The United States is a strong advocate for increased international cooperation and responsibility-sharing on irregular migration, refugee, and trafficking in persons issues in East Asia and the Pacific. At today’s East Asia Summit (EAS), the region’s leaders responded to President Obama’s call for strengthened cooperation by endorsing the EAS Leaders’ “Declaration on Strengthening Responses to Migrants in Crisis and Trafficking in Persons.” To support this stronger focus on human trafficking and irregular migration challenges, President Obama announced USAID's comprehensive, five-year plan of action. The plan commits nearly $12 million in the first year, including support for a new regional program which will strengthen cross-border collaboration between source, transit, and destination countries; leverage the private sector to reduce human trafficking in person in global food supply chains; and support improved research and data collection to ensure that interventions against trafficking in persons are targeted and effective.
U.S.-ASEAN Connect (“Connect”) is the U.S. Government’s strategic framework for economic engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Member States. Connect was announced by President Obama on February 15, 2016, at the historic U.S.-ASEAN special Leaders’ Summit in Sunnylands, California. Organized around four pillars – Business Connect, Energy Connect, Innovation Connect, and Policy Connect – the initiative provides strategic focus to ongoing and future U.S. economic activities in the region. U.S.-ASEAN Connect brings together all the resources and expertise of the U.S. government and private sector to create a whole-of-U.S. approach to economic engagement in the region. It reflects both the U.S. government and U.S. private sector’s desire to support ASEAN’s continued integration, including the success of the ASEAN Economic Community, and increased U.S.-ASEAN trade and investment.
Today, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the government of the Philippines, through its Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), launched a partnership in support of the Oceans and Fisheries Partnership (USAID Oceans).
Entrepreneurs, Government of Nepal officials and farmers came together at a U.S. Government Feed the Future initiative event to showcase new farming practices that will increase production and improve the incomes of farmers. Many new farming technologies come from young entrepreneurs, under 35, including low-cost sensors to monitor soil, smart phone apps to answer tricky farming questions, and solar-powered irrigation.
USAID is supporting closer integration, peace and growing prosperity in Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific region, working closely with ASEAN, the ASEAN Secretariat and the 10 ASEAN member states. USAID provides technical assistance to ASEAN’s Sectoral Working Groups and the ASEAN Secretariat to promote regional cooperation in areas such as human rights, transnational crime, disaster preparedness and management, and trade facilitation. In addition, USAID partners with individual ASEAN member states to assist them to implement ASEAN commitments in these areas.
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