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- 01/08/09: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Director of Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator, at the U.S. Institute of Peace - "Commentary on the Secretary of State’s Opening Remarks on 'Today’s World, Tomorrow’s Challenges.'"
- 01/07/09: Remarks by Henrietta H. Fore, Director of Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator, at Building Partnerships: Development in Diverse Muslim Societies
- 12/10/08: Remarks by Dr. Kent Hill, Assistant Administrator for Global Health, at the International Human Rights Week Event
- 12/09/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, at the Society for International Development
- 11/28/08: Remarks by Henrietta Fore, Administrator, USAID and Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance, Doha Financing for Development International Conference - "Assessing the Global Financial System and Next Steps for Ensuring Stable Financial Flows for Development"
 RSS Feed for Recent USAID Speeches and Testimony
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Remarks by Dr. Kent Hill
Assistant Administrator, Global Health
U.S. Agency for International Development
International Human Rights Week Event
USAID Headquarters, Washington, DC
December 10, 2008
I am delighted to welcome all of you to USAID: distinguished activists round the world, bloggers, journalists, our implementing partners, and those from the communications sector. For those who have traveled from afar to join us, who have taken great risks to tell the truth about what is happening in your home countries, I warmly welcome your participation in today's roundtable discussion, on the occasion 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thank you for your courage, your creativity and ingenuity to distribute one important commodity of freedom: information. I know your reporting and blogging serves as life-giving, providing daily hope for thousands and thousands, for the younger generations in growing numbers.
To the courageous women and men here from Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, and Sudan, I am honored to be with you today.
Particularly during this International Human Rights Week, I appreciate this opportunity to highlight a number of ways USAID seeks to support the freedom of information, and to expand the capacity of those who are using new technologies to reach their readers and listeners. These cutting edge technologies provide opportunities for information not available a decade ago.
Last week USAID was pleased to lend support to a workshop with journalists and civil society activists from Zimbabwe who are seeking to develop comprehensive, alternate frameworks for their media. Aptly titled, "The Media We Want… Free, Fair and Open", over 120 participants focused on the current legal environment affecting the free media, and as you will be doing today, drew lessons from each other's experiences. The role of the media has proven crucial in other peaceful, political transitions, especially in the southern African region.
Another important, but not obvious, part of USAID's effort in support of basic human rights is ensuring equal access to public services. From the distribution of seed packs to communities hard-hit by political violence in Zimbabwe, to the provision of emergency supplies in Burma in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, USAID has set the standard. Possession of a particular political party card should never be a requisite to obtain food aid or health care.
The United States continues to provide substantial emergency relief commodities and assistance programs in agriculture, food, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene to those most in need. Today, our First Lady, Laura Bush is in New York announcing that USAID will provide additional disaster assistance, along with funds to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, prevent the outbreak of Avian influenza, along with the funding of anti-tuberculosis and malaria programs.
The examples of both Burma and Zimbabwe dramatically demonstrate how the absence of a free press and basic human rights is equated with the absence of good governance. Freedom of the press and freedom of information represent essential human rights. The right of free speech enables citizens to engage important public issues with more informed voices. This is why USAID has supported the development of independent media in over 50 countries, assisting in such areas as journalism education, legal enabling environments for freer media, the economic self-sustainability of media, and other initiatives designed to strengthen the freer and fuller exchange of information and perspectives.
As technology rapidly evolves, progressively more attention has focused on the new electronic media, such as the world wide web, blogging, podcasting, and use of mobile phone technologies. These new electronic media platforms increasingly serve to democratize mass communications, a trend which USAID promotes.
Even in otherwise highly repressive communications environments, ordinary citizens on every continent enjoy expanding capacities to become better informed from Internet-based sources of information. More engage in citizen journalism. More are blogging to facilitate the exchange of opinions, or use rapidly broadening, mobile phone-based communications capacities.
New media, from video blogs to SMS to social networking sites, thus offer growing potential to make independent voices heard and to organize citizens to action. The use of SMS and Facebook to mobilize grassroots initiatives in Egypt and elsewhere underscores the importance of new media.
It is estimated that by the end of 2008, subscriptions for mobile phones will have reached 4 billion. The world is seeing the new applications for mobile phones expand the ability of an individual citizen to penetrate the shroud of government censorship and circumvent the barriers to freedom of speech. For example, the National Democratic Institute has designed a simple SMS-based system for trained volunteers to monitor and report on irregularities during election campaigns.
Recognizing the potential of mobile phones, I am pleased to announce the release of USAID's new publication entitled A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media. The document describes new advances in mobile phone technologies and interactive broadcasting platforms for a better informed and more active global society and citizen produced media. We are learning more and more how mobile phones - often the only technology low- and medium-income citizens own - enhance access to information, including citizen-produced media.
The publication also discusses at some length the all important security risks for users of mobile phones under conditions of government repression and surveillance. Of critical importance in restrictive environments, the paper discusses advances in technologies to avoid detection. For example, the MIT Center for Civic Media has funded the development of an interactive workspace that enables journalists and citizens to share content and information while remaining off-line and thus undetected.
This report includes an inventory of current and potential uses of mobile phones, promoting citizen media and freedom of information. Colleagues in the Office of Democracy and Governance, in keeping with its technical leadership, are strategically tracking these new directions for medium-term media assistance and investments.
These technologies will, we anticipate, impressively enhance the work undertaken by our democracy and governance cadre. We now have a good understanding of what is possible when USAID's democracy and governance budget is sustained and strategically invested. A recent study sponsored by our Office of Democracy and Governance, undertaken by a prestigious US academic team, found that USAID's assistance had a significant positive impact on democratic development. The technology-based developments will further enhance that track record.
We anticipate that, as monies become available in FY09, we will continue to provide immediate, critical funding in instances of backsliding from democracy or other political crises. We often have unique and narrow windows to respond to snap elections and unexpected democratic opportunities. We are eager to expand the volume and scope of this fund, the Elections and Political Processes Fund, over time.
Over the past decade, USAID's Office of Democracy and Governance has been supporting the RIGHTS Consortium. The Consortium, made up of Freedom House, the American Bar Association, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), is providing both rapid response and long-term development assistance to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law.
We are excited about the new human resources we are gaining through the Development Leadership Initiative, as the Agency is pressing forward to double the number of USAID Foreign Service Officers by 2012. We are deepening the training for the democracy and governance specialists who are expected to join USAID's ranks, as well as further train our Foreign Service Nationals.
Our democracy and governance officers will be able to spend more time in the field to acquire a deeper understanding of the challenges and issues at the ground level, and to enable them to translate that knowledge into strategies and programs that reflect field realities.
I am pleased also to announce the establishment of a new award for USAID Mission Directors. The award for "Excellence in the Advancement of Human Rights and Freedom" will be granted annually in recognition of outstanding performance by a Mission Director in the protection of human rights and the promotion of freedom.
Let me express my deepest admiration and appreciation for you activists who have joined us today, some who have traveled a great distance. We recognize the dangers, suffering and fear that many of you have endured. No doubt you have family and friends who are in your country of birth who cling to the hope for more information through these new media formats. They too seek to use this knowledge to hold their officials at all levels to account. You are a beacon of light in your countries and to all of us dedicated to ensuring that the protection of human rights is truly universal. We at USAID and the Department of State are pleased to work alongside you in this quest.
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