Speeches Shim
Today, President Obama reaffirmed the United States’ continued commitment and support for the Syrian people by announcing an additional $155 million in humanitarian aid to help meet the acute needs of people inside Syria and refugees across the region who are affected by the violence in Syria. This new funding includes the $10 million announced last week in Turkey by the visiting U.S. delegation.
Tech-Serve helped strengthen the Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) health system stewardship at all levels, leading to improvements in overall population health. Tech-Serve worked with the MoPH to improve access to quality health services and improve the outcomes of key MoPH indicators in the 13 Afghan provinces where USAID provides health service support.
Afghanistan is one of the 22 high burden tuberculosis (TB) countries. The incidence and prevalence of TB remains high; estimated incidence and prevalence for TB cases is 189 and 351 per 100,000 people, respectively, according to the 2012 World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Report. The Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) National Tuberculosis Program (NTP), with support from USAID and other donors, manages Afghanistan’s TB response.
USAID’s Health Policy Project is a multi-country program that aims to develop in-country capacity on policy issues related to family planning/reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV and other infectious diseases in developing countries. In Afghanistan, HPP builds the capacity of the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in its stewardship role with respect to the private health sector, and builds and strengthens the MoPH’s capacity in the design, negotiation and management of hospital public-private partnerships (PPPs).
Communicable diseases account for 60 to 80 percent of all outpatient visits and more than half of all deaths in Afghanistan, making control of communicable diseases one of the highest priorities for the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). In 2006, the World Health Organization developed the Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) for Afghanistan to reduce morbidity and mortality through early detection and response to disease outbreaks.
The Stability in Key Areas (SIKA) program is comprised of four regional projects designed to promote good governance and service delivery in targeted districts, with the intended effects of reducing the impact of the insurgency, increasing confidence in the Afghan Government, and paving the way for a peaceful security transition. SIKA delivers assistance in two ways: building the capacity of sub-national government structures and delivering community grants to for small scale, community and government-endorsed projects. SIKA partners closely with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD) and the Independent Directorate of Local Governance (IDLG) to strengthen existing sub-national development and governance structures, including Community Development Councils (CDCs) and District Development Assemblies (DDAs).
USAID’s Community Development Program (CDP) promotes stability and supports the Afghan Government’s peace efforts by linking government officials to local populations and support counterinsurgency efforts in kinetic areas through the short-term employment of community laborers working on prized local infrastructure in southern, eastern and western Afghanistan. Currently, the program targets key districts in Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Khost, and Ghazni provinces.
The Afghan Civilian Assistance Program II (ACAP II) provides humanitarian assistance to innocent civilian casualties who have suffered losses resulting from operations between U.S. and coalition military forces and the Taliban or other insurgents. Although the number of civilians killed or injured by U.S. and coalition forces has declined, the Taliban and other insurgents continue to use indiscriminate tactics, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide attacks, to cause significant civilian casualties.
On November 18, 2012, President Obama and Prime Minister Yingluck announced that the United States Agency for International Development Agency (USAID) and Thailand International Development Cooperation Agency (TICA) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on joint development assistance in the region.
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