Posted by Elizabeth Corley, SHOPS on Saturday, May 18th 2013

Posted by Ruwaida Salem, Senior Technical Writer, K4Health and Steve Goldstein, Senior Consultant, K4Health on Friday, May 17th 2013

During the month of May, IMPACT will be highlighting USAID’s work in Global Health. Below features the important role of mothers and partnerships in Global Health.

Link: Republic of the Marshall Islands: Drought Fact Sheet #1, Fiscal Year (FY) 2013

In the last 23 years, global mortality rates have decreased by 47 percent. With funding from international governments and non-governmental organizations, developing countries across the globe have received unprecedented aid in the form of education and healthcare support to decrease mortality rates.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Tropical Cyclone Mahasen is due to make landfall in Bangladesh, near the Burma border, on May 16 with winds of up to 63 miles per hour

• The storm has already caused 7 deaths and displaced 115,000 people in Sri Lanka as it tracked near the country

• Humanitarian preparedness activities are underway in Bangladesh and Burma, including pre-positioning of relief supplies and evacuation of populations residing in areas at high risk of severe storm impact

Posted by Alina Romanowski, Acting Assistant Administrator for Middle East on Tuesday, May 14th 2013

Recently, while visiting the West Bank, I had the pleasure to meet Palestinian shop owner Abu Shadi at his store in the community of Dura in the Hebron governorate. His Al Awawdeh Shop is one of 130 West Bank shops participating in an innovative USAID/World Food Programme (WFP) food assistance voucher program that channels aid through the local market.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

· Although the recent good performance of seasonal rainfall has enhanced water and pasture availability in most drought-prone areas of Ethiopia, populations in some belg-producing parts of eastern Ethiopia will likely continue to experience Crisis—Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3—level food insecurity through June due to delayed and poorly distributed February-to-May 2013 belg rains and resulting planting disruptions.

Posted by Susan Moffson, MCHIP Senior Program Officer on Sunday, May 12th 2013

During the month of May, IMPACT will be highlighting USAID’s work in Global Health. From May 11-17, we will be featuring the important role of mothers and partnerships in Global Health.

Since floods devastated Pakistan in 2010, affecting some 18 million people, USAID has been supporting the critical work of the Pakistan Floods Shelter Cluster.

I consider myself extremely fortunate and even spoiled in this 21stcentury with smart phones and so much mobile technology available. If I ever feel there is a need to make my life more convenient with technology, chances are I can go to the app store to download some utility that will help. And, even if it’s not 100% satisfactory, by virtue of having asked the question or conducted the search for this app, some techie out there is likely monitoring the query and I can probably be assured that in weeks, if not days, something better will be created.