Fueled by open data, GEO’s efforts are now evident in most regions of the world. The United States has been a pioneer in making satellite and other observations data freely available and is a major supporter of GEO. The U.S. delegation to the conference included representatives from multiple agencies, including NOAA, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Commerce, USDA, USAID and the State Department.
This is a video of Nelson Mandela announcing a partnership with USAID on the AIDS Response Partnership in Durban, 2000. We continue to join with the world as it mourns the loss of Nelson Mandela.
On November 18 at the Tacloban Airport in the Philippines, USAID Assistant Administrator Nancy Lindborg talks about “steady drumbeat” of aid from the U.S. to help those affected by Typhoon Haiyan. On the trip, Nancy will visit Tacloban and Manila to meet with senior U.S., UN, and Philippine officials. She will observe multilateral, interagency, and USAID relief operations. She will also tour distribution centers to determine additional humanitarian aid relief.
Learn more about USAID’s relief and response efforts to assist those affected by Typhoon Haiyan.
Follow @NancyLindborg on Twitter for on-the-ground updates!
On November 8, Typhoon Haiyan—known as Yolanda in the Philippines—made landfall in the central Philippines, bringing strong winds and heavy rains that have resulted in flooding, landslides, and widespread damage.
According to USAID, the storm affected an estimated 9.7 million people, and damaged or destroyed approximately 23,200 houses, as well as public infrastructure and agricultural land. Those numbers are expected to increase in the coming days as more information becomes available.
Through the USAID-supported High Mountain Partnership (HiMAP), Peru and Nepal are addressing the impacts and risks of rapidly melting glaciers in high mountain areas. The HiMAP brings scientists, governments officials, and local people together to share lessons learned on managing high-risk, high-impact floods caused by rapidly melting glaciers.
Learn more about USAID’s work in climate change and promotion of development based on climate-smart planning and clean technologies.
As part of USAID’s 52nd birthday celebration, we highlight a Feed the Future partnership that is helping to improve nutrition in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has the highest cattle population in Africa, at 52 million, including 10.5 million dairy cattle.
In 2011-2012, Ethiopia produced 3.3 billion liters of milk but only about five percent of it was sold in commercial markets. Despite an active dairy sector, individual consumption of milk in Ethiopia is only 19 liters per year and child undernutrition rates are among the highest in the world.
About an hour and half drive outside of Addis Ababa, Project Mercy, a faith-based relief and development organization, owns a 350-acre dairy farm in Cha Cha, Amhara Regional State. Through its Dairy Cattle Breeding Program, Project Mercy has a vision to help improve the nutritional status of men, women and children and generate new incomes by cross breeding Ethiopian indigenous cattle with the local British Jersey breed.
Currently, Ethiopian indigenous cattle only produce one to two quarts of milk per day, which is not enough for the typical Ethiopian family of eight. As a result, the majority of children in Ethiopia do not consume milk, leading to malnourishment and other complications such as stunted growth.
Through this partnership, the project is providing technical assistance to beneficiaries before and after the dairy cows are transferred to local families. Technical assistance includes activities such as developing a farm management plan, hosting training sessions and improving animal feed production. All of these ensure that the crossbreed will achieve its highest levels of production and will increase milk production up to 12 quarts per day. In addition, the project is linking targeted households to new markets where families will be able to sell their milk products.
This project contributes to the goals of Feed the Future, which works to reduce poverty, hunger and undernutrition in 19 focus countries around the world. USAID is the lead agency for this whole-of-government initiative.
Watch the short video below to learn more about this partnership.
This year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will partly focus on the realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other agreed development goals for persons with disabilities. Over 1 billion people, or approximately 15% of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. 80% of them live in developing countries. USAID is committed to disability-inclusive development by supporting disability-specific programs to address targeted needs and integrating disability into all our programs. Watch this video about a success story of USAID Macedonia‘s Persons with Disabilities Internship and Employment Project.
Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) is a flagship program which began at USAID in October 2010 to provide grant funds for innovative ideas. Through this open project, USAID is able to locate and attract innovators from across the globe with ideas that could radically reshape the landscape of development ventures. From students to tenured faculty, international NGO’s to development economists, anyone is eligible to apply for a grant. Innovation is a key topic in Administrator Shah’sFall Semester message to university students this year and many of those young people will go on to solve our world’s development challenges, some with support from USAID and DIV. Learn more about DIV and how you can apply.
Also check out the #FallSemester page to learn more about how to engage with Administrator Shah during campus visits or via online web-chats.
Posted by USAID/Senegal on Tuesday, September 10th 2013
BioReclam is a major activity being conducted with vulnerable women to provide them with access to land for producing food and earning income during the rainy season. The project works with Communities to allocate abandoned lands to vulnerable people, This land is being reclaimed using a package of innovative techniques and is used to produce lucrative, low maintenance crops rich in micronutrients such as Okra and Hibiscus (leaves and flowers). These crops/varieties are selected to be particularly rich in Iron and Zinc. Learn more about we are doing in Senegal.
The USAID Horticulture Project in Bangladesh aims to educate and train local farmers on innovative agricultural technologies that help diversify crops to increase nutritional value. With our partners the International Potato Center, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, BRAC and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), we are working with local farmers to diversify diets and agricultural production systems with potato, orange-fleshed sweet potato, summer tomato, and nutritious indigenous vegetables. Meet some of the women farmers that have benefited from training in grafting tomato and producing sweet potato seedlings.
