I am delighted to have the opportunity to be here with you at this years’ InterAction Forum. It is almost one year since I became the Emergency Relief Coordinator, and the UN’s Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs.
Today, most of the world’s poor live in middle-income or fragile countries, turning the transition from fragile state to fully-functioning state into one of the most crucial points in development. Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council, spoke to InterAction’s Forum about transitioning states just hours after having returned from the Horn of Africa.
Today, most of the world’s poor live in middle-income or fragile countries, turning the transition from fragile state to fully-functioning state into one of the most crucial points in development. Gayle Smith, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of the National Security Council, spoke to InterAction’s Forum about transitioning states just hours after having returned from the Horn of Africa.
Islamic Relief USA hosted a Wednesday workshop featuring Dr. Adam Koons of International Relief & Development and Bill Canny of Catholic Relief Services. Both panelists addressed a number of the critical questions and challenges NGOs face when responding to natural vs. politically-made disasters.
InterAction’s Forum 2011 kicked off this morning with keynote speeches from Valerie Amos, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Donald Steinberg, USAID Deputy Administrator, on the shifting development and relief landscape.
Amos and Steinberg cited new donor countries, new technologies, and insistent calls for accountability and transparency by U.S. government and large donors as main factors in the shift.
Two weeks ago, British newspaper The Guardian published findings of its ongoing investigation into allegations of a fake vaccination program conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in northwest Pakistan. Under the ruse of providing hepatitis B vaccines, the CIA allegedly attempted to collect DNA samples from Osama bin Laden’s family members in hopes of finding the world’s most wanted terrorist. In response to the allegations, an unnamed U.S.
