensive training on improved agriculture practices. / USAID NEAT

In just a few short years, Feed the Future is already changing the face of hunger and poverty for some of the world’s poorest families.  In May 2014, Feed the Future released its Progress Report on FY 2013 results , revealing that the initiative reached nearly 7 million smallholder farmers globally with new technologies and, together with the United States’ Global Health Initiative, reached 12.5 million children with effective nutrition services.

In 2014, the U.S. Government and its partners continued to build on Feed the Future’s early success to drive real change on a large scale.  Here are several examples:

Building on its 2013 commitments to scale up improvements in international agriculture, the U.S. Government launched eight new projects in 2014 supporting improved seed enterprises and other technology providers to accelerate adoption and uptake by smallholder farmers of the most promising agricultural technologies. This $60 million investment will impact Feed the Future focus countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

 

In May, the U.S. Agency for International Development launched its first Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Strategy , laying out a roadmap to reduce chronic malnutrition by 20 percent through the Feed the Future and Global Health initiatives, the Office of Food for Peace development programs, resilience efforts and other nutrition investments. This strategy precedes a forthcoming, government-wide Global Nutrition Coordination Plan. During October and November, the Department of State led a U.S. Government delegation that successfully negotiated the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action, which were adopted by global consensus at the Second International Conference on Nutrition, co-convened by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Food security and nutrition will continue to be at the forefront of U.S. diplomatic efforts and ongoing negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Post-2015 framework, which build on the Millennium Development Goals.

In September, as global leaders gathered in New York City for the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack helped launch the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture during the United Nations Climate Summit, which called on government, finance, business and civil society leaders to take action on climate change. The Alliance advances a global, evidence-based approach to food security and represents an ambitious step in U.S. efforts to integrate a holistic approach to climate change in every area of our work.

Sulton Tukhtaev, a smallholder farmer in Tajikistan, holds his grandchild. Feed the Future has helped his family grow fruits and vegetables in their kitchen garden for income and nutrition. Last year, Feed the Future helped reach more than 12 million children with nutrition interventions. / USAID

Sulton Tukhtaev, a smallholder farmer in Tajikistan, holds his grandchild. Feed the Future has helped his family grow fruits and vegetables in their kitchen garden for income and nutrition. Last year, Feed the Future helped reach more than 12 million children with nutrition interventions. / USAID

In September 2014, members of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives introduced authorizing legislation to codify and strengthen Feed the Future’s comprehensive approach to cultivating the transformative potential of agriculture sector-led growth. HR 5656 — the Feed the Future Global Food Security Act of 2014 — passed by a voice vote in the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support in December.

Housed at some of the top U.S. universities, Feed the Future Innovation Labs are on the cutting edge of efforts to research, develop and scale up safe and effective agricultural technologies that can help feed a growing population.

Housed at some of the top U.S. universities, Feed the Future Innovation Labs are on the cutting edge of efforts to research, develop and scale up safe and effective agricultural technologies that can help feed a growing population.

Each of these examples is helping to create momentum for efforts this year, as we pursue a long-term vision of a world where the scourge of hunger, poverty, and malnutrition no longer threaten global peace and prosperity.

As we start 2015, please take a moment to learn about global hunger and consider what you can do to help end it.  You can start by reading Feed the Future’s “Year in Review” to learn more about our efforts and find out ways you can be involved.  You can also follow @FeedtheFuture for the latest information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nancy Stetson serves as U.S. Special Representative for Global Food Security at the U.S. Department of State, and Tjada D’Oyen McKenna is the Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, as well as the Assistant to the Administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Bureau for Food Security.

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Standing with Civil Society

Posted by  on Wednesday, October 15th 2014     

In an effort to advance the Stand for Civil Society call to action, launched in September 2013, the President reminded us at this year’s United Nations General Assembly that “it is our obligation as free peoples, as free nations, to stand with the courageous citizens and brave civil society groups who are working for equality and opportunity and justice and human dignity all over the world.”

He referenced a newly issued Presidential Memorandum that directs U.S. agencies abroad to support civil society in several ways and announced a groundbreaking USAID initiative, in collaboration with the Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) and the Aga Khan Foundation, to establish Regional Civil Society Innovation Centers that build connections among civil society organizations by providing resources, tools, and knowledge.

Civil society plays an important role in building stable, robust democracies and in protecting the rights of marginalized populations. At the same time, it remains an easy target for governments resistant to change. USAID has become increasingly concerned in recent years as governments adopt more laws that restrict activities of civil society and continue to harass, detain and imprison civil society activists. Tom Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment describes this closing space phenomenon as the “new normal,” which is why the President’s call to action is both timely and necessary.

Photo of woman with ink on finger

By engaging youth in the process of governance, we build a solid foundation for future leaders and contribute to establishing a stable and prosperous future for their countries. / Global Communities

Last month in Jakarta, Indonesia, I attended the Asia Civil Society Experience Summit (CSES), co-hosted by USAID, where the role of civil society and the backlash from numerous governments was the subject of much discussion. At the end of the Asia CSES, the participating activists issued a statement, which called upon Asian civil society, Asian governments and the international community to:

  • Build an enabling environment for civil society;
  • Promote innovative partnerships with diverse actors and change agents:
  • Leverage information and communication technologies to build and strengthen local and regional networks;
  • Explore innovative means to provide technical, institutional and financial support to civil society; and
  • Build and strengthen civil society transparency, accountability and effective governance.

The statement closed with a plea for “donors, governments, and international community to ensure continued financial and political commitment to civil society, particularly in closing and closed environments.”

Having travelled to Jakarta from Sri Lanka, I understood well the tensions and challenges that USAID faces in these environments. Sri Lanka was once a robust democracy but then suffered 25 years of brutal civil war. In the aftermath of the conflict, the government has sought to restrict NGOs they view as “political” by intimidating activists and imposing arduous legal regulations.

USAID’s response applies our three-pronged “prevention, adaptation, and support” approach in closing spaces: prevent the introduction of restrictive legislation; adapt to government efforts that make our existing operations difficult; and commit to continued support, financial or otherwise, for organizations that work in development, reconciliation and human rights.

In Sri Lanka today, many of the organizations that USAID supports are leading the effort to counter government plans to adopt a restrictive NGO law and to highlight concerns about security force intimidation that is affecting their operations. We are also funding programs that work with CSOs to ensure that they can continue serving their communities and advocating for human rights, even as government intimidation increases. And, we intend on continuing to support civil society, even after we transition in 2017 from a full mission to a limited presence country status program.

In Cambodia, USAID’s Development Innovations lab is connecting civil society, technology and social enterprises to provide physical space, expertise and catalytic programming to a number of groups and initiatives. The lab is involved in several activities, including teaching girls to utilize computer code in preparation for an international competition and assisting agriculture organizations to develop better monitoring apps. Via another project in Cambodia, USAID is funding the creation of mobile phone apps that allow Cambodians to read, text and chat in Khmer, their national language, as well as in Cham, the minority language.

The U.S. is the largest supporter of civil society in the world, having invested more than $2.7 billion to strengthen civil society since 2010.

As we continue to face grave challenges around the world, USAID will ensure that, when it comes to civil society, our financial investments are matched by our political commitments, and that we utilize both our presence in the field and technological innovations to support inclusive and accountable democracies that advance freedom, dignity and development.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Garber is a Senior Advisor in the Bureau for Policy, Planning and Learning

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Taking Our New Model of LGBT Inclusive Development to UNGA

Posted by  on Friday, September 27th 2013     

This year’s United Nations General Assembly focuses on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

This week during United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings, USAID made important connections with leaders from other development organizations and private-sector institutions that work to advance global development. Among the topics explored was how we can collaborate to promote inclusive development, ensure equal access to foreign aid, and protect the human rights of one of the world’s most vulnerable populations – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Around the world, LGBT individuals are often among those who least enjoy the benefits from human rights protections, opportunities, and freedoms; they often face discrimination, harassment and violence and are regularly excluded from receiving public services.  Eighty-three countries still criminalize LGBT behavior and seven countries impose the death penalty for same-sex relations.  In some countries the lived experience for LGBT people is getting worse.

Protecting the human rights of LGBT people around the world represents a difficult challenge yet USAID is leading. And USAID can lead more effectively in partnership with others. As a global community we must leverage our resources and technical expertise to effectively and efficiently further LGBT global equality. As Administrator Shah pointed out in the Agency’s 2013 annual letter, collaboration and partnerships are powerful ways to harness the public and private sectors as engines of growth, innovation, and development expertise.

USAID’s LGBT Global Development Partnership promotes foreign assistance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in emerging markets and developing countries. Photo by: Pat Adams/USAID

USAID’s LGBT Global Development Partnership promotes foreign assistance to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality in emerging markets and developing countries. Photo by: Pat Adams/USAID

I had the privilege this week at UNGA to participate in a meeting centered on USAID’s goal to promote LGBT equality through collaboration with others. USAID, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and the Ford Foundation convened public and private donors to strengthen relationships between and among government donors, private foundations, and the businesses supporting LGBT development issues globally. We identified areas for shared learning and increased future collaboration.

At this meeting I was particularly proud to share how USAID has already made great strides with partners to secure better lives for LGBT people, their families, and their communities around the world. USAID’s LGBT Global Development Partnership launched earlier this year brings together a broad coalition of public and private sector partners who are leveraging their joint resources and expertise to advance LGBT equality in the developing world. It aims to strengthen the capacity of local LGBT civil society organizations, train LGBT leaders in how to participate more effectively in democratic processes, and undertake research on the economic cost of discrimination against LGBT individuals. With 12 resource partners co-investing $12 million, it is the largest LGBT global equality initiative.

Last month I had the privilege to witness this partnership in action when I visited a training in Colombia conducted by the Victory Institute for 30 local LGBT people interested in running for political office or managing campaigns.  It was the second such training in just three months–brought back by local demand, as the first training was over-subscribed by 500 percent.

While the challenges remain great, USAID should be proud that it put LGBT inclusive development through public-private partnership on the UNGA agenda this year. I am excited that USAID is taking a leading role in convening partners to solve this very important development problem. Individually, and even more so collectively, strategic investments in global LGBT equality can make a very positive impact on the lives of people around the world.

Learn more about this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

Donors’ Dialogue on How to Effectively Combat Human Trafficking

Posted by  on Wednesday, September 25th 2013     

Want to combat human trafficking effectively? Of course you do: who doesn’t want to see modern slavery end! Well, then we need to communicate, collaborate and innovate.

Those themes emerged Tuesday in New York at a meeting USAID and Humanity United convened, in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly. A year after President Obama’s landmark speech on combating human trafficking, we brought together—for the first time—public and private donors from Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States to discuss the need for more data, dialogue and innovation. We had an in-depth discussion about the gaps in our approaches and discussed where we might collaborate going forward.

Click to read USAID's Counter-Trafficking in Persons Field Guide.

Click to read USAID’s Counter-Trafficking in Persons Field Guide.

USAID has been actively combating trafficking for over a decade spending about $16 million a year making us one of the largest donors in the field. One of the issues that donors were most interested in exploring was how best to integrate and link Countering Trafficking In Persons (also referred to as C-TIP) with work on, for example, food security, health and education as well as in fragile and conflict settings. Breaking down silos was viewed as critical to enhancing our work.

USAID is of course joined by many parts of the U.S. Government in this work. Today, the White House released “Progress Report: The Obama Administration’s Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking at Home and Abroad” that highlights some of our work but also what others in the U.S. Government are doing to combat human trafficking.

During the meeting on Tuesday, we followed the Chatham House Rule so we won’t be attributing the good ideas to the smart people who suggested them. But let’s just say that working together with partners from around the world, human traffickers beware; there is a global movement to combat trafficking in persons and it’s growing, building and adapting. Through these types of collaboration, as well as important investments in innovation and increased evidence of what works best to close the space around traffickers and bring dignity to survivors, we are making significant in-roads in building a community of like-minded donors that can adapt over time to end trafficking in persons.

Learn more about what USAID is doing to counter human trafficking.

Learn more about this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

Follow @USAID and @RajShah for ongoing updates during the week and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #UNGA and #UNGA2013.

USAID at UNGA 2013: Day Two

Posted by  on Wednesday, September 25th 2013     

This year’s United Nations General Assembly focuses on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities. 

UNGA Day Two: September 24, 2013

Highlight:

President Obama delivered an address to the United National General Assembly. A number of outlets are reporting on the President’s announcement of an additional $339 million in humanitarian assistance to Syria.

Announcements:

  • As a part of the Better than Cash Alliance anniversary event, USAID announced that it is on a path to incorporating language into all grants and contracts to accelerate the use of electronic and mobile payments into its programs across the world.

Recap of Tuesday’s Events:

  • Yesterday afternoon Administrator Shah and DFID’s Justine Greening hosted the “MDG Countdown 2013 – Women & Girls” event. The event highlighted the progress made against the MDGs and focused on the work needing to be done over the next 828 days. The event included Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, Geena Davis, actress and UN Special Envoy for Women and Girls in the field of Technology and was moderated by NY Times reporter Nicholas Kristof.

Happening Today:

Learn more about this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

Follow @USAID and @RajShah for ongoing updates during the week and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #UNGA and #UNGA2013.

#TheKeyIsWe +SocialGood

Posted by  on Wednesday, September 25th 2013     

This originally appeared on Social Good Summit. 

Astronaut Ronald J. Garan

Astronaut Ronald J. Garan. Photo credit: NASA

I launched into space on my last mission with a belief that we have all the resources and all the technology necessary to solve many if not all of the problems facing our world, yet nearly a billion people don’t have access to clean water, countless go to bed hungry every night and many die from completely curable and preventable illnesses.

We live in a world where the possibilities are limited only by our imagination and our will to act. It is within our power to eliminate the suffering and poverty that exists on our planet.

So we have to ask ourselves, “If we have the resources and the technology to solve the challenges we face, why do they still remain?”

During my half a year on the International Space Station, I spent the majority of my spare time with my face plastered to a window pondering that question.

I believe the reason our world still faces so many critical problems in spite of our ample technology and resources lies primarily in our inability to effectively collaborate on a global scale.

At the Social Good Summit this year I made the case for global collaboration. The goal of the discussion was to catalyze a global conversation about the need for sharing data. We want to continue this discussion and we want to hear what you have to say.

Please join us on October 11th at 11:00am ET for a Google Plus Hangout focusing on global collaboration and data sharing.Our hope is that the discussion serves as a call to action – disruptive action.

Please visit: http://unitynode.org/get-involved/ and tells us your thoughts on global collaboration. To join the global conversation, please join the Collaboration Community on Google +.

Resource:

Coordination Counts: Fostering Mobile Money in Malawi

Posted by  on Tuesday, September 24th 2013     

One year ago, USAID joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, United Nations Capital Development Fund and Visa Inc. to launch the Better Than Cash Alliance.

This summer, the Government of Malawi joined those organizations in their work to lift millions out of poverty through electronic payments. Citing opportunities for transparency and reduced costs, the Government will begin by shifting $3 million of its existing payment streams away from cash. That may sound modest, but it’s a truly dramatic shift for Malawi.

Just a few days ago on September 13, Malawi Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo was shot because of his leadership to fight graft in the public sector by replacing cash payments with electronic, and thus transparent, payment methods. It is a sobering but incredibly important reminder of just how much this work matters.

A customer checks the details of a text message received after transferring funds via mobile money. Photo credit: Manpreet Romana/AFP

A customer checks the details of a text message received after transferring funds via mobile money. Photo credit: Manpreet Romana/AFP

When I first learned about mobile money, many people were working on it in Malawi but no one was doing it well. The mobile network operators, banks, government, and donors were focused on their own incentives rather than supporting the ecosystem in a coordinated way that would accelerate the creation of products Malawians could use. But to me coordination was critically important because I believe mobile money can have significant impact on the people we target in our programs in agriculture, education, health, and governance.

In Malawi, roads don’t reach many areas and are often in rough shape. Poor access to electricity and low incomes make brick-and-mortar banking too expensive to deliver to rural areas. However in just 10 years, more than half of Malawi has obtained access to a mobile network. In this expansion, we saw an opportunity for reaching financially excluded groups. But Malawi isn’t a country where we could immediately start using mobile money. So what did we do?

We started simple. We started with a demand assessment. This helped us understand the local champions, people’s needs, and how USAID could help bring mobile money to scale.

Our stakeholders were interested in mobile money, but they were fragmented, and no one could do it on their own. So we created a working group of mobile network operators, banks, the government, and donors. The working group allowed us to hear and understand each other. Through the group, we are solving common challenges and compromising where incentives conflict. For example, mobile network operator Airtel used this foundation to launch its mobile money platform in 2012 with its competitor TNM following in 2013.

Though we are a small country, and maybe because we are a small country, we have made great progress since we started. We’ve learned a lot, and I want to share a few of these lessons. I hope they will help any champion in any country or organization to think about supporting mobile money in your country.

  1. Plan for sustainability: We don’t want the working group to depend on donor funding or leadership, so we’ve institutionalized it as a subcommittee under the National Payments Council to encourage local ownership. By doing so, we are convinced it will continue to exist beyond USAID’s involvement.
  2. Maximize coordination: USAID’s ability to convene different partners taps into one of its unique strengths. For example, the World Bank is working on an access to finance project and targeting financial regulations. With the working group, USAID has also helped them understand the regulatory challenges with mobile money, and they’re taking on policy work that they’re best positioned to do.
  3. Prove your case: Mobile money is still a young technology. Many people haven’t used it and don’t see its value, so USAID is helping organizations transition from cash to electronic payments. When they see increases in accountability and find cost and time savings, we gain adopters that help us get to scale.

So, what’s next?  This technology could be expanded to help government fulfill its obligations to pay civil servants in a timely manner by giving it a simple vehicle for payroll transaction; it could help public utilities increase the proportion of customers who pay their bills on time; and it can provide a mechanism for simplifying the management and operation of social cash transfer programs. Most importantly, though, it can provide the means for millions of poor Malawians to participate more fully in the economic life of the country. Sometimes, revolutions start small.

USAID at UNGA 2013: Day One

Posted by  on Tuesday, September 24th 2013     

This year’s United Nations General Assembly focuses on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities. 

UNGA Day One: September 23, 2013

Highlight:

Yesterday afternoon, Administrator Shah sat down with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. During the live television interview, Dr. Shah discussed important role of businesses in development, the tragedy in Kenya, and the Agency’s ongoing mission to provide assistance amid a shrinking budget.

Announcements:

Recap of Events:

  • “Investing in Africa and Beyond” – To explore the state of impact investing as a complement to government funding, JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) hosted an evening program for 250 participants  on the first evening of UNGA from 5-7:30PM. The event provided an opportunity for investors to be catalytic in funding market-oriented solutions to meet social needs, and discuss how we can move the market forward via layered financing and new collaborations. The first panel, moderated by Economist reporter Matthew Bishop, featured Tony Blair and Administrator Shah. The panel addressed how to use innovative finance to address social needs in Africa. The second panel, featuring Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon, focused on breaking new ground on their new Global Health Investment Fund.

  • Social Good Summit:

    • Priya Jaisinghani spoke on a panel about mobile technology‘s role in financial inclusion, with Aldi Haryopratomo, the CEO of Ruma, Arjuna Costa of the Omidyar Network, and Casey Gheen of Lenddo. Priya spoke of the role that a lack of financial services may play in political and economic stability.
    • Later, Astronaut Ron Garan who is currently on detail to USAID, led a discussion on the need for global collaboration and coordination of data and information with Rob Baker, Presidential Innovation Fellow for Open Data, and Harbrinder Kang, Director of Business Development for Cisco. Ron spoke of seeing the world from the International Space Station and recognizing that we have the resources needed to solve global problems, but that we need to work together. Rob Baker discussed his experience with collaborative mapping in post-disaster situations, and spoke of the opportunity for Open Data.

Learn more about this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

Follow @USAID and @RajShah for ongoing updates during the week and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #UNGA and #UNGA2013.

Photo of the Week: Teaching Special Needs Students a Vocation

Posted by  on Tuesday, September 24th 2013     

John Nyanjui and studentsThe USAID-funded Nutrition Kitchen Garden Program launched in October 2011 at Maria Magdalena Catholic Parish School in Thika, Kenya cares for the special needs of mentally handicapped children. The program better equips them with vocational skills, like gardening. Recent graduate John Nyanjui, far left, now works with his former agronomy teacher Josphat Avunga to provide this vocational training to other students. Photo is from Natasha Murigu, USAID.

Learn more about this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and its focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and inclusive development goals for persons with disabilities.

Follow @USAID and @RajShah for ongoing updates during the week and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtags #UNGA and #UNGA2013.

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