US Mission Geneva

The conference will outline South Sudan’s strategic development priorities and highlight opportunities for engagement with public and private-sector partners.

USAID and three Ethiopian private banks — the Bank of Abyssinia, NIB Bank and Zemen Bank — signed two new agreements November 22 that will offer greater access to credit for projects in agriculture and health.

“Teaching children to read in primary school translates to improved health outcomes and economic growth in developing countries,” USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah said. “Through this partnership, we are helping to promote scalable, sustainable, cost-effective innovations that will improve reading outcomes for millions of children in low-income communities.”

The new partnership will help fight hunger, build resilience to climate change, and reduce the costs of natural disasters, USAID said in an October 20 press release. The partnership combines the expertise of Swiss Re, a global reinsurance provider, with two initiatives of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

  By Kathryn McConnell IIP Staff Writer October 13, 2011 Washington — The Feed the Future program to increase agricultural production, raise rural incomes and improve nutrition in developing countries continues to make progress, two top U.S. agricultural development experts say. Jonathan Shrier of the State Department and Greg Gottlieb of the U.S. Agency for [...]

“USAID is proud to support the critical work of domestic and international partners against TB,” said Ariel Pablos-Mendez, assistant administrator for USAID’s global health programs, at a Washington news conference unveiling the new WHO report. “We know that treating TB abroad saves lives while also saving money here at home.”

On September 26, the Humanitarian Forum and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation brought together leading humanitarian organizations from Muslim donor and recipient countries to develop a shared action plan for Somalia. Participants discussed ways to improve coordination and promote networking within the humanitarian community.

Degradation of the land supporting human life and the food supply is an environmental threat that endangers the lives and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people worldwide. On September 20, world leaders met in a high-level U.N. forum for the first time to address desertification and drought.

“We have the potential to drive forward our programs, such that we could be reducing childhood mortality by 38 to 40 percent,” said Amy Batson, deputy assistant administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).