United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ethiopia’s new Mission Director, Scott Hocklander, traveled to Somali Region to meet with regional leadership and to visit USAID development projects.
The trip was Director Hocklander’s first since his arrival in Ethiopia, according to the press statement from USAID Ethiopia office. During the visit, Director Hocklander met with Somali Regional State President Mustafe M. Omer to discuss USAID’s longstanding partnership with the people of Ethiopia, including those in the Somali Region. Director Hocklander emphasized USAID’s commitment to increasing agricultural production, delivering quality public health and education services, and extending safe water supplies and basic sanitation across the region.
He also met with the Somali Regional Disaster Risk Management Commission to discuss progress with the Government of Ethiopia to address humanitarian food aid diversion and to develop an efficient aid distribution system in Ethiopia to safeguard future assistance from diversion.
Director Hocklander visited a USAID-supported youth center in Jigjiga, which is part of the USAID Kefeta youth empowerment program, implemented in Jigjiga by the Forum on Sustainable Child Empowerment (FSCE). He listened to the young women and men at the youth center, who explained how the program has transformed their lives and discussed how USAID can better partner with them to achieve their goal of empowerment.
Finally, he toured Karamara General Hospital to see two USAID activities that improve the supply chain of life-saving drugs and equipment as well as support records digitization under the USAID Digital Health and the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Management activities. Director Hocklander discussed with hospital leaders how USAID can further improve the health and livelihoods of people in the region.
USAID says it is devoted to the health, welfare, and prosperous future of the people of Ethiopia. “In 2022 alone, USAID invested more than $1.8 billion across the country in humanitarian and development aid. This trip is another example of cooperation between the American people and the people of Ethiopia,” it says.