AllAfrica.com recently posted an interview with Aaron S. Williams, the new US Peace Corps director. During the interview, Williams discusses the current state of the Peace Corps as it approaches its rather remarkable 50th anniversary. He notes an 18% increase in applications this year alone.

Williams also touches on a subject ONE Blog readers are no doubt familiar with: food security. Excerpts below, full interview here.

And now a new departure has been the new food security initiative. Secretary [of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton is very interested in food security; it’s going to be one of her primary initiatives and has the full support of course of the Obama administration. It is a priority at Peace Corps, and we’re going to do more to expand our work in agriculture. Agriculture has always been an important part of Peace Corps’ involvement in working at the community level.

Q: What would you like the Peace Corps in Africa to be doing in three or four years?

I would like to see us continue our program in education; we’re very much involved in teacher training … hands-on involvement with teachers in the schools. I want to see us continue to expand our work in health, not just in HIV/Aids, but also in malaria and tuberculosis. We have trained skilled volunteers who work at the community level, really strengthening the capacity of NGOs at the grassroots to work in these areas.

I want to see us having a broad, expanded role in food security, especially because in Africa women play an instrumental role in the agricultural sector. I want to see us reach out to women who are involved in agriculture. I want to see us reach out to young people and introduce them to the importance of agriculture and food security. So those are the areas [where] I’d like to see us really establish a broader presence and deeper involvement at the community level.

The National Peace Corps Association has launched Africa Rural Connect, an innovative online platform where you can contribute your knowledge and skills towards the development of rural Africa (ARC). The ARC community is already home to thousands of development professionals, poverty activists, members of the African Diaspora, Peace Corps volunteers, academics, African farmers and others– all working together to create viable and culturally sustainable plans for rural communities.

Using advanced collaboration technology, members of the ARC community can comment and improve upon each other’s ideas. Recent ideas range from those focused on entrepreneurship, to agricultural best practices, to technological solutions, to education, and beyond.

Africa Rural Connect is also holding a competition awarding cash prizes every month to help implement the top 3 ideas, and awarding a total of $20,000 to implement the best idea in December. We have already awarded prizes in Round 1 and Round 2 to ideas from Senegal, Ghana, Malawi, and Nigeria, and have hundreds of ideas spanning across East, South, and Central Africa as well.

Whether you have a background in agriculture, architecture, business, engineering, business, NGO management, construction technology, communications, or education, your insight could prove integral to the creation of a plan that will improve the livelihoods of rural communities in Africa.

So we invite you to join Africa Rural Connect- post an idea, start a discussion, and collaborate with like-minded individuals around the world to turn your ideas into action.

-Lissan Anfune, National Peace Corps Association

(Taylor works on the ONE Communications team and is currently traveling with President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Live Aid and Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof. Read all her posts so far from the trip here.)

A lot happened in Accra, Ghana today. First, President Bush met with President Kufuor of Ghana and they held a joint press conference. They about talked about, among other things, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Ghana has received a compact from MCA to build roads and improve infrastructure. MCA compacts go to well-governed countries, countries who fight corruption and invest in health and education for their citizens.

Then it was on to a lunch with Peace Corps workers in Ghana. Ghana was the first country in the world to welcome the Peace Corps. The first 52 Peace Corps workers arrived here on August 30, 1961. Since that time, more than 3,700 volunteers have served in this country (including two of my good friends Monica and Alex Smith – who met when they both served as Peace Corps workers in Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire and later married. Monica was a water and sanitation specialist and Alex educated people about HIV/AIDS).

The Ghanians have a special bond with Americans who serve in the Peace Corps and gave them a big welcome at lunch. The lunch guests, including President Bush and Bob Geldof, heard harrowing tales of Peace Corps life in rural Africa, including one woman who was bitten by a cobra and then discovered that the local clinics had run out of both poison anecdote and pain medication! (Don’t worry – she survived and told her tale to the President in person today.)

After lunch was my personal favorite part of the day: a tee ball game! We watched some Ghanian youngsters play ball – the Little Dragons vs. the Little Saints. I;m not sure my travelling companion, Sir Bob Geldof, understood the intracacies of the game, having grown up in Ireland, deprived of the World Series…but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless.

We also (more…)