For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. - At the 2011 Australia-United States Ministerial in San Francisco, CA, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced areas of development cooperation between our two countries in several regions around the world, including South East Asia, Central Asia and Africa.
In Indonesia, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing $10 million to support an Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) program to supply piped water to low-income families in Indonesia. The U.S. assistance will provide around 38,000 new household water connections in 23 Indonesian cities and districts, benefitting around 190,000 people. The combined USAID-AusAID result from the initiative will benefit some 1.4 million people.
USAID and AusAID also will develop opportunities for collaboration in East Asia, particularly in the lower Mekong region, to advance food security, mitigate HIV and other pandemic diseases, and address the impact of global climate change.
In Tanzania, USAID and AusAID have reached a delegated cooperation agreement to support Tanzanian government (GOT) health programs. AusAID will provide $5.2 million in health funding that USAID will direct and oversee addressing urgent gaps in GOT's measles program and critical shortfalls in GOT's stocks for family planning commodities. The delegated cooperation agreement is designed to take advantage of a development agency's existing capacity and reduce burden on host country governments.
In Afghanistan, Australia will contribute AU$3 million towards two U.S. assistance programs in Uruzgan Province. The programs include supporting community dispute resolution and improving the delivery of essential services.
Australia and the US will also provide joint support to help mitigate conflict in newly independent South Sudan. The Australian Civilian Corps (ACC) seeks to deploy two stabilization advisers to work in the field alongside Civilian Response Corps members from the US Department of State's Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization and USAID.
We reaffirm our shared commitment to addressing global development challenges including gender inequality and violence against women. Empowering and protecting women and girls requires strong, coordinated action by the international community. To this end, Australia and the United States are co-hosting a policy dialogue this year on effective means to combat gender-based violence and promote the empowerment of women across the Pacific region.
These initiatives will be pursued under the strategic partnership on international development between Australia and the United States, which was established last year.
The new cooperative package will improve the effectiveness of development activities to make the best use possible of available resources to enhance the impact of our programs - a key goal of the U.S. Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review and Australia's Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness.
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