Fact Sheets

Speeches Shim

The New Alliance is a shared commitment to achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa. New Alliance efforts will help lift 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years by aligning the commitments of Africa’s leadership to drive effective country-led plans and policies for food security and nutrition; the intentions of private sector partners to increase investments where the conditions are right; and the commitments of G-8 members to expand Africa’s potential for rapid and sustained agricultural growth.

Across the globe, the United States prioritizes investments in development innovations that are low cost and have the power to improve millions of lives. USAID's Innovation Fund for the Americas (IFA) seeks cost-effective breakthrough solutions to development challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Broadband Partnership of the Americas (BPA) is designed to improve access to broadband and the Internet and other communications technologies in the Americas. It will serve as a voluntary and flexible framework through which the governments of the Western Hemisphere, multilateral organizations, the donor community and the private sector can collaborate to increase access to broadband and the Internet across the Americas.

In support of President Obama's strategy for atrocity prevention, USAID and Humanity United commit to issuing a Tech Challenge on Atrocity Prevention to support innovative ideas and best-in-class solutions to prevent mass atrocities.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March, 2009

Below are highlights of USAID activities conducted in 2008 that support women and girls in the areas of economic opportunities and entrepreneurship; political participation and leadership; education; gender-based violence; legal rights; trafficking in persons; and HIV and AIDS.

Economic Opportunities and Entrepreneurship

Women make a significant contribution to the global economy and empowering women economically can lift entire families and communities out of poverty.

The MV Maersk Alabama is transporting nearly 8,150 MT of USAID P.L. 480 Title II food aid commodities.

USAID's objective is to improve global health, including child, maternal, and reproductive health, reduce the incidence of abortion and infectious disease, particularly HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. To achieve the greatest impact, our programs are focused on reaching the most vulnerable: women and children. By integrating and improving access, we are making it easier for a woman to obtain all of the health services she and her children need in one location so she doesn't have to choose between prenatal care for herself and pediatric care for her children. Our efforts are also working to increase skilled attendance at birth; provide lifesaving vaccines and proper nutrition for children; prevent the transmission of HIV; and end gender-based violence, stigma and discrimination.

Partnership for Growth (PFG) is a partnership between the United States and a select group of countries to accelerate and sustain broad-based economic growth by putting into practice the principles of President Obama’s September 2010 Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development. It involves rigorous joint analysis of constraints to growth, the development of joint action plans to address these constraints, and high-level mutual accountability for implementation. 

I have great expectations for the work of USAID. I expect us to succeed in some of our efforts, and to fall short in others. I expect a strong evaluation function and feedback loop that enables us to be accountable in both cases, and to learn from each so that we can make continuous improvements. We can do this only with evidence and data to inform our decisions, and with unprecedented transparency about what we have learned and where.

On his first-full day in office, President Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, committing his Administration to making the federal government more efficient and effective. Since then, federal agencies have done much to make information about how government works more accessible to the public, to solicit citizens’ participation in government decision-making, and to collaborate with all sectors of the economy on new and innovative solutions.

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