August 23, 2011
Volume Two, Issue Thirty-One
World Humanitarian Day
A mother fans one of her ill children at a Cholera Treatment Center run by USAID partner International Medical Corps on Oct. 28, 2010 in Verrettes in the Artibonite department of Haiti. Photo Credit:Kendra Helmer/USAID
On Friday, USAID joined the world in celebrating World Humanitarian Day. Nancy Lindborg, USAID's assistant administrator for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, wrote a moving post in our blog saluting those humanitarian workers who spend their lives providing service, often at great personal risk, and reminding us to honor them by finding ways to help others around the world. Here are some highlights from Nancy's post:
Reaching out to those suffering from crisis and disaster is a fundamental human impulse and a deeply enshrined American value. It is a value we share with people around the globe. It is the silver lining of any crisis, when the best of who we are as people emerges just when things are the bleakest.
This day provides an opportunity to honor the humanitarian impulse in all of us and to applaud all the ways in which people mobilize to help others, even when they have little to spare.
As we reflect on the legacies and lives of the aid workers who paid the ultimate price in service to helping others-whether during the devastating earthquake in Haiti last year or in active conflict zones-let us also appreciate the tremendous service that aid workers worldwide continue to perform every day, despite the risks, and in pursuit of a more peaceful and prosperous planet.
World Humanitarian Day is above all a celebration of all the ways people help others around the world. And I cannot think of a better way to honor humanitarians than to encourage you to help those in eastern Africawho are struggling to survive in the wake of the worst drought in 60 years.
Read the full post and learn how you can help on USAID's ImpactBlog.
DC Details
LAUNCH:Energy Challenge
A solar-home solutions company in Tanzania. Photo Credit: Ashden Awards
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USAID and its partners in the LAUNCH program (NASA, the State Department, and Nike, Inc.) have issued our LAUNCH: Energy challenge statement, formally beginning the third module of the LAUNCH program.
LAUNCH's mission is to search for, showcase, and support innovators poised for potential large-scale impact on humanity's most pressing sustainability challenges. LAUNCH will select a group of approximately ten energy innovators from around the world to attend the LAUNCH: Energy Forum at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be held November 10-13, 2011.
USAID and its partners would love to have your help in casting the net as widely as possible in our search for leading-edge energy innovators. The challenge statement is an open, public call for applications; individuals and organizations in the for-profit, not-for-profit, university/research, and social enterprise sectors are all eligible. The application period is currently open and will close in mid-September; you can apply directly through the platform on the LAUNCH website.
Learn more about LAUNCH:Energy in the ImpactBlog.
Read an article about the LAUNCH program in this month's Frontlines.
Innovation @ USAID
At USAID, we use "innovation" to refer to novel business or organizational models, operational or production processes, or products or services that lead to dramatic improvements (not incremental ones) in achieving development outcomes more effectively and cheaply, and that reach more beneficiaries in a shorter period of time.
Global Alliances for Effective Disaster Relief
Members of USAID's Disaster Assistance team. Photo Credit: USA
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Public-Private Partnerships can be innovations in development when their resources are leveraged to reach more beneficiaries in a shorter period of time.
For disaster assistance, USAID has created an integrated strategy for identifying strategic partners to respond quickly to natural disasters, enabling USAID connections and expertise to leverage and mobilize private sector resources. These partnerships address each stage of USAID disaster relief: preparedness and mitigation, acute response, recovery, reconstruction, and transition.
Global Alliances for Effective Disaster Relief are a continuing innovation in development at USAID. After the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, President George W. Bush called on private sector CEOs to establish the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund, which - along with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy - administered nearly $20 million to NGOs for relief, reconstruction, and rehabilitation. USAID technical staff provided key expertise to this powerful partnership. In 2002 in Angola, where ChevronTexaco has a local presence, USAID and ChevronTexaco matched funds for a $20 million post-conflict portfolio that included agricultural extension services; bank guarantees to provide credit for small businesses; and vocational training, placement, and business opportunities for ex-combatants.
To highlight an Innovation of USAID, submit examples to: InnovationExamples@usaid.gov
Visit USAID's Innovation Website for more information.
FrontLines
The Specter of "Climate Wars"
A Kenyan school boy wearing worn out shoes carries a plastic bottle filled with river water as he heads back to school in Kenya. Photo Credit: Tony Karumba/ AFP
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In 2007, many in the advocacy community rushed to categorize the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan as a "climate war" in the wake of a compelling United Nations report that emphasized the ways climate change and environmental degradation can drive conflict.
In 2009, international media focused significant attention on an academic study that analyzed historical linkages between civil war and temperatures in sub-Saharan Africa and suggested there would be a 54-percent increase in armed conflicts by 2030.
In both cases, subsequent research and analyses conducted by prominent scholars countered those original claims of such direct climate and conflict connections, at least based on existing evidence. Those studies are two examples of the recent spate of analyses on the subject and serve as cautionary tales against alarmism and overly simplistic assumptions about specific connections between climate change and stability.
The reality is far more complicated.
Continue reading in the current edition of FrontLines.
Want More Information? Follow the Impact Blog
In addition to our weekly newsletter, USAID has an active blog that covers USAID's programs across the world. Click here to visit the Impact Blog.
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