22 May 2003
Source:
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=03052104.tlt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
US Department of State
International Information Programs
Washington File
_________________________________
21 May 2003
("Volunteers For Prosperity" to enlist professionals to help around
world) (750)
By Alicia Langley
Washington File White House Correspondent
President Bush announced May 21 a new international service initiative
known as Volunteers For Prosperity, a program to enlist and deploy
highly skilled professionals such as doctors, nurses, computer
specialists, engineers and educators to countries around the world to
promote global prosperity.
He made the announcement during his commencement address at the Coast
Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
Under Bush's plan, volunteers will be matched through USA Freedom
Corps with non-governmental organizations working through the
Millennium Challenge Account, the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the
Digital Freedom Initiative, the Water For the Poor Initiative, the
Trade for Africa Development and Enterprise Initiative, and the Middle
East Partnership Initiative. The initiative calls upon professionals
to be deployed for a limited period of time, normally weeks or months.
The Executive Director of USA Freedom Corps, John Bridgeland, told
reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Connecticut that there are
several organizations "prepared to accept skilled volunteers, for
example, to work in hospitals to help prevent and treat AIDS patients,
through City Links partnership to deploy individuals from city
governments to help work on clean water and sanitation projects."
"We hope, eventually, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands" will
work as volunteers in the new program, Bridgeland said.
Millions of dollars in new federal funding will be awarded to
non-governmental organizations to implement the president's program.
The organizations will then be responsible for paying for the
volunteers and using those resources as leverage to solicit additional
private contributions.
Bush told the graduating class of Coast Guard cadets that every
citizen can be grateful that the Coast Guard stands watch for America
and that the Coast Guard is also playing a vital role in America's
strategy to confront terror before it comes to America's shores.
He also explained that "the national interest of America involves more
than eliminating aggressive threats to our safety. We also stand for
the values that defeat violence and the hope that overcomes hatred. We
find our greatest security in the advance of human freedom."
"America's national ambition is the spread of free markets, free trade
and free societies, Bush said. "These goals are not achieved at the
expense of other nations. They are achieved for the benefit of all
nations. America seeks to expand not the borders of our country but
the realm of liberty."
"Free countries build wealth and prosperity for their people in an
atmosphere of stability and order, instead of seeking weapons of mass
murder and attacking their neighbors," the president said. "Because
America loves peace, America will always work and sacrifice for the
expansion of freedom."
Sadly, Bush said, the advance of freedom around the world is
undermined by persistent poverty and despair, hunger and disease. He
said it is his hope that a new U.S. approach to development aid,
including the Millennium Challenge Account and his Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief in 14 African and Caribbean nations, will save lives and
pave the way for greater global prosperity.
He promised he would challenge America's allies to make a similar
commitment to save lives when he visits Europe prior to the economic
summit of the group of eight major industrialized nations (G8) in
Evian, France, June 1-3.
"I will remind them that the clock is ticking, that every single day
8,000 more people will die from AIDS in Africa. There will be 14,000
more infections. I will urge our European partners and Japan and
Canada to join a great mission of rescue, and to match their good
intentions with real resources."
Bush also restated his commitment to double the capacity of the Peace
Corps from 7,000 to 15,000 volunteers over the next five years.
"We remain on track to do that," Bridgeland told reporters. He said
interest in the Peace Corps is greater than ever, noting that while
there have been 183,000 requests for applications by Americans who
want to serve, only 7,000 slots are available at this time.
Another of Bush's international volunteer service programs, the
Digital Freedom Initiative, has more than 40 computer specialists,
called the Geek Corps, currently working as volunteers in Senegal. The
program is designed to help 360,000 small businesses in Senegal grow
with the introduction of information technology. The Bush
administration plans to expand the initiative to 20 countries
throughout Africa.
21 May 2003
White House Details "Volunteers for Prosperity" Initiative
(Encourages professionals to volunteer for major U.S. development
initiatives) (1410)
Following is a May 21 White House fact sheet on a new "Volunteers for
Prosperity" initiative through which highly skilled volunteers can
support U.S. development efforts by working with nongovernmental and
voluntary service organizations in countries around the world:
(Note: In the fact sheet "billion" means 1,000 million.)
(begin fact sheet)
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
May 21, 2003
FACT SHEET
The Advance of Freedom and Hope
"America's national ambition is the spread of free markets, free
trade, and free societies. These goals are not achieved at the expense
of other nations, they are achieved for the benefit of all nations.
America seeks to expand, not the borders of our country, but the realm
of liberty. Our vision is opposed by terrorists and tyrants who attack
a world they can never inspire. This vision is also threatened by the
faceless enemies of human dignity: plague and starvation and hopeless
poverty. And America is at war with these enemies, as well."
-- President George W. Bush, May 21, 2003
Today's Presidential Action
Today, in his commencement address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy,
President George W. Bush announced "Volunteers for Prosperity," a new
volunteer-based initiative to support major U.S. development
initiatives using the talents of highly skilled Americans to work with
nongovernmental and voluntary service organizations in countries
around the world. He also called on our partners in Europe, Japan, and
Canada to follow the lead of the United States and increase their
financial commitments to the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Volunteers for Prosperity
"These goals -- advancing against disease, hunger and poverty -- will
bring greater security to our country. They are also the moral purpose
of American influence. They set an agenda for our government, and they
give idealistic citizens a great cause to serve."
-- President George W. Bush, May 21, 2003
Volunteers for Prosperity, a program of the USA Freedom Corps,
encourages highly skilled American professionals in a variety of
fields to volunteer for a flexible term in developing countries and
emerging economies.
-- Supporting U.S. development initiatives: Working with federal
government agencies, the USA Freedom Corps will match doctors, nurses,
teachers, engineers, economists, computer specialists, and others with
organizations working on specific U.S. development initiatives
including: the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; the Millennium
Challenge Initiative; the Trade for Africa Development and Enterprise
Initiative; the Water for the Poor Initiative; the Digital Freedom
Initiative; and the Middle East Partnership Initiative.
-- How it works: A doctor in Chicago who wants to volunteer for three
months to help HIV/AIDS patients in Uganda can contact the USA Freedom
Corps and be matched with an organization that is working in Uganda;
needs highly skilled volunteers; meets established safety,
recruitment, and mobilization protocols; and has funding from a U.S.
initiative. She could then be sent to Uganda as a volunteer with her
expenses paid by the organization she is helping and, in this case,
with support from the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
-- Volunteers needed now: Some organizations are prepared to take
volunteers now. People can find these international volunteer service
opportunities through the USA Freedom Corps and its USA Freedom Corps
Volunteer Network at www.usafreedomcorps.gov.
-- Increased Interest in Serving Overseas: Approximately 183,000
people have requested Peace Corps applications since the President
launched the USA Freedom Corps and announced his intent to double over
five years the number of men and women serving overseas for two years
as Peace Corps volunteers. The President is using the new effort
announced today to help more Americans find more opportunities to
share American compassion abroad.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
In his remarks today, the President called upon our partners in
Europe, Japan, and Canada to match their good intentions with real
resources and join the U.S. in the global fight against AIDS.
President Bush hailed the passage of the five-year $15 billion
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in both Houses of Congress. This
initiative will help the most afflicted countries in Africa and the
Caribbean: Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethipoia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda,
and Zambia. The initiative will:
-- Prevent 7 million new infections, or 60 percent of the projected 12
million new infections in the target countries.
-- Provide antiretroviral drugs for 2 million HIV-infected people,
whereas only 50,000 are receiving these drugs in Africa today.
-- Provide medical care for 10 million HIV-infected individuals and
AIDS orphans.
The $15 billion for this initiative -- $10 billion in new funds --
nearly triples the U.S. commitment to international AIDS assistance.
Funding will begin with $2 billion in FY 2004, and ramp up thereafter.
The $15 billion includes an additional $1 billion commitment to the
Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, conditioned
on the Fund showing results.
Famine and Agricultural Productivity
President Bush today called for renewed efforts to combat famine and
hunger worldwide, as part of his FY 2004 $1.4 billion commitment to
fund emergency aid to alleviate world hunger.
-- The President called upon Congress to provide $200 million for a
new Famine Fund to prevent famine in vulnerable developing countries,
and called on other nations to follow our lead by establishing their
own emergency funds.
-- President Bush also urged our partners in Europe to follow
America's lead and join us in widening the use of new, high-yield
biotechnology crops that will dramatically increase agricultural
productivity throughout Africa.
-- To give farmers in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere a
fair chance to compete in world markets, the President urged all
developed nations, including our European partners, to immediately
eliminate subsidies on agricultural exports to developing countries --
so that they can produce more food to export, and to feed their own
people.
-- The President's Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, announced by
Secretary of State Powell in Johannesburg, will increase agricultural
productivity through technological advances, widen trade
opportunities, and implement the right policies to prevent future
famines. Today in Africa, 38 million people are at risk of starvation
or are facing severe food shortages, including 14 million people in
Ethiopia alone.
Water for the Poor Initiative
The President called for renewed efforts to bring safe drinking water
to the world's poor. He reiterated the U.S. commitment made at the
World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August
2002, of a nearly $1 billion 3-year water program that will provide at
least 50 million poor people with clean water.
The Water for the Poor Initiative is focused on three areas: enhancing
access to clean water and sanitation, improving watershed management,
and increasing the productivity of water use.
This initiative will provide people with technologies and materials to
disinfect water at its "point of use" in the home. "Point-of-use"
technologies have been identified by the World Water Development
Report as the most cost-effective means of reducing water-related
diseases in all regions of the world.
The Millennium Challenge Account
In his address today, President Bush called on Congress to pass
legislation supporting the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)
Initiative that links greater contributions by developed nations to
greater responsibility and accountability by developing nations, in
order to promote sound policies in the developing world. In sound
policy environments, every dollar of aid attracts two dollars of
private capital. In countries where poor public policy dominates, aid
can harm the very citizens it is meant to help by crowding out private
investment and perpetuating failed polices.
-- The President's MCA Initiative calls for a 50 percent increase in
our core development assistance by 2006, beginning with a $1.3 billion
increase in FY 2004 and rising to $5 billion annually by FY 2006, and
each year thereafter, to help developing nations spur economic growth
and poverty alleviation.
These funds will be managed by a separate government corporation and
distributed to developing countries that demonstrate a strong
commitment toward:
-- Good Governance. Rooting out corruption, upholding human rights,
and adherence to the rule of law are essential conditions for
successful development.
-- The health and education of their people. Investment in schools,
health care, and immunization provide for healthy and educated
citizens who become agents of development.
-- Sound economic policies that foster enterprise and
entrepreneurship. More open markets, sustainable budget policies, and
strong support for development will unleash the enterprise and
creativity for lasting growth and prosperity.
(end fact sheet)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)