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Posts Tagged ‘Raj Shah’

Shah Visits Floods in Pakistan

Friday, August 27th, 2010
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Shah in Pakistan-Farooq Naeem_AFPOn Wednesday, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah visited Pakistan to witness the damage caused by severe flooding.  On USAID’s Impact Blog, Shah described his view from the helicopter: “As far as the eye could see, foundations and buttresses supported nonexistent houses and bridges, power lines lay hopelessly tangled on the ground, and roads destroyed and washed away… As I look around me, it is obvious that Pakistan faces the biggest challenge in its 64-year history.”

Shah used the visit as an opportunity to rethink U.S. aid to Pakistan, announcing that some of the funds from the five-year, $7.5 billion aid package will be redirected to assist in flood-related relief and recovery.  Shah showed great flexibility, saying “I fully envision some of the priorities will have to shift, and shift so that there’s more of a recovery and reconstruction focus.”

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Posted in USAID | 1 Comment »

Secretary Clinton Speaks about GHI at SAIS

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
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Clinton SAISYesterday, Secretary of State Hillay Rodham Clinton addressed a packed room of students and faculty from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to discuss next steps for the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative (GHI).  The speech focused less on the policy and implementation of GHI, and instead placed GHI as the next phase of American leadership in global health and, more broadly, development.  Clinton remarked, “What exactly does maternal health, or immunizations, or the fight against HIV and AIDS have to do with foreign policy? Well, my answer is everything.”

Clinton used the speech as a platform to get buy-in from the community for GHI — underscoring the fact that global health continues to be a nonpartisan issue that even the American public wants to support.  She reiterated the GHI’s holistic approach to global health prevention and treatment with a specific focus on outcomes not inputs, priority care for women and girls, and innovation.

Watch the full event here and read excerpts from Clinton’s speech after the jump:

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Posted in Community, Obama Administration, State Department | No Comments »

PSD to be Released Next Month?

Monday, August 16th, 2010
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Rajiv ShahOn Friday, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah joined Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Jim McDermott for a discussion on U.S. foreign aid hosted by Global Washington in Seattle.  Shah recognized the need to do more with the limited resources available for foreign aid dollars, making the case for development with an increased focus on transparency and innovation.  Shah said, “If we can continue to show things are really effective, generate results with the dollars and take efficiency very, very seriously, I believe Americans want to do more.”  Shah also spoke of the evidence-based approach the Agency has adopted, which has already yielded incredible success in Haiti.

Coverage of Shah’s visit by the Associated Press cites Shah alluding to a report on foreign assistance programs — presumably the Presidential Study Directive or PSD-7 — coming out next month.  Referencing the aid programs spread across the U.S. government, AP reporter Donna Gordon Blankinship writes, “There are no plans to consolidate that work, Shah said, but the administration is concerned about efficiency and transparency and growing the reach and effectiveness of foreign aid. A report on these efforts is due out within the next month.”

Other speakers at the Global Washington event included Prema Arasu, associate vice president for international programs at Washington State University; Akhtar Badshah, senior director of global community affairs at Microsoft; Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s global development program; and PATH CEO and President Christopher Elias.

Read more on the event here.

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Posted in Community, USAID | No Comments »

Watch Highlights from the MFAN-GHTC Event

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
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Last week, we gave a recap of our recent event with the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC) on leveraging innovative research for development.  Now, GHTC has posted a series of clips from the event on their YouTube channel.  See below for MFAN Principal and President and CEO of the Global Health Council Jeff Sturchio’s opening remarks, and watch the rest of the event by clicking here:

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Posted in Community, MFAN News | No Comments »

MFAN Member Staats on Vacancies at USAID

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
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Last week, MFAN Member Sarah Jane Staats, director of policy outreach at the Center for Global Development, published an op-ed  in the Global Post lamenting on the vacant leadership positions at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  Staats argued that these top positions need to be filled in order for the agency to successfully implement internal reforms and move the overall foreign assistance reform agenda forward.  Staats wrote:

“To date, only one official — USAID Administrator Raj Shah — has been confirmed. While Shah has skilled and capable leaders in his front office and throughout the agency, several of whom have been doing yeoman’s work in acting positions, it is unconscionable that all remaining management seats remain unfilled 18 months into this administration. Shah cannot captain the USAID ship without a crew.”

“USAID cannot be the premier development agency everyone envisions without appointed and confirmed leaders at the helm of its regional and functional bureaus. Nor can it elevate development across the U.S. government — as Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and even Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have called for — without a full cadre of assistant administrators to inform major development policy reviews taking place right now and congressional efforts to rewrite foreign assistance legislation.”

Josh Rogin later reported on The Cable that President Obama intends to nominate Nancy Lindborg — current President of Mercy Corps and MFAN Principal — to be Assistant Administrator for USAID’s Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Affairs Bureau, as well as nominate Donald K. Steinberg to be Deputy Administrator of USAID.  The other names working their way through the nomination process are: Mark Feierstein to be Assistant Administrator of Latin America and Nisha Desai Biswal to be Assistant Administrator of Asia; both were approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.  The Obama Administration is now batting 5 out of 12 for Senate-confirmed leadership positions at USAID.

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Posted in Community, Obama Administration, Pressroom, USAID | No Comments »