WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced today the swearing in of Kevin L. Armstrong as its new mission director for Benin. Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator Earl W. Gast presided at the event and administered the oath to Armstrong.

As director, Armstrong will oversee a program totaling approximately $30 million annually to help the Beninese people improve basic education and health services. He will also oversee the activity of three presidential initiatives in the country: the President's Malaria Initiative, the Africa Education Initiative, and the Women's Justice and Empowerment Initiative.

Armstrong has spent most of his 30-year career in international development working with USAID throughout the world. He served most recently in Mozambique as the deputy mission director from 2006-2009, and the deputy director for USAID/Brazil from 2002-2006. Previously, Armstrong was the director of the Office of Business Development and Investment in USAID/Russia, in which he focused on business development, entrepreneurial lending, agriculture, trade promotion and the environment. Prior to his assignment to Russia, he was the agency representative for the West Coast Outreach Program, in which he assisted small-and-medium-sized firms in the Western United States to gain access to private business development opportunities in USAID presence countries. Before joining USAID, he worked for Johns Hopkins University and provided consulting services in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Armstrong holds two master's degrees in public health and in management, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and a psychology degree from the San Francisco University, in California.

For more information about the U.S. Agency for International Development, visit our Web site at www.usaid.gov.