Partnering With Business To Eliminate Pediatric AIDS by 2015

Posted by Eric Goosby / February 01, 2012

About the Author: Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.

Last week, I was proud to participate in a significant moment in the global AIDS response. I stood with leaders of the private sector at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as they committed to join forces to reach an ambitious, yet achievable, goal -- ending pediatric AIDS by 2015.

The launch of two groundbreaking initiatives -- the Business Leadership Council and the Social Media Syndicate -- will marshal the power of the private sector, converging business acumen, technology, and other assets to support country-led efforts to prevent new infant infections and save mothers' lives.

This exceptional commitment by the private sector stems from the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New Pediatric Infections and Keeping Mothers Alive, launched last year by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS. The Plan's… more »

National Freedom Day and the Fight Against Modern Slavery

Posted by Luis CdeBaca / February 01, 2012

About the Author: Luis CdeBaca serves as the Ambassador at Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

Seventy years ago, a group of men and women organized at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to lay a wreath before the Liberty Bell to commemorate the date -- February 1, 1865 -- that President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment, banning slavery in the United States. The plan to set aside February 1 was led by Richard Wright, who was born into slavery in 1855. After Emancipation, Wright went to college, joined the army, and late in life became the first African-American in the United States to own a bank. A year after Wright died, in 1948, Wright's legacy was written into law when Congress passed a bill making February 1 National Freedom Day. Harry S. Truman was the first President to declare National Freedom Day, a tradition upheld every year since and reaffirmed again today by President Barack Obama.

As we mark that moment, when Lincoln sent to the states a… more »

U.S., Russia Conduct Joint Antarctic Inspection

Posted by Susannah Cooper / January 31, 2012

About the Author: Susannah Cooper serves as Senior Advisor for Antarctica in the Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

On January 23, I joined seven other members of a joint U.S.-Russian Federation team that departed Christchurch, New Zealand, for the United States' McMurdo Station in Antarctica to conduct inspections of facilities maintained by other nations in Antarctica. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest, and most isolated continent on Earth. Despite these challenging conditions, there are more than 100 facilities of various sizes and capacities in Antarctica established by almost 30 Antarctic Treaty Parties. The Department of State and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joined by colleagues from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Russian Antarctic Expedition, co-led the first joint inspection conducted by either country. NSF provided invaluable logistical assistance.

After an eight-hour flight on board a New York Air National Guard ski-equipped LC-130… more »

Op-Ed: ‘Why the Global Economy Needs Businesses To Invest in Women’

Posted by DipNote Bloggers / January 30, 2012

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer and President of the Women in the World Foundation Kim Azzarelli co-authored an opinion piece that appears today on The Daily Beast website. In the piece, Ambassador Verveer and Ms. Azzarelli underscore why the global economy needs the "other 51 percent." The text of their article follows below.

"Businesses are starting to understand what development experts have long known: investing in women pays dividends. Women are more likely than men to put their income back into their communities, driving illiteracy and mortality rates down and GDP up.

"Now a corporate revolution is at hand, one that is moving beyond philanthropy,… more »

A Visit to a Demining Site in Sri Lanka

Posted by Emily Fleckner / January 29, 2012

About the Author: Emily Fleckner serves as a Desk Officer in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs.

I admit I was slightly relieved when our armored car got stuck in a thick pool of mud about a quarter of a mile down the jungle road that led to the minefield. I had arrived in Sri Lanka just two days earlier, and everyone told me that a visit to the former conflict area of Kilinochchi was essential to understanding the Northern Sri Lankan experience. I, however, was growing increasingly nervous as our bumpy ride brought us closer to the fields where the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) and Sri Lankan military buried tens of thousands of compact but powerful mines as they advanced and retreated through the lives and lands of rural farmers during Sri Lanka's 27-year civil war. After all, our wonderful hosts at The HALO Trust had just finished recounting the alarming frequency of mine discovery in Kilinochchi: they dug more mines out of the ground in Sri Lanka during the first… more »