In case you missed it, yesterday was a big day for two of our partners: David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International were announced as this year’s World Food Prize winners. This is an enormous honor (some say it’s like winning the Nobel Prize) and we’re excited to congratulate them both.
The World Food Prize has posted some great bios, videos and photos of both winners. Make sure to check them out here.
And we’ve now got some video from yesterday’s ceremony, too. This includes speeches by Secretaries Clinton and Vilsack, along with USAID Administrator Raj Shah who all spoke at the State Department ceremony. The full video is posted below, but here’s a quick excerpt from Secretary Clinton:
After he received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007, Dr. Borlaug [the founder of the World Food Prize] urged our country to increase our stake in the fight against hunger. He said, “World peace will not be built on empty stomachs or human misery. It is within America’s technical and financial power to help end this human tragedy and injustice, if we set our hearts and minds to this task. We have the commitment, we have the technical power, and we intend to make this happen.
Yesterday, the State Department hosted a Diplomacy Briefing on Sub-Saharan Africa. Secretary Clinton spoke extensively on the region touting a relationship with Sub-Saharan Africa based on “partnership, not patronage”. Below is the video of her remarks. You can read some key excerpts here.
There’s obviously quite a lot here– let me know in the comment thread what section(s) of her remarks particularly struck you:
Reuters reports on comments Secretary Hillary Clinton made yesterday on the African Growth and Opportunity Act:
“Most of the work that needs to be done needs to be done in Africa,” Clinton told a forum about U.S. diplomacy on the continent.
“If you look at trade between African countries, it is abysmally minimalistic,” Clinton said. “African countries don’t trade with themselves. They have barriers and tariffs and customs problems that stand in the way of developing their own economies.”
Clinton’s sharp comments were in response to a question about broadening the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a measure passed by Congress in 2000 which gives favorable access to U.S. markets to dozens of African countries.
While many African governments hope the benefits can be made permanent, Clinton signaled Washington was going to look for signs that African countries are serious about improving their own domestic economic policies.
“The United States will do our part, but African countries have to start doing their part and making the changes that will grow the economies in the sub-Saharan region,” she said.
“It means doing things that are going to run afoul of special interests and government bureaucrats and businesses that already have a lock on a market,” Clinton said.
“They’d rather have the biggest piece of a small pie than a smaller piece of a big pie. So if you are going to have that mentality, it is really hard to utilize the incredible tool that AGOA is,” she said.
According to the AFP, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met with Secretary Clinton yesterday to “recognize that Zimbawe has made progress toward democracy as he appeared to suggest it ease sanctions”:
But there was no sign US President Barack Obama’s administration would ease sanctions targeted at President Robert Mugabe and his loyalists, the people with whom Tsvangirai has shared power uneasily for more than a year.
The United States — along with the European Union — maintains a travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe, his wife and inner circle in protest at controversial elections and alleged human rights abuses by his government.
In an interview with AFP and another journalist, Tsvangirai appeared to make the case for at least an easing of US sanctions when he visited Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
He came “to update her on the latest situation in the country in terms of where the bottlenecks are, where progress has been made, and what the United States should do,” the premier said.
“There should be a recognition (by Washington) that there is progress, but (perception of) that progress may not be sufficient to convince the American government,” Tsvangirai said, referring to efforts to lift the sanctions.
DipNote has a good write-up today marking World Health Day. They included some remarks from Secretary Clinton (brief excerpt below).
The World Health Organization has more background and archives of World Health Days past here.
Secretary Clinton:
The rapid rise in the number of people living in cities will be among the top global health issues of the 21st century. The World Health Organization estimates that six out of every 10 people will be city dwellers by 2030, rising to seven out of 10 by 2050. In many cases, especially in the developing world, the speed of urbanization has outpaced the ability of governments to build and maintain essential health, water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure and provide basic services.
Disease is both a symptom of poverty — with over-crowding, inadequate infrastructure and lack of health care increasing transmission and susceptibility — and also a contributor to poverty. Poor health shreds communities, undermines economic opportunity, and holds back progress. And it denies children around the world the opportunity to live up to their full God-given potential. We have also seen that oceans and borders are no defense against the pandemics that threaten us all. These are global challenges that demand a global response.
The United States and our international partners are committed to improving health and strengthening health systems around the world. We understand that addressing global health challenges is not just a humanitarian imperative — it will also bolster global security, foster political stability and promote economic growth and development.
As we blogged yesterday, there was a Haiti Donors Conference in New York where donors were able to collaborate and strategize about getting the necessary resources to Haiti as it rebuilds.
The State Department produced this video for the conference that I thought was worth sharing:
And here’s video from the Conference itself, with Secretary Clinton’s closing remarks:
In case you missed it in today’s What We’re Reading, Secretary Hillary Clinton has a great piece in Canadian publication The Globe and Mail today. In it, she repeats a line I’ve heard from the State Department a number of times now: Women’s progress is human progress.
Women are central to our effort to elevate development as a pillar of our foreign policy alongside diplomacy and defence. As those who grow the world’s food, collect the water, gather the firewood and wash the clothes – and, increasingly, as those who work in the factories, run the shops, launch new businesses and create jobs – women are powerful forces for economic growth and social progress.
Women are a focus of three major U.S. foreign policy initiatives now under way.
Our Global Health Initiative is a $63-billion commitment to improve health and strengthen health systems worldwide, and one of its key priorities is improving maternal and child health.
Our global food security program is a $3.5-billion commitment to strengthen the world’s food supply and its ability to reach markets, so farmers can earn enough to support their families and food can get to all people everywhere – and it is focused on supporting women, who are the majority of farmers in the developing world.
In response to the challenge of climate change, the United States has pledged to help mobilize $100-billion a year by 2020 to address the adaptation and mitigation needs of developing countries. And while all people will feel the effects of climate change, they will fall particularly hard on women in developing countries who often shoulder the responsibility of securing food and fuel for their families. Our plan seeks to empower these women to become part of the solution to this global crisis.
These initiatives reflect a fundamental value of U.S. foreign policy: The world cannot make progress if women and girls are denied their rights and left behind.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
In case you missed it, yesterday was a big day for two of our partners: David Beckmann of Bread for the World and Jo Luck of Heifer International were announced as this year’s World Food Prize winners. This is an enormous honor (some say it’s like winning the Nobel Prize) and we’re excited to congratulate them both.
