About the Author: Charley Johnson serves as a Presidential Management Fellow, and Priya Jaisinghani serves as a Supervisory Program Officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Two years after the earthquake, Haiti is rebuilding not just brick by brick, but click by click.

The earthquake left behind a government in rubble, an economy in shambles, and a people living in makeshift camps, coping with enormous loss. Against this backdrop, the possibility of progress lives not just in the resilient spirit of the Haitian people, but also in the simple power of their mobile phones.

In June 2010, USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI). This program leveraged the private sector and the ubiquity of mobile phones to bring financial services to Haitians, 90 percent of whom didn’t have… more »

About the Author: Karen Kornbluh serves as U.S. Ambassador to the OECD.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) finished 2011 with an important step in international efforts to ensure the Internet remains an open platform that is secure and reliable, continuing to spur free expression and association, innovation, prosperity and job creation. As part of its mission to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world, OECD members adopted a Recommendation of the Council on Principles for Internet Policy Making.

The Recommendation was born at a U.S.-initiated high-level meeting earlier this…more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks on political and civic progress in Burma, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., January 13, 2012.

About the Author: Kenneth H. Merten serves as U.S. Ambassador to Haiti.

Yesterday, Haiti commemorated two years since the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Those of us who went through the earthquake spent the day remembering the colleagues and loved ones we lost that afternoon and thanking God that we survived.

Today, we are back at work, and we look to the challenges that remain: half of the rubble created by the quake is still there, and more than 500,000 people still live in tents. The commitment of the U.S. government toward Haiti remains strong and, together with our international partners, we support the Haitian government’s continued efforts to clear rubble, rebuild neighborhoods, and find long-term shelter for the displaced.

Most of Haiti’s woes did not begin with the earthquake,… more »

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Monday, January 16 is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and national day of service, a time to re-commit ourselves to serving each other and our communities. On Monday, Americans across the country will honor Dr. King by helping their neighbors and communities.

Learn how you can get involved and find opportunities in your area.

About the Author: Jeffrey Feltman serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

When I served as Political-Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia in the late 1990s, noisy and crowded diplomatic events — dinners, receptions, national day parties — were the best place to meet with Tunisians who assumed that President Ben Ali’s mukhabarat had bugged all offices. They believed the safety of the noise and crowds at diplomatic events protected candid conversations. But sometimes, even diplomatic receptions didn’t work out as planned: one night, my wife and I hosted a reception at our residence in Gammarth, where a large number of human rights and civil society activists showed up, probably to the horror of the few Tunisian government officials who dared attend. At the end of the reception, the mukhabarat arrested a number of guests whom we had gathered in one location, inadvertently facilitating a crackdown.

Foreign diplomats cynically nicknamed… more »

About the Author: Jonathan Shrier serves as Special Representative for Global Food Security (Acting).

2011 saw many changes for the Secretary’s Office of Global Food Security and several advances in our international agenda. I joined the growing team in June, and am proud of our progress over the year. I eagerly anticipate more accomplishments as we take the reins of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI) group and through U.S. leadership of the G-8 in 2012.

AFSI signatories’ endorsement of the L’Aquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security at the 2009 G-8 Summit marked a turning point for international efforts to achieve sustainable global food security. Under the Joint Statement, the United States and other donors agreed to be accountable for delivering a comprehensive approach to improving food security, which entails effective coordination, support for country-owned processes and plans, and engagement of multilateral institutions to promote food security… more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks with Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., January 12, 2012.

About the Author: Cheryl Mills serves as Counselor of the U.S. Department of State and Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The power of Haiti’s heritage and its people is tremendous. For America, Haiti has held, and continues to hold, a unique and rich role in African-American history. Before and since the earthquake in 2010, Haiti has faced great challenges — ones they are working to confront and to lead the international community in helping them solve. The U.S. government — and the American people — has had the privilege of being a steadfast partner in Haiti’s efforts. As we approach the second anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, it is important to remember those who lost so much; and, to honor Haitians’ unrelenting commitment to realize a more prosperous and stable nation by shining a light on some of the progress toward the great future they seek.

There is so much work still to be done — by the government and people of Haiti, international partners, the private sector, and non-governmental… more »

After first learning about human trafficking, many people want to help in some way but do not know how. Here are just a few ideas for your consideration.

1. Learn human trafficking red flags and ask follow up questions so that you can detect a potential trafficking situation.
2. In the United States, report your suspicions to law enforcement at 911, Department of Justice at 1-888-428-7581, and the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888. Victims, including undocumented individuals, are eligible for services and immigration assistance.
3. Be a conscientious consumer. Make socially responsible investments. Let your favorite retailers know that you support their efforts to maintain a slavery free supply chain. Encourage your company or your employer to take steps to investigate and eliminate human trafficking throughout its supply chain and to publish the information for consumer awareness. Refer to the Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.
4. Hire trafficking survivors.
5. Volunteer your professional services to help an anti-trafficking organization that need help from lawyers, doctors, dentists, counselors, translators and interpreters, graphic designers, public relations and media professionals, event planners, and accountants.
6. Donate funds or needed items to an anti-trafficking organization.
7. Organize a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to an anti-trafficking organization.
8. Join or start a grassroots human trafficking coalition.
9. Encourage your local schools to include modern slavery in their curriculum. As a parent, educator, or school personnel, be aware of how traffickers target school-aged children.
10. Meet with and write to your local, state and federal government representatives to let them know that you care about combating human trafficking in your community.
11. Create and distribute public awareness materials such as t-shirts, posters, and public service announcements for radio. Or distribute already existing materials available from the Department of Health and Human Services or Department of Homeland Security.
12. Host an awareness event to watch and discuss a recent human trafficking documentary. On a larger scale, host a human trafficking film festival. Several noteworthy films and documentaries have been produced in the last several years that bring attention to the plight of victims worldwide.
13. Write a letter to the editor for your local paper about human trafficking in your community.
14. Incorporate human trafficking information into your professional associations’ conferences, trainings, manuals, and other materials as relevant.
15. STUDENTS: Join or establish a university club to raise awareness about human trafficking throughout the local community and identify victims. Request that human trafficking be an issue included in such university courses as health, migration, human rights, social work, and crime. Increase scholarship about human trafficking by publishing an article, teaching a class, or hosting a symposium.
16. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS: ensure that your staff is able to identify and assist trafficked persons.
17. LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS: join or start a local human trafficking task force.
18. MENTAL HEALTH OR MEDICAL PROVIDERS: extend low-cost or free services to human trafficking victims assisted by nearby anti-trafficking organizations.
19. IMMIGRATION ATTORNEYS: learn about and offer to human trafficking victims the immigration benefits for which they are eligible.
20. EMPLOYMENT LAW ATTORNEYS: look for signs of human trafficking among your clients.