The U.S. Agency for International Development has signaled the opening of a new market for contracting work with a $1 million commitment to a project aimed at helping people along Africa's Zambezi River deal with natural disasters due to climate change.
The funding forms part of an $8.6 million, three-year program to stop deaths and displacement along the Zambezi River. Flooding along the river has become more extreme because of rising worldwide temperatures.
Though small in terms of USAID project funding, the grant signals the opening of a new market for those that seek to do business with the agency, particularly on efforts to combat climate change.
Work on climate change under the Bush administration was off-limits. Experts said during George W. Bush's two terms, little to no work was done to confront issues connected to global warming.
"There are unprecedented level of activity and political pressure to …. come up with [climate change action] that works," Christopher Flavin, president of WorldWatch Institute, told Devex recently.
The Obama administration has recognized this need. While formal commitments to climate change treaties have yet to come, actions like the one taken by USAID indicate that the administration is willing to act to help regions adversely affected by climate change.
This could mean a number of contracting opportunities in Africa, where climate change has had adverse effects – from flooding to famine. As the Obama administration settles in, more of these opportunities are likely to arise.
Also in Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and USAID Acting Administrator Alonzo Fulgham praised the death sentences for Islamists in Sudan who killed a USAID employee and his driver in early 2008.
"I believe the guilty verdicts handed down today are an important step in bringing justice for John Granville and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama, USAID workers murdered in Sudan in 2008," Clinton said in a statement.
"We have been in contact with the families of these fallen colleagues and extend them our most heartfelt condolences," Fulgham stated. "American men and women and foreign nationals alike put their lives on the line every day in an effort to further humanitarian and development programs throughout the world and they deserve our deepest gratitude."
