I am very pleased to have the opportunity today to announce a program that underscores American long-term commitment to Afghanistan and specifically to Afghan women. It’s a partnership we call Promote. We aren’t setting our sights low. We aren’t scaling back our ambitions at this critical point in our history. The Promote Partnership will be the largest investment USAID has ever made to advance women in development.
• Honorable Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Nkoane-Mashabane,
• UNISA Vice Principal Phakeng,
• IEC Chairperson Moepya,
• Professor Gutto and Professor Teffo,
• Distinguished members of the diplomatic corps,
• Representatives of the IEC and UNISA,
• Participating election management officials from across Africa,
• Other distinguished guests. All protocol observed.
Your Excellency First Lady, Margaret Kenyatta
The Cabinet Secretary for Health Mr. James Macharia
Your Excellency, Governor Hassan Joho
Senator Ali Omar
Senator Harod Chepchumba
County Commissioners Nelson Marwa
Member of Parliament Nyali, Awiti Bollo
Other Members of parliament
Development partners, Ladies and Gentlemen
USAID under the U.S. Feed the Future Initiative supports the Government of Ethiopia’s Agricultural Growth Program with the goals of raising agricultural productivity, improving income earning opportunities for women and the rural poor, and spurring growth in rural areas. The attainment of these goals is to a very large extent, dependent upon the development of policies and systems that encourage resiliency and adaptation to climate changes, private-sector participation and investment, good and transparent governance, and none of these can happen without secure land tenure and property rights.
I am delighted to be here with you this morning to celebrate the launch of Ethiopia’s new National Nutrition Program. We are here today to mark a new phase in our common efforts to improve nutrition for all Ethiopians, particularly those most vulnerable - the young. I congratulate my Ethiopian colleagues for their hard work on developing the new National Nutrition Program and can assure you that the United States strongly supports the program and its objectives.
It is my pleasure to represent the American people at this signing of two agreements to support Project Mercy’s inspiring work to improve the health and livelihoods of communities in Yetebon and Chacha. Shortly after I arrived in Ethiopia in 2010, I had the pleasure of visiting Project Mercy and learning about the wonderful work being done by Marta and Deme. Last January, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and Senator James Inhofe came from Washington to see the remarkable work being done here. I am pleased to be here once again to see the progress that has been made since 2010.
On behalf of USAID, it is my great pleasure to join you today for this special event, as we complete the handover of critical medical equipment to the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope. I would like to thank our colleagues at the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope for organizing today’s event. I would also like to thank our colleagues from the Ministry of Health and the Australian Embassy for joining us as well as commend their combined efforts to improve women’s health in Cambodia.
When the Sihanouk Hospital requested USAID assistance to procure equipment to open a Women’s Health Clinic, we recognized the opportunity to contribute toward improving women’s health in Cambodia. The Sihanouk Hospital provides free medical care to Cambodians who have no other options for care. It is a critical and exemplary mission. To date, the hospital has provided more than one million free patient consultations.
It is an honor for me to represent the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) commitment to fight Neglected Tropical Diseases at this important national symposium appropriately themed “End the neglect, Integrate, Scale-up, and Sustain.”
This past weekend, I attended the Nutrition for Growth Summit in London, where you could literally feel the energy that exists for accelerated action on nutrition. For perhaps the first time, it was clear that the prevailing question was not whether we can end hunger or even whether we will. It was how fast we can achieve it.
Today’s discussion is one of the most important we can have—bringing the world’s experts together in a room to ask, “What don’t we know?” “Why” and “What can we do about it?” These evidence summits were started more than two years ago. At the time, we had just recently rebuilt our Agency’s policy capacity—and we envisioned these summits as opportunities for scholars and development professionals to put their heads together to ensure that state-of-the-art research and evaluations informed our work every day.
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Last updated: December 13, 2013
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