Rajiv Shah
Dr. Rajiv Shah serves as the 16th Administrator of USAID and leads the efforts of more than 8,000 professionals in 80 missions around the world.
Homepage: http://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/rajiv-shah
Open for Questions: Crisis in the Horn of Africa
This post originally appeared on the White House Blog. Over the past several months, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world has placed more than 13.3 million people across the Horn of Africa at risk – a greater number than the populations of New York and Los Angeles combined. Quickly becoming incomprehensible, the emergency has [...]
Commemorating World Food Day 2011
Every year on October 16, we have the opportunity to reflect on the devastating and persisting realities of hunger and undernutrition in our global community. Although it is a single day, World Food Day represents our year-round efforts to end hunger, alleviate suffering and expand opportunity across the world. But this year’s World Food Day [...]
Nobel Peace Laureates Awarded for their Work in Promoting Women’s Rights and Peace
I was thrilled to learn that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee, and Yemeni leader Tawakkul Karman. President Johnson Sirleaf, Gbowee and Karman were announced as recipients of the prize today by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. They were honored for “their non-violent struggle for [...]
Remembering A Green Revolutionary: Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai was a pioneer. The first female African to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, her Green Belt Movement, launched in 1977, was ahead of its time in integrating sustainable development with women’s rights. The organization now has branches in 30 countries, promoting action on climate change, community regeneration, and equal opportunity. To date, [...]
MDG countdown: Celebrating Successes and Innovation
Today, Secretary of State Mitchell of UK development agency DFID and I will co-host an event along the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to celebrate successes and innovations in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indeed, the world has much to celebrate. Through partnerships between communities and governments and the integration of new, non-traditional [...]
FWD the Facts about Famine, War, and Drought in the Horn of Africa
As many of you know, the worst drought in 60 years has devastated communities throughout the Horn of Africa, leaving more than 13 million people in a state of crisis—greater than the population of Los Angeles and New York combined. In Somalia—where twenty years of war and violence has limited humanitarian access and destroyed the country’s [...]
Our Continuing Commitment to the People of Haiti
On Thursday, I had the opportunity to meet Emyl Mil, a rice farmer in Haiti, a focus country for President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative. When I spoke with Mr. Mil, he was excited about the use of a new, innovative approach called System of Rice Intensification. This new technique has significantly increased rice yields [...]
Innovating in Afghanistan
In 2002, fewer than 200,000 people in Afghanistan had access to telephones. Today, some 15 million Afghans use mobile phones and a full 85% of the population lives within the combined network coverage of the four major telcos. This technological leap connects Afghans to each other and to the economy in ways that were unimaginable [...]
Day Two: On the Ground in the Horn of Africa
Earlier this week, I visited the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya, where thousands of exhausted and starving refugees have sought food, water and medical care after fleeing from famine-stricken lands in southern Somalia. The United States is providing life-saving help for millions of people across the eastern Horn of Africa, as the region experiences [...]
On the Ground in the Horn of Africa
Eighty kilometers from Kenya’s border with Somalia, the Dadaab Refugee Complex—already the world’s largest refugee camp—has seen on average 1,500 exhausted and starving men, women and children arrive each day. Fleeing from famine that is now gripping a large portion of southern Somalia largely inaccessible to aid workers, thousands of refugees have walked days—or even [...]
