Press Releases

Yesterday, Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman met with Ramiz Alakbarov, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator (RC/HC) for Afghanistan, to discuss the international community’s ongoing efforts to provide life-saving humanitarian to the Afghan people and the UN’s efforts to ensure the most vulnerable people are being reached.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched its updated Youth in Development Policy with a vision of a world in which young people have agency, rights, influence, and opportunities to pursue their life goals, and contribute to the development of their communities. The Policy aims to improve youth access, increase youth participation, and strengthen youth collective action to bring about change. Inclusive development is at the heart of this Policy, which promotes the inclusion of all youth, especially those with intersecting marginalized identities, to fully participate in decision-making as key partners.

Today, Administrator Samantha Power spoke with Ukrainian Minister of Health Viktor Liashko to discuss how Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine has put the lives of millions of people at risk by preventing Ukrainians from accessing essential healthcare. The two discussed the urgent need to get medical supplies and medication into Ukraine, especially as the health system continues to treat large numbers of wounded victims of the war. 

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing nearly $387 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Ukraine amid the Russian Federation’s war – an unprovoked aggression that has triggered staggering displacement and humanitarian need.

On May 3, Administrator Samantha Power and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations Marcelo Ebrard met at the White House to discuss shared priorities and ongoing collaboration in the lead up to the Ninth Summit of the Americas, including U.S.-Mexico development cooperation in Northern Central America and efforts to expand labor migration pathways. Administrator Power highlighted the Summit of the Americas as a unique opportunity to work together to build a sustainable, resilient, and equitable future that responds to the hemisphere's most pressing issues, including irregular migration, food insecurity, and threats to democracy and civic space. The meeting was hosted by the National Security Council and included representatives from the Departments of State, Commerce, Energy, Labor, and Agriculture.

Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman will travel to Bangladesh, Thailand, and Laos from May 6 through 15. During her trip, she will assess the needs of regional humanitarian crises, including the Rohingya refugee crisis.

We're deeply concerned by the Ukrainian reports of what is happening to civilians in the east. We know some people are escaping Russian bombardment by moving into Russia voluntarily. And the ICRC and other international organizations are gathering lists of those people whose families are alleging to be missing, to have gone now without cell phone contact in some - in some cases for- for many weeks. And again, it is going to be incumbent on those organizations that are working inside Russia to press the Russian Federation, just as we do through our sanctions and through our global pressure to account for anybody who has traveled inside the Russian Federation. But I don't have any information on that. What I will say is that USAID is working inside Ukraine to help civil society activists, human rights activists who have received death threats or who are vulnerable to relocate, whether to safe houses or to neighboring countries in order to ensure that - that they are not subjected to this level of persecution.

Today, Administrator Power met with the Belarusian Leader of the Democratic Opposition, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, to discuss recent developments in the democratic movement in Belarus and opportunities to partner with the Belarusian people to seek a better future.

The United States through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing an additional $13.9 million in funding to Madagascar. Of the $13.9 million in new funding, $5.4 million will go to the country’s COVID-19 response, and $8.5 million will support small and medium enterprises and economic empowerment for people with disabilities.