About the Author: Ambassador Ertharin Cousin serves as the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture.
Every day we get a little bit better at providing emergency food relief to more Haitian families. The United States leads this effort by being the largest contributor to the World Food Programme with 4 million ready to eat meals and more than $78 million. These efforts are succeeding in feeding more than 120,000 families per day directly from our distribution… more »
About the Author: Paul Mayer serves as the Consular Section Chief at the U.S. Consulate General in Montrèal. He served as Acting Consul-General at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince Haiti during the days following the January 2010 earthquake.
The news of the earthquake in Haiti hit me the same way the tsunami in Southeast Asia did: A tragic event that had happened far away. I donated money to the Red Cross, and even used the same credit card I'd used five years before. It hit much closer to home when I learned that an officer with whom I'd served in Montreal had been seriously injured at the U.S. Embassy… more »
Ten years ago, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and President Obama recently declared January as Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness and Prevention Month. On February 3, 2010, Secretary Clinton hosted the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Persons. During this meeting, task force members discussed the work that each U.S. agency is conducting to combat modern slavery, and to make measured progress against every form of exploitation, including forced labor, peonage, and sexual servitude.
Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking Luis Cdebaca said, "[T]o confront modern slavery, we must act in a manner commensurate to the sophistication and tenacity of our adversaries, the traffickers, while honoring the bravery and humanity of… more »
About the Author: Arturo A. Valenzuela serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
The expression "building bridges" is a poetic way of describing the work of diplomats: creating durable connections with other cultures and governments to ensure good communication, facilitate exchange, and span gaps. And then there is the diplomatic work involved in literally building a physical bridge.
On January 11, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual, and other officials inaugurated the first new U.S.-Mexico border crossing in 10 years. The Anzalduas… more »
Over the past decade, global demand has spiked for soldiers, police officers, and diplomats to serve on international peacekeeping missions stabilizing some of the world's most challenging hotspots. A few weeks ago, I traveled to Egypt with Ted Tanoue, Deputy Director, Office of Peace Operations, Sanctions, and Counterterrorism, with the State Department's Bureau of International Organizations, where we met with U.S. peacekeeping partners from more than… more »
About the Authors: Tiffany Smith Licciardi and Linda G. Green serve in the Office of eDiplomacy in the Bureau of Information Resource Management.
The work of the Department of State is global and requires coordination of effort from Washington, our diplomatic offices abroad, our colleagues in the foreign affairs community and partners around the world. One of the programs that has changed the way we do business in the past few years is Diplopedia, the Department of State's online collaborative encyclopedia of foreign affairs information. Like the Internet's Wikipedia, Diplopedia is a wiki. It aims to draw… more »
Today, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard C. Holbrooke and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discussed the top non-security priority in Afghanistan -- agriculture. Redeveloping the agriculture sector is a critical part of the Obama Administration and President Karzai's strategy for the future of the country. Eighty percent of Afghans either make their living or their livelihoods from agriculture or something connected to agriculture.
Ambassador Holbrooke said, "Our goal is nothing less than to help Afghanistan restore its agricultural sector to the vibrant export economy that it once had."
Secretary Vilsack recently visited Afghanistan to see the progress being made in this important area. During his visit, Secretary Vilsack met with Afghanistan's Agriculture Minister… more »
About the Author: Ambassador Luis CdeBaca is a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State and serves as the director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which assesses global trends, provides training and technical assistance, and advocates for an end to modern slavery.
Today, Secretary Clinton chaired the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State. Although there have been yearly meetings of this entity that includes other members of the Cabinet, this is the first gathering under the Obama Administration.
She was joined by the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary… more »
Today, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher delivered remarks at the Global Zero Summit in Paris, France. Under Secretary Tauscher said:
"I know Global Zero has set itself an ambitious goal of wanting to eliminate nuclear weapons during the next 20 years. The goal is admirable, and I thank you for the time and energy each and every one of you is putting into this effort.
"The nuclear arms race that characterized the Cold War cast a shadow over the lives of people everywhere -- especially those living in Europe and the United States. But today there is universal agreement that, as Secretary Clinton said last week in this great city, 'People everywhere have the right… more »
Today, USAID Administrator Raj Shah and State Department Counselor Cheryl Mills provided an update on the situation in Haiti. Ms. Mills said:
"We've been working very closely with the Haitian Government. We have continued daily meetings not only with the prime minister but also meetings that have been happening with President Preval to sort through their priorities, listen to them as they are thinking through their forward planning as they look ahead to the next steps. We spent time at a conference in Montreal, actually, last week, where Prime Minister Bellerive spoke a lot about the vision for Haiti and in particular… more »
DipNote is the official blog of the U.S. Department of State —a place to share stories, discuss experiences, and inspire new ideas on the important foreign policy issues of the day. more »
Haiti Earthquake
For information or inquiries about U.S. citizens in Haiti, please call 888-407-4747. Outside of the U.S. and Canada, call 202-501-4444. You may email inquiries to: Haiti-Earthquake@state.gov.
(Feb. 8): Since early December, agencies have worked to create their own webpages to serve as the gateway for each agencyâs implementation of the Open Government Directive. Full Text» State.gov/open» more »
Secretary Clinton (Feb. 4): "We are working in many difficult situations in every continent, but I think weâre being received in a positive way, which gives us a better chance to find common ground." Full Text» more »
Latest from Twitter
Secretary Clinton will travel to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, February 13-16, 2010. #hillarytravel
![A girl receives water and food at a U.N. distribution center in Haiti, Jan. 24, 2010. [AP Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_02_05_Haiti_Food_Distribution_m.jpg)
![View from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Jan. 2010. [State Dept Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_0204_haiti_earthquake_m.jpg)
![Child laborers carry stones, Gauhati, India, June 11, 2008. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_02_05_modern_slavery_q_m.jpg)
![U.S. and Mexican officials appear at Anzalduas Bridge ceremony, January 11, 2010. [State Dept Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_0204_anzalduas_bridge_m.jpg)
![Nigerian UN peacekeeper with refugee women and babies in Darfur, Sudan, Jan. 27, 2008. [AP File]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_0204_peacekeeper_m.jpg)
![Diplopedia screenshot [State Department Image]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2010_0204_diplopedia_m.jpg)
