USAID, AFRICOM discuss interagency cooperation

Assistant administrator for USAID’s Bureau of Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA), Nancy Lindborg, addressed AFRICOM staff on March 30, 2012. Lindborg discussed USAID’s efforts in Africa and how USAID and AFRICOM can better work together to achieve common goals.

Lindborg spoke about DCHA’s goals, which include resilience building and disaster risk reduction, saying that droughts, earthquakes, and other crises are inevitable, but that “the goal [of DCHA] is to create the kind of resilience that enables communities, nations, and regions to move through these shocks.” Lindborg also stressed the importance of bringing together USAID and AFRICOM relief and development efforts, saying that the U.S. military’s involvement in food security would be particularly helpful.

AFRICOM Commander General Carter Ham discussed the importance of food security and interagency efforts in the security of fragile nations earlier this year, saying that “supporting humanitarian assistance and food security are good examples of areas in which [AFRICOM’s] interagency staff bring invaluable expertise to help ensure that [AFRICOM] efforts complement those of other U.S. government agencies.”

USAID and 12 other agencies and organizations work with AFRICOM to coordinate many of AFRICOM’s humanitarian and relief activities.

For more information about the partnership between USAID and AFRICOM, please follow the link below.
Building Resilience in African Nations is Paramount to Development, U.S. Africa Command