Archive - U.S. Agency for International Development

Signing Ceremony USAID-GOE Development Objective Agreements FY11 under the new 2011-2015 USAID Country Development Cooperation Strategy

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Subject

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Donald Booth

Development assistance agreement signing with USAID Ethiopia Mission Director Thomas Staal, U.S. Ambassador Donald Booth, State Minister for Finance and Development Ahmed Shide, Ethiopian Government officials, USAID staff and members of the press.

Nena Terrell, USAID Ethiopia

I am very pleased to witness the signing of the Development Objective Agreements between the United States Agency for International Development and the Government of Ethiopia. These agreements cover the first year of the new five-year USAID Country Development Strategy and reflect the close consultation and cooperation of our two governments in all areas of social and economic development and in all regions of Ethiopia.

Today we are signing agreements for USAID support to development and humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia for 2011-2012 totaling $675 million. This assistance is in addition to the U.S. Government’s multi-lateral contributions to Ethiopia’s development through the World Bank, UN Agencies, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

It is also in addition to the extensive U.S. Government cooperation with Ethiopia through other U.S. Government funding from the Department of Agriculture, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of State and the Peace Corps.

The significance of the new development agreements will be measured by the impact they will have on the lives of Ethiopians. Through USAID, partner agencies and non-governmental organizations, the U.S. Government is working to enable people in every region of Ethiopia to live and work with dignity, and through their own efforts, to achieve the prosperity they desire.

I would like to invite USAID Mission Director Thomas Staal to describe the highlights of the new five-year Country Development Cooperation Strategy and of the Development Objective Agreements for the strategy’s first year of operation. Also I want to take this opportunity to recognize Tom Staal’s leadership of USAID in Ethiopia and his contribution to this new development strategy. Tom will depart Ethiopia for a new assignment in a few weeks. I thank him for his service and wish him well.

Thank You.