Speeches Shim
The Regional Water Management Forum improves regional transboundary water management and promotes sustainable management practices. The forum encourages dialogue on water issues outside high-level intergovernmental channels, particularly among academia and community-level water management organizations. The forum also supports research and improves the water management skills of community technicians, scientists, policymakers, civil society, and local end-users.
The Kabul Urban Water Supply (KUWS) activity, implemented by the German Development Bank, KfW, is building water infrastructure to provide drinking water to 87,000 Kabul city residents. The existing distribution system currently supplies water to less than 20 percent of the urban population. KUWS is part of a multi-donor effort to increase access to safe drinking water, improve the water system, reduce health risks, and improve livelihoods for Kabul residents.
The Gardez-Khost National Highway is a 101.2-kilometer road linking eastern Afghanistan with the Ghulam Khan Highway in Pakistan. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Gardez-to-Khost National Highway (G-K Highway) project included the creation of an all-weather national highway by building bridges, causeways, and drainage structures and asphalting pavement to international standards. The G-K Highway runs through some of Afghanistan’s most difficult and remote and insecure terrain. As a result, the existing pathways were often impassable during floods or landslides. The completed highway was designed to provide economic and security benefits to the populations of Paktia and Khost provinces.
- Malian authorities and WHO announce the end of the EVD outbreak in Mali following two 21-day cycles without anew confirmed case in the country.
- USAID/OFDA partners commenced operations at the Voinjama town EVD treatment unit (ETU) in Liberia’s Lofa County on January 14.
- The Government of Guinea (GoG) officially reopens public schools countrywide; preparations to reopen schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone remain underway.
Humanitarian organizations respond to impacts of severe winter weather in Syria and neighboring countries. UN Security Council unanimously adopts resolution renewing the mandate to conduct UN cross-border and cross-line humanitarian assistance. In 2014, Syrians surpass Afghans as the largest refugee population covered under the global mandate of UNHCR.
- New EVD cases continue to decrease in Liberia, and the number of confirmed cases has declined by 43 percent between December 22 and January 5 in Sierra Leone, according to WHO. Relief agencies continue to implement life-saving activities and underscore the importance of preventative measures.
- Since early January, USAID/OFDA partners have opened one EVD treatment unit (ETU) and four community care centers (CCCs) in Sierra Leone.
- To strengthen coordination, CDC and partner eHealth Africa are supporting the establishment of county-level emergency operation centers (EOCs) in Liberia.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Health Research Program helps generate and apply strategic, scientifically sound data in health programming in the region. Malaria, tuberculosis, pandemic influenza, HIV and other emerging infectious diseases pose a significant public health threat throughout Asia, and in particular, the Greater Mekong Sub-region. Headquartered in Bangkok, this five-year program addresses these health threats by supporting health research, building sustainable research capacity and creating a platform for researchers and other stakeholders to access and learn from the program’s initiatives.
Late-December caseload figures for Sierra Leone double the combined total of Liberia and Guinea during the same period; however, overall case transmission in Sierra Leone appears to slightly decline. USG partners open three EVD treatment units (ETUs) in Liberia. The USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reports that prolonged market and trade disruptions have resulted in below-average incomes and purchasing power for poor households in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone
USAID launched the Local Enterprise and Value Chain Enhancement (LEVE) pro-ject to increase food and economic security. LEVE is designed to create jobs in target industries/sectors in the Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, and Cap-Haïtien de-velopment corridors by creating more inclusive and productive value chains. The “value chain approach” is an innovative economic tool that views a market system from input suppliers to end market buyers in its totality, improving compet-itiveness and growth potential.
Haiti’s private sector is an essential contributor to the country’s long-term economic development and vitality. The Haitian economy continues to be primarily driven by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which have the potential to be strong engines of economic growth and create thousands of new jobs. However, SMEs have difficulties accessing financing, and are thus limited in their ability to grow. To address this challenge, USAID’s Leveraging Effective Application of Direct Investments project (LEAD) aims to attract investments in Haitian SMEs and increase the development impact of remittances.
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