I am pleased to represent USAID at this very timely launch of the Lancet Every Newborn series here in Ethiopia designed to focus our collective efforts on addressing one of the most pressing issues for our child survival agenda, preventable newborn deaths. Thanks to the leadership and determination of the Ministry of Health and health workers across the country coupled with the support from many partners here today, much progress has been made in reducing under-five child mortality with Ethiopia proudly achieving MDG goal of cutting under-five mortality by two-thirds.
It is an honor to be here this morning. Today, the United States and Kenya join hands to reaffirm our joint commitment to the fight against climate change. Today, we take action that will help us avert a worldwide climate catastrophe. Today, we launch a joint three-year project to help Kenya achieve its goal of low-carbon, sustainable economic growth and development.
We need to continue to open our doors to scientists, engineers, and innovators around the world to define the challenges, test our ideas, and scale the solutions. We need to measure success differently. Mentor local organizations and companies. Build sustainable markets. And we need to work every day to ensure that our efforts will be replaced by those of strong institutions, vibrant private sectors, and thriving civil societies. We look to you to serve as champions of this new way of working. Your partnership is essential to building enduring progress in the world’s most vulnerable communities. As you do, you’ll be creating opportunities abroad in the markets of the future—even as you help build the pathways out of poverty for millions of people around the world.
The USAID TB CARE I project has been one of the key parts of our assistance in improving the tuberculosis service in Kyrgyzstan.
USAID recognizes the vibrant work of women leaders throughout the region. We know your exchanges over the next few days will offer many fruitful opportunities for you to learn and benefit from one another’s experiences. The theme of the workshop is exploring the way forward. Although the workshop will last only a few days, I hope that each of you will listen carefully, participate fully, and be inspired. Learn from your neighbors. Take back a new approach to make a meaningful change when you return home.
Our mission is to end extreme poverty around the world, to promote rights and democracy, sometimes in tough settings. And that attracts a special kind of employee to our organization; and the more we can discuss, dialogue, and build the right culture, the more we know we are actually espousing in our day-to-day work the values we hold so dear so that everyone has rights and opportunity.
And to take this forward today, we’re taking these efforts to another level by announcing a Joint Communique on LGBTI Human Rights. To be signed by more than 20 countries, the communique will enable us to share best practices, improve international coordination, and advance a sustainable, community-based approach to our work.
The U.S. government, through President Obama’s global food security initiative known as “Feed the Future,” strives to increase agricultural production, incomes, nutrition, and the resiliency of rural households. I am very pleased to inform you all that Cambodia was one of nineteen countries in the world selected to participate in this initiative.
I am honored to join you today for this Advocacy meeting on Accelerating the Attainment of Millennium Development Goal 5 in Kenya. Now, “Millennium Development Goal 5” is a pretty dry name. So let me put it another way. We are here today about the health of mothers. We are here about the health of families. We are here because Kenyans do not want their country to be one of the 10 most dangerous countries in the world for mothers to give birth. We are here about our shared future.
Our Agency works in more than 70 countries around the world. But no matter where we work, we believe that investing in LGBT persons is a critical part of our mission to end extreme poverty and promote resilient, democratic societies.
Over the past decade, TB morbidity and mortality indicators in the region have significantly improved, with fewer cases and even fewer deaths attributed to TB. According to the 2012 WHO Global TB Report, estimated cases of TB (incidence) in Kyrgyz Republic fell from 249 (per 100,000) to 128 between 2000 and 2011; similarly, the estimated mortality rate (per 100,000) fell from 24 to 12 from 2000 to 2011. However, rates of MDR-TB are increasing in Central Asian region as a whole, as well as in the Kyrgyz Republic.
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