Tag Archives: USAID

A Libyan Refugee Crisis / Libya Ousted From Human Rights Council / Green Dentists

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A refugee crisis is boiling over at Libya’s border. The United Nations votes Libya out of the the U.N. Human Rights Council. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urges Congress to approve the administration’s budget for the State Department. The U.S. and China must cooperate on a nuclear-free Korean peninsula. Some U.S. dentists are going green. And, finally, International Women’s Day is March 8.

Refugee Crisis at Libya Borders
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The situation in Libya has become not just a political crisis, but a potential humanitarian crisis as well, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says. Foreign workers and frightened Libyans are pouring to the borders to escape the turmoil, and international aid agencies are gearing up resources to cope with needs for food, shelter and clothing.

UNGA Suspends Libya
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All 192 member nations of the United Nations General Assembly have voted to suspend Libya from the U.N. Human Rights Council due to its government’s violent attacks on protesters opposed to Muammar Qadhafi’s rule. U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice describes the vote as “unprecedented” and “a harsh rebuke – but one that Libya’s leaders have brought down upon themselves.”

Pass Obama Budget, Clinton Says
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urges Congress to approve President Obama’s budget request for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, and warned that cutting funding could harm key investments in countries across the Middle East. “The entire region is changing, and a strong and strategic American response is essential,” Clinton says in testimony to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

North Korea’s Nuclear Activities
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Senior State Department officials say China and the United States share the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons programs from the Korean Peninsula and that both countries will need to work together to resolve North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state. North Korean nuclear activity “is an issue which is at the very center of the U.S.-China relationship,” says Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth.

When Your Dentist Turns Green
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A movement is building to “green” America’s 125,000-plus dental offices. Since Ina and Fred Pockrass founded the Eco-Dentistry Association in 2008, dental offices in 45 states and 13 other countries have pledged to reduce their impact on the environment.

Shirley Chisolm “Broad Shouldered” Women
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first , which recognizes women’s past struggles and accomplishments and focuses on what needs to be done to provide greater opportunities for women today. At right, Shirley Chisholm, who in 1968 became the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress.

Clinton on Civil Society / World Food Prices / Color in Freedom

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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls for enhanced engagement between civil society groups and the United States. Food prices are up by 29% worldwide. President Obama’s Global Health Initiative will turn its focus to solutions for the poorest, most rural areas around the world. A top diplomat discusses President Obama’s Western Hemisphere policy. Some effortless fixes can reduce greenhouse gases. Finally, meet African-American artist Joseph Holston.

Clinton on Civil Society
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Speaking at the inaugural Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton calls for more interaction between civil society groups and U.S. officials. At right, Clinton meets with Azeri civil society leaders in 2010 and emphasizes the importance of engaging with groups outside government that work to improve their countries.

Food Prices up 29% Worldwide
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The World Bank says global food prices have risen 29 percent from a year ago, driven by a combination of weather shocks and food export bans, which are forcing millions more people into extreme poverty. “This is (a) serious cause for concern,” says World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Health Care for the World’s Most Needy
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President Obama’s Global Health Initiative will turn its focus to community-based approaches and health care solutions for the poorest, most rural areas around the world, says Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “That is our battleground, and I’m proud to say that is where USAID will try to lead the fight,” he says.

U.S. Western Hemisphere Policy “Informed,” “Optimistic”
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President Obama’s Western Hemisphere policy is “informed, engaged, dynamic, collaborative and optimistic,” says Arturo Valenzuela, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Energy Conservation Targets
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Energy efficiency programs target relatively inexpensive and effortless fixes that can have a big effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, many U.S. states are pushing ahead with energy-saving targets for power companies. Together, these states will help the United States reduce emissions in a significant way.

The final movement of Color in FreedomColor in Freedom: Journey Along the Underground Railroad
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Artist Joseph Holston creates art based on African-American subjects, saying he feels that African Americans should have “a voice through art.” His series Color in Freedom: Journey Along the Underground Railroad, which is currently touring the U.S., goes beyond the conventional understanding of the Underground Railroad as a historical episode and instead conveys a broader narrative about the African American experience. At right, the final movement of Color in Freedom shows the fruition of the struggle for freedom.

Obama Denounces Iran Attack / The Carbon Capture Challenge / Native American Art

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President Obama denounces a terrorist attack on a mosque in Iran. Reducing greenhouse gases is going to take more than cap-and-trade. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hosts a town hall meeting to discuss the release of the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Read our handbook on U.S. media law. The U.S. gives Jordan vehicles to help in its fight to protect intellectual property. Global citizens speak up about climate change. And finally, explore a photo gallery of Native American art.

Obama Denounces Iran Attack
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President Obama denounces a bombing attack targeting Iranian civilians in Chabahar as “disgraceful and cowardly” and says those who carried out the attack must be held accountable. “The murder of innocent civilians in their place of worship during Ashura is a despicable offense,” Obama says.

The Challenge of Carbon Capture
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Cap-and-trade and renewable energy alone likely won’t be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This reality has prompted governments and companies to increasingly look for new and unconventional solutions to the climate problem.

A Diplomacy, Development Review
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A newly released internal study of the U.S. State Department lays out a plan for better coordinating U.S. responses to crises, conflicts and natural disasters around the world. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, unveiled the State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which suggests changes in organization, coordination with other U.S. government agencies, and implementation of overseas programs.

Media Law Handbook
What are the privileges and responsibilities of a free press? In Media Law Handbook, Professor Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, explores how free societies answer this question.

Protecting Intellectual Property in Jordan
The Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement donates ten vehicles to the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organization headquarters to contribute to Jordan’s robust intellectual property rights enforcement regime.

Global Messages: Climate Change
America.gov asked people around the world to write a message to world leaders about climate change. We received responses from all corners of the globe. Read their messages.

Photo Gallery: Native American Art
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The artistic traditions of American Indians convey the resilience of the United States’ indigenous peoples. Thanks to the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program, which installs art in U.S. diplomatic posts, global audiences can enjoy the talents of many American artists — tribal and otherwise. Explore the work in this photo gallery. At right, a portrait of the legendary Sioux chief Jack Red Cloud.

The NATO and U.S.-E.U. Summits / Fighting Cholera in Haiti / Persian Poetry in New York

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President Obama heads to the NATO and U.S.-E.U. Summits in Lisbon, Portugal. Learn what the United States is doing to help Haiti battle a cholera outbreak. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton releases a study on religious freedom and discusses the importance of protecting Americans traveling overseas. According to a new report, Asian water supplies are at risk. A top U.S. terrorism official says cooperation among nations has been successful in fighting terrorism. A group of African journalists discuss professional issues. And, in New York City, a museum displays linkages between New York and the Spanish world, while a bar showcases Persian poetry.

Upcoming NATO and EU Summits
President Obama, right, will be attending the 2010 NATO and U.S.-European Union Summits in Lisbon on November 19th and 20th. The meetings are intended to demonstrate the central role of the United States’ relationship with Europe and the U.S.-European capability to meet global challenges.



An “Aggressive Campaign” Against Cholera
U.S. officials promise an “aggressive campaign” to help Haitian authorities fight the spread of cholera in their country through prevention techniques such as providing clean, chlorinated drinking water, oral rehydration therapy, education and additional funding to expand cholera treatment centers.

Religious Freedom and U.S. Foreign Policy
Promoting religious freedom is a core element of U.S. diplomacy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says in releasing the 2010 Annual Report to Congress on International Religious Freedom.

Protecting Americans Overseas
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says it is important for the State Department and the American private sector to cooperate on protecting Americans who travel overseas.

Asian Water Supplies at Risk
A new report from the U.S. Agency for International Development outlines steps that can help mitigate the impacts of climate-change-induced glacier melt in the greater Himalayas area.

Nations Team Up Against Terror
Cooperation among nations fighting the global war on terror has been remarkable in the nine years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, says Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, the State Department’s top counterterrorism official.

African Journalists in the U.S.
African journalists visiting the United States as part of the fifth Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists have a lot to say about professional standards and freedom of the press as they finished their three-week stay in the United States.

Spanish Connections in NY
This fall, the exhibit “Nueva York (1613-1945),” a collaboration of El Museo Del Barrio and the New-York Historical Society, will document four centuries of cross-cultural influence and cooperation between Latin America and Spain and New York.

In NY, New Persian Poetry
Since beginning five years ago, the Persian Arts Festival in New York has grown to offer music, films and other visual arts as well as literary events. Its audience is “very diverse,” says founder Mona Kayhan, including many people with no personal connection to Iran or Persian culture. At right, Sholeh Wolpé reads aloud from her work at the festival. 

A New India-U.S. Partnership / Government Corruption Examined / Learning in the USA

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India and the United States are forging a new global partnership. We’ve got a pair of reports from an international conference on corruption going on in Bangkok. Through different State Department programs, journalists from Africa and around the world witness America’s free press and learn how public service groups operate, and foreign teachers learn about American educational practices. And finally, international students are attending U.S. colleges and universities at a rate never seen before.

A New India-U.S. Partnership
President Obama’s visit to India highlighted a new global strategic partnership between the two countries, U.S. officials say. “This is now a partnership with two countries standing together as peers capable of addressing the challenges that the world faces these days,” says U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah, right.

 

 
How Corruption Furthers Slavery
Continued progress toward ending trafficking of people for sex and labor could hinge on breaking the crime’s connection with government corruption, say experts at an international conference in Bangkok. The experts also called for cross-border legal cooperation and for engaging citizens, businesses and nongovernmental organizations in the fight against human trafficking.

Assessing Government Corruption
A landmark international convention to stop government corruption faces challenges as governments and activists test-run its monitoring mechanism. The convention, established by the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, requires countries to self-assess their compliance and submit their assessments for review by other countries.

The Legacy of Edward R. Murrow
More than 30 African journalists joined colleagues from around the world as participants in the recent Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, during which they traveled the United States and witnessed the role a free and independent press plays in a democratic society.

A Journalist’s Tour of America
Rachida Bami, a journalist who covers regional issues for Morocco’s leading French daily Le Matin, spent three weeks in the United States learning how public service groups operate in America. Bami was one of 150 emerging leaders in journalism from around the world who participated in the State Department’s Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists.

Arab Educators Visit
Twenty-six science teachers from around the world traveled to the United States through a U.S. State Department program. The visit was entitled “A New Beginning: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Education.”

Educating the World
The number of international students at U.S. colleges and universities reached an all-time high of nearly 691,000 during the past school year, the Institute of International Education says. While Asian countries continued to send the highest numbers of students to the United States, the sharpest growth in enrollment came from the Middle East. At right, Sameer Mohd, from New Delhi, India, is one of 3,017 international students at Iowa State University.

USAID's Shah in Pakistan, an American Freed, and Crime Fighters' Need for Speed

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USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah returns from Pakistan and announces a $50 million increase in U.S. aid. An American held in North Korea is freed and faster boats help in fighting crime and terrorism. Read about a new volcano threat to air travel and some new educational breakthroughs. Finally, cap-and-trade to reduce greenhouse gases is alive and well in the western United States and Canada.  

Pakistan Flood Damage “Astronomical”
With 20 million people affected by Pakistan’s floods, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said that an even larger international humanitarian response is needed.  After returning from Pakistan, Shah said “the scale and the scope of this natural disaster is astronomical.”  Shah announced the Obama administration is providing $50 million in new funding.  That funding brings the U.S. humanitarian assistance in response to the flooding to more than $200 million, in addition to in-kind and technical assistance such as the use of U.S. aircraft to rescue flood victims and deliver relief supplies. 

North Korea Releases Imprisoned American
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, following two days of talks in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, secured the pardon of an American who had been imprisoned for seven months by the North Korean regime. Carter and the 31-year-old American, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, boarded a flight August 27 for Boston, which is Gomes’ home. 

Fighting Crime, Terrorism with Faster Boats
The United States donated four police patrol boats to the Philippine maritime police through a program that helps foreign governments develop professional law enforcement capacity to protect human rights and fight corruption, transnational crime and terrorism.  The four boats will also aid in rescues at sea, said U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Harry K. Thomas Jr. The International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) currently offers training in 38 countries.

Remember That Volcano in Iceland?
Remember the disruption to air traffic caused by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in Iceland?  Volcanic eruptions on Russia’s Kamchatka Penninsula, the Kurile Islands or Alaska could similarly affect air space in Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States. In response to the need to rapidly detect volcanic threats, U.S. and Russian scientists formed the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team in 1993. 

Building a Classroom Across an Ocean
Online collaboration between U.S. and Egyptian architecture students and professors is building real-world skills and friendships. The first student project — a public space and hotel near the Pyramids of Giza – involved 50 third-year architecture students in Cairo.

Islamic College Launched in California
Zaytuna College held its inaugural classes August 24 and aims to become America’s first four-year, accredited, Islamic institution of higher learning. It grew out of the Zaytuna Institute, which was founded in 1996. Zaytuna focuses on renewing Islam’s intellectual tradition while placing it in the context of American society.

Western States Take Aim at Greenhouse Gases
A comprehensive strategy was released last month for the Western Climate Initiative, which aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions through carbon dioxide emissions trading and various clean energy policies. With 11 states and Canadian provinces signed up, it is poised to become the most comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade market in the U.S. so far. Left, power plants such as this one in New Mexico must cap their emissions when the WCI takes effect in 2012.

Join Global Pulse 2010

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In the spirit of the Obama Administration’s goal of moving forward in partnership, listening to one another, and finding common ground, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is sponsoring Global Pulse 2010, an online “virtual” collaboration event that will bring together participants to create a global conversation.

nullThe best part? Anyone with a computer and internet access can join the conversation. The even better part? Registration and participation is FREE! The catch? There are a limited number of virtual seats in Global Pulse 2010, so be sure to register early if you’re interested. I just signed up, so maybe I’ll see you there. And if you don’t register to participate, you can still check the site for updates and to see what others are saying.

Gobal Pulse 2010 will focus on 10 hot-button international issues. For the By the People readers who are champions for democracy, you’ll want to check out the topic called: “Exercising rights, increasing citizen participation, and expanding accountability,” which aims to “Deepen mutual understanding of citizens’ political and civil rights and duties, and role in holding their governments accountable.”

Other topics include, “Empowering Leaders of Tomorrow,” “Empowering Women and Girls,” “Promoting Global Health,” and “Supporting a Sustainable Planet.”

As the name implies, the event will take the pulse of as many as 20,000 participants on key issues facing communities around the world. Will you be one of them?

For additional information, and to register for the event, check out the official Global Pulse 2010 web site at www.GlobalPulse2010.gov.

One Stop Shopping

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When I was sixteen, I wrote a letter to the editor of my local newspaper, and it was published. It was about the procedures involved in obtaining a passport, a process I found to be frustrating in part because the local government staff was not very helpful.

Twelve years later, I got married and had to get a new passport when I changed my last name. I had to change many other documents as well. I had to go to one office to get a marriage license, another to get a new social security card, another for a new drivers license and again another for the passport. Talk about time consuming. Frustrations over these types of citizen services are common across the world. People need information and documents from their government and often do not know where to get them.

With the help of the Governance Accountability Project (GAP), a program co-founded by the United States Agency for International Development, the Swedish International Development Agency and the Dutch Embassy in Sarajevo, there are a lot less frustrated citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Through GAP, more than 70 municipalities have opened or will open what are known as One Stop Shops. It is what the name suggests – one place to get most all of the government documents you may need, from birth certificates to land use permits. You not only get the documents you need, but get questions answered by staff who have been trained to provide good customer service. I talked to three mayors who have One Stop Shops in their towns, who all basically had the same message, that “the citizens are happy.”

That type of service sure would make me happy! Now if only my government would open a One Stop Shop…