Speeches Shim
Relief actors continue to conduct assessments of The Bahamas’ Abaco and Grand Bahama islands, which sustained extensive damage as Hurricane Dorian made landfall over the islands on September 1 and 2. Critical infrastructure, including airports, health facilities, ports, and telecommunications structures, remained impaired due to damage and flooding as of September 4, limiting response activities and on-the-ground assessments in affected areas.
Hurricane Dorian made landfall over The Bahamas’ Abaco and Grand Bahama islands from September 1 to 2 with sustained wind speeds of approximately 180 miles per hour (mph), resulting in at least 20 deaths, the Government of The Bahamas (GoB) reports. The storm—a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale—damaged an estimated 13,000 houses in The Bahamas, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); however, preliminary damage assessments remained ongoing as of September 4.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Health Supply Chain – Quality Assurance (GHSC-QA) project worked closely with the Quality Control Lab of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health to build its capacity to assure the quality of pharmaceutical products entering and used in the country.
Sehatmandi is a three-year, $600 million on-budget project administered by the World Bank through the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) and implemented by the Afghanistan Ministry of Public Health. The project objective is to increase the utilization and quality of health, nutrition, and family planning services. USAID contributes $90 million; other major donors include the World Bank, European Union, Canada, and Global Financing Facilities.
The USAID Promote Rolling Baseline and Endline is a longitudinal study to determine results of the Promoting Gender Equity in the National Priority Programs (Promote) using a unique fingerprint-based monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) system. The rolling baseline and endline survey collects detailed information on Promote direct beneficiaries. The information gathered enables USAID/Afghanistan to measure changes in the beneficiary population’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices relating to the status of women in Afghanistan.
USAID invests in key aspects of the Congolese economy—agriculture, minerals, and energy—to promote broad-based economic growth to reduce poverty and enhance food security. The DRC is also a Feed the Future aligned country. USAID’s agriculture assistance focuses on livelihood development to improve household income so communities are more stable, resilient, and better able to participate in the market.
USAID builds foundations for durable peace in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) by supporting community-led efforts to manage, mitigate, and prevent conflict, countering armed groups that prey on civilians, and providing holistic services to survivors of gender-based violence. USAID Peace and Security staff also work across the portfolio to ensure that investments in other development sectors are sensitive to complex conflict dynamics and advance the goals of peace.
Solving structural and youth unemployment requires innovative and diverse solutions. USAID seeks to increase employability by providing innovative and affordable learning solutions for skills development, in order to help reduce youth unemployment, promote entrepreneurship, and potentially increase industrial productivity.
Government of the Russian Federation (GoRF) and Syrian Arab Republic Government (SARG) attacks on armed opposition group (AOG)-controlled areas of Aleppo, Idlib, and Hamah governorates escalated in July, resulting in numerous civilian deaths and injuries. GoRF and SARG airstrikes and shelling killed more than 500 civilians from April 29–August 8, according to the UN.
Violence in northwest Syria has also damaged and destroyed civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, including bakeries, mosques, schools, and water stations. Conflict has destroyed 17 entire villages in some locations of southern Idlib and northern Hamah, according to satellite imagery reviewed by the UN.
Libya has a substantial natural resource base, abundant human capital, and access to potentially lucrative trade routes, but lack of national cohesion and purpose impedes its movement along the path to self-reliance. The ongoing military stalemate risks plunging Libya into a prolonged civil conflict. Without greater stability in the security environment, economy, and civic life, Libyans will fail to reap the benefits of a transition to democracy and face further obstacles to trade and investment.
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