Press Releases

USAID announced a five-year extension for two research partnerships under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. These critical investments will increase productivity and raise incomes of small-scale farmers and fishers so they can produce more affordable, nutritious foods and help improve diets in their own communities and beyond. 

During the United Nations General Assembly High Level Week, the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced more than $53 million in humanitarian assistance funding to respond to the impacts of droughts made worse by climate change in Angola, Kenya, and Madagascar. 

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced a suite of investments and initiatives to support climate action in Africa as part of this week’s Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Working with Congress, this includes $35 million in new investments this year. These activities will support communities across Africa to build their resilience to climate impacts and sustainably grow their economies. They also support the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), the Just Energy Transition Partnerships, and global efforts to conserve critical carbon sinks.

Today, while in Tanzania, USAID Administrator and Feed the Future Global Coordinator Samantha Power announced an additional $260 million to surge support for the U.S. government response to the global food security crisis. This comes at a critical time as new interlocking and compounding shocks exacerbate existing food needs, with an estimated 768 million people already facing chronic hunger. 

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), announced a new Power Africa initiative for East and Central Africa to provide a five year, up to $88.9 million award, subject to the availability of funds, that will expand access to cleaner, reliable energy in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The Government of Kenya, the U.S. Government through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Vodafone Foundation, Safaricom Plc, and M-PESA Foundation agreed to a new public-private partnership to bring the emergency transportation system m-mama to Kenya. Efficiently accessing transport in the case of obstetric emergencies can save the lives of mothers and newborns. 

Today, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield announced the United States is providing nearly $524 million in critical humanitarian assistance for the Horn of Africa crisis, at the “High-level Pledging Event to Support the Humanitarian Response in the Horn of Africa.” This includes $416 million in USAID funding and nearly $108 million from the Department of State. The impacts of the current drought – the most severe in the Horn of Africa in recorded history – continues to leave 23 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia facing grave hunger. 

There’s an old Irish ballad, written during the Great Hunger in 1848, about a starving child who asks his mother if he can eat three grains of corn, found in the pocket of an old jacket. “What has poor Ireland done,” he asks in the song, “that the world looks on and sees us starve, perishing one by one?”

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched the U.S. Government Global Water Strategy High Priority Country Plan for Kenya announcing more than $100 million in new Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) activities.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced it is providing more than $126 million in additional food assistance to the people of Kenya as ongoing drought leaves more than four million people in the grips of a dire hunger crisis, with the number expected to rise to over five million by June. The announcement comes following a visit to the country by First Lady Jill Biden.