• Doles out $247m to support humanitarian needs
• Seeks private sector partnership to fight corruption
The United States yesterday announced $225 million in investments to support emerging democracies in the face of a rise in autocracies around the world.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Samantha Power, administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), announced the assistance at an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
To further support humanitarian moves in Africa, the U.S. government has doled out over $246 million to support humanitarian needs across the Black nations.
USAID said it was an additional funding for urgent humanitarian assistance to help people across Africa impacted with protracted humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
USAID Administrator, Power, who is also at the UNGA78 Summit in New York, in a statement, said the United States is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance worldwide.
“This new funding will support USAID humanitarian partners providing lifesaving food assistance, emergency health care, safe drinking water and sanitation, and protection for vulnerable people, including children, survivors of gender-based violence.”
Other beneficiaries he listed to include people with disabilities, across Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Togo, and Zimbabwe, as well as the Central Sahel.
“We continue to stand with conflict- and disaster-affected populations and stand ready to provide humanitarian assistance to save lives and alleviate suffering,” Samantha said.
Meanwhile, the USAID Deputy Administrator, Isobel Coleman, announced Doing Business With Integrity, a call for innovations under the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development at an event with the Atlantic Council on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly.
“USAID understands that now, more than ever, success in the fight against corruption requires a global response— one that not only strategically engages governments and civil society, but also the private sector.
“Building upon USAID’s decades of experience partnering with businesses and industries, Doing Business With Integrity seeds purpose-driven partnerships with business associations and companies of all sizes around the globe.
With this funding, USAID has provided more than $4.7 billion in humanitarian assistance in Africa this fiscal year to respond to the urgent needs of vulnerable people affected by conflict and crisis on the continent.
A major part of the package will be $110 million in private-sector projects for Nepal, where the political system has been stabilizing since a peace deal in 2006 ended a civil war claiming more than 17,000 lives.
The assistance will also involve $145 million in government funding that features support for job creation as well as accountable public finances and other areas seen as key to democracy.
The package also includes grants, including from the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation, that will support civil society groups, rural electricity and climate projects in countries that include Moldova, Tanzania and Zambia.
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