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| GNP per capita: |
$1,330/year |
| Poverty rate: |
27.5% |
| Literacy rate: |
63% |
| Life expectancy: |
65 years |
| Source: World Bank Development Indicators |
Mission Director: William Hammink
Website: http://india.usaid.gov/
USAID Program Areas:Health; Clean Energy, Forestry, and Water; Food Security and Agriculture; Education; Alliances
The United States and India have been partners in development since 1951. USAID’s program has evolved progressively over the decades from emergency provision of food, to agricultural productivity improvements, infrastructure development, capacity building of key Indian institutions, and more. Today, India and the United States are true partners—strategically, economically, and developmentally. India is increasingly viewed as a pioneer of frugal innovation, or jugaad, a Hindi word that refers to making do with what one has to solve one’s problems. In a development context, this involves no-frills products and processes that can alleviate poverty by focusing of the needs of those at the “bottom of the pyramid.” USAID is working with a new sense of purpose in India to help foster these innovative solutions to development challenges, and to form high-impact public-private partnerships to scale up the most promising ideas in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere around the world.
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The new year is a time to look forward to the year ahead, and to think about the opportunities that the new year can bring. Last month, I accompanied USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah to India on a trip to launch a new strategic development relationship with India. Here at USAID, we see India as holding a unique potential to serve as a development innovation laboratory. We seek to partner with the Indian government, private sector, research institutions and civil society to identify, pilot, and scale cost-effective innovations and best practices in development with the potential for global impact. Building on the “Partnership for an Evergreen Revolution,” launched by President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the President’s historic visit to India in November of 2010, USAID will look to India as a partner in collaborations that bring together the skills of American and Indian institutions to create solutions that extend beyond India’s borders and can benefit countries which are confronted with many of the same development challenges as India.
~ Nisha Biswal,
Assistant Administrator,
Asia Bureau
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
USAID-Supported Project Raises Awareness about Trafficking in Asia
January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention
Month, and the issue of human trafficking has long been a major focus of USAID programs in Asia. A focus of USAID’s anti-trafficking programming in Asia is the successful MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) campaign, which was launched with USAID’s support in 2007 to raise awareness about human trafficking among young people. Since then, MTV EXIT has held 28 concerts in Asia and reached tens of millions of people via televised specials that warn about the dangers of human trafficking.
These efforts have paid off. Recently, a Cambodian man, who had been held captive on a fishing boat for the past five years happened to see an MTV EXIT special shown on television in a neighboring country. By calling the contact numbers shown in the special, he was able to find the help he needed to escape, and just last week he regained his freedom.
 In December, MTV EXIT and the rock band Muse won an Asian Television Award for Best Music Program for their “MK Ultra” music video at the 16th Annual Asian Television Awards, just one of many awards MTV EXIT has won. The video spotlights the impact of human trafficking from source to consumer. Also in mid-December, an MTV EXIT concert in Phnom Penh, attended by 40,000 youth, served as the platform for the formal announcement of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN’s) support to the MTV EXIT campaign.
The U.S. Government estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked internationally each year, and more than half are from the Asia Pacific region. Millions more are enslaved within their own countries.
DISASTER RECOVERY
USAID Responds to Tropical Storm in the Philippines
 In mid-December, heavy rains from Tropical Storm Washi, known locally as Sendong, combined with high tides and strong currents to produce flash floods in the Mindanao island group in the southern Philippines. Over 1,200 people have been killed, and an estimated 25,000 remain in evacuation centers as a result of the storm. USAID has provided $2.8 million in assistance for storm-affected populations in the Philippines, including shelter assistance; funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene activities; temporary employment opportunities and logistics support to aid the delivery of relief to flooded communities. The total figure includes $769,000 in assistance provided by USAID/Philippines, for small-scale infrastructure projects to help restart economic activity in affected areas, emergency education assistance, and rehabilitation of school facilities. In collaboration with the Philippines Department of Health, USAID has also provided health awareness materials to ensure the well-being of flood-affected people residing in evacuation centers.
Due to its geographic location, the Philippines is one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, particularly vulnerable to tropical cyclones and floods, earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. These disasters can easily wipe out development gains in the country. For example, estimates suggest that, in the wake of the destructive 2009 typhoons Ketsana and Parma, the incidence of poverty increased by as much as three percentage points in the worst-affected areas in Luzon, and by 0.5 percentage points nationwide.
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PARTNERSHIPS
USAID and Peace Corps Sign Agreement Bringing Peace Corps Volunteers Back to Nepal
 USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia Nisha Biswal and Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams signed an interagency agreement to re-establish a Peace Corps program in Nepal after a seven-year absence from the country. The agreement was signed on January 10 at a ceremony at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C.
"USAID congratulates the Peace Corps on its return to Nepal and is excited to partner with the Peace Corps and the Government of Nepal in supporting our shared objectives of improving food security and access to healthcare for the Nepalese people" said Biswal.
The first group of approximately 20 Peace Corps volunteers is scheduled to arrive in Nepal later this year, and will work with rural communities to build local capacity in the context of President Obama’s Global Health and Feed the Future Initiatives.
REGIONAL AND GLOBAL TRADE
New ASEAN Single Window Program Harnesses Technology to Increase Trade Efficiency
 Greater integration of the region’s economies and improved competitiveness are central to ASEAN’s goal of achieving a unified Economic Community in 2015. USAID’s ASEAN Single Window project is a cornerstone of that effort, helping member states develop or upgrade their national single windows. A single window is an electronic system that allows companies and traders to submit import, export, and transit data only once. This reduces clearance times, as the documents are processed and cleared by multiple government agencies in a single, integrated process, instead of having to go through separate processes in several countries.
Having a unified ASEAN customs clearance system will speed up the movement of goods through Southeast Asia dramatically and cut business costs. This is expected to save U.S. and regional traders millions of dollars annually. When fully operational, this will be the world’s first regional integrated cargo-clearance system.
CLIMATE CHANGE
USAID Holds Workshop on Water Security and Glacier Melt in South and Central Asia
 In early December, USAID brought together regional and international experts for a workshop in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that aimed to build a larger alliance on improving water security in South and Central Asia, with a focus on the impact of glacier melt. Experts came from the United States, Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and international agencies such as the United Nations Environment Program, the United Nations Development Program, the World Bank, GiZ, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the International Fund for the Aral Sea, and the Central Asia Regional Ecological Centre to increase links between the countries, donors, and institutions. Participants discussed water security issues, including glacier melt, and vulnerabilities related to democracy and governance, health, economic growth, and the environment.
The melting of glaciers in the Tibetan Plateau and adjoining mountain ranges (collectively known as High Asia) is viewed as a significant environmental security threat in much of Asia, but little hard data exists regarding the volume of water locked up in the glaciers or the rate of melting. The glaciers are vital lifelines to Asia’s great rivers—the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Syr Darya, and Amu Darya. Factors that may cause glacial melting include climate change, as well as black soot deposited on the glaciers from cooking fires and industry. Approximately one-third of the world’s population depends to some degree on the availability of fresh water within this High Asia region.
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