![A Peace Corps Volunteer works with a hospital in Senegal to grow gardens in order to provide vitamins to patients who cannot afford pills. [Peace Corps photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0426_food_m.jpg)
In Haiti, farmers are increasing their incomes and conserving the environment by improving their production of plantains.
In Guatemala, smallholder farmers -- many of them women -- are benefiting from increased access to loans, markets, training, and technology to advance food… more »
Posted under: Policy
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![Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer, center; responds to #AskMike questions from the Department’s official Spanish Twitter feed, @USAenEspanol, on January 24, 2012. Also pictured: Director of the Office of International Media Engagement Abigail Dressel, left; Specialist Assistant Mireille Zieseniss, third from right; Public Affairs Specialist Sarah Goldfarb, second from right; and Acting Director of Digital Communications Center Ed Dunn, right. [State Department photo by Ben Chang/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0201_twitter_qa_m.jpg)
Technology and new innovations are changing the world in which we live. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is responding to these challenges by adapting our foreign policy agenda to leverage new innovations in service of our diplomatic and development goals. This is 21st Century Statecraft -- complementing traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the networks, technologies, and demographics of our interconnected world.
Today marks the end of "21st Century Statecraft Month" at that State Department -- an entire month dedicated to using new tools and engaging new networks in pursuit of addressing today's challenges. During the month, I had the privilege to speak with a group of journalists and bloggers… more »
Posted under: Behind the Scenes
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![A customer, left, signs up for mobile banking at a supermarket on March 3, 2011, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. [USAID photo by Kendra Helmer]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0117_haiti_mobile_money_m.jpg)
Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is rebuilding not just brick by brick, but click by click.
The earthquake left behind a government in rubble, an economy in shambles, and a people living in makeshift camps, coping with enormous loss. Against this backdrop, the possibility of progress lives not just in the resilient spirit of the Haitian people, but also in the simple power of their mobile phones.
In June 2010, USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI). This program leveraged the private sector and the ubiquity of mobile phones to bring financial services to Haitians, 90 percent of whom didn't have… more »
Posted under: Western Hemisphere
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![Ambassador Kenneth H. Merten joins others for groundbreaking of Caracol Industrial Park in Haiti, November 2010. [USAID Photo/Kendra Helmer]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0113_merten_haiti_m.jpg)
Yesterday, Haiti commemorated two years since the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Those of us who went through the earthquake spent the day remembering the colleagues and loved ones we lost that afternoon and thanking God that we survived.
Today, we are back at work, and we look to the challenges that remain: half of the rubble created by the quake is still there, and more than 500,000 people still live in tents. The commitment of the U.S. government toward Haiti remains strong and, together with our international partners, we support the Haitian government's continued efforts to clear rubble, rebuild neighborhoods, and find long-term shelter for the displaced.
Most of Haiti's woes did not begin with the earthquake,… more »
Posted under: Western Hemisphere
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![Seven-year-old Amelia bears a scar from where a concrete block struck her during the earthquake. She is a student at Ecole Marie Dominique Mazzarello in Port-au-Prince, which has classrooms built as part of the PHARE program of USAID. [Photo by Kendra Helmer/USAID]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0109_haiti_student_m.jpg)
The power of Haiti's heritage and its people is tremendous. For America, Haiti has held, and continues to hold, a unique and rich role in African-American history. Before and since the earthquake in 2010, Haiti has faced great challenges -- ones they are working to confront and to lead the international community in helping them solve. The U.S. government -- and the American people -- has had the privilege of being a steadfast partner in Haiti's efforts. As we approach the second anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, it is important to remember those who lost so much; and, to honor Haitians' unrelenting commitment to realize a more prosperous and stable nation by shining a light on some of the progress toward the great future they seek.
There is so much work still to be done -- by the government and people of Haiti, international partners, the private sector, and non-governmental… more »
Posted under: Western Hemisphere
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![Water center in Dolo Kobe, Ethiopia, 2011 [State Department photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0102_prm_water_center_m.jpg)
With an estimated 40 million displaced people worldwide, up to 12 million who do not have citizenship to any country, and some 10.5 million refugees around the globe, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) assists persecuted and uprooted people through our support to international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and by advocating for their protection through humanitarian diplomacy. From the Arab Awakening to the crisis in the Horn of Africa, global political upheaval and conflict have presented many humanitarian challenges, and as 2012 begins, I'd like to take a moment to share a few examples of the work we did last year.
Refugee Admissions: The United States welcomed more than 56,000 refugees… more »
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May 23: The State Department, through its office of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support open governance and political participation in the Middle East and North Africa. more »
May 23: Today, Russia was invited to join the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) at a ceremony hosted by its parent body, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. ã more »