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I know that when people are dying, and when homes are being destroyed, when hunger is so widespread, and hostages are still waiting to be returned to their loved ones. When the conflict has not only continued over these 13, now going on 14 months, but expanded into surrounding countries, peacebuilding work can feel futile. 

So today, I’m announcing that the United States will contribute more than $572 million dollars to humanitarian efforts in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. This new funding brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance to more than $1.2 billion in the region this fiscal year. These resources will help our partners provide badly needed basics like food, water, shelter, and health care. 

President Biden is laser-focused on labor rights at home and indeed has shown tremendous initiative and leadership on promoting global labor rights. And so, it was very important in having this visit for us to sit down and dig into just those issues. And, one of the arguments that I made today with the government, and it's an argument again that U.S. officials are making all around the world, is that labor rights and workers abilities – a worker's ability and workers' abilities to advocate for themselves without fear of persecution, is absolutely critical to growing the economy in a manner that expands livelihoods and prosperity for all Cambodians. 

Our work together, that of USAID with the Cambodian people, that of USAID with the Cambodian health ministry, is really just one example of the productive health partnership that has developed over the last decades. And it is also, I think, reflective of what is a deepening partnership between the United States and Cambodia, and between the American people and the Cambodian people.