60 Years of Making an Impact

Kathmandu, 18 Feb.: U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Friday commemorated its 60-year heritage in Nepal with a photo exhibition and reception at the Nepal Art Council featuring U.S. Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi, USAID Mission Director Dr. Kevin A. Rushing, and Finance Secretary Rameshwore Prasad Khanal, USAID said.
The photo exhibition runs from February 18 to 22, 2011 and is open to the public.

The relationship between the United States and Nepal started with an assistance agreement signed on January 23, 1951.
As Nepal’s first and longest-standing development partner, USAID has contributed over one billion dollars in development assistance. Working together with the Government of Nepal, USAID efforts have contributed to some of Nepal’s most remarkable development successes, from building the foundations of a modern economy in the early 1950s to facilitating peace, democracy and prosperity in the 2000s. In partnership with the Government, examples of USAID’s impact include:
 Significantly reducing malaria in the Terai in the 1950s
 Created Kathmandu's first modern telephone exchange in the 1950s
 Established 104 of the first government health units around the country in the 1960s
 Opened the country's first and largest industrial district, Balaju, in 1960s
 Doubled primary school enrollment during the 1970s
 Linked the food-poor hills to agricultural base in the Terai with the construction of the Western Hills Road in the 1970s
 Instrumental in the creation of the almost 50,000 strong Female Community Health Volunteer program during the 1980s
 Facilitated the new management of more than 170,000 hectares of land by over 1,300 Community Forest User Groups nationwide since the 1990s
 Helped more than 200,000 rural households increase their incomes by at least 50% during the 2000s
 Conducted a voter awareness campaign through radio programs in all 75 districts of Nepal for the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections
 Helped reduce the number of maternal deaths by 40% and reduced child mortality by almost half from in the mid- nineties
 Began providing literacy, vocational and entrepreneurial training for 70,000 disadvantaged and conflict-affected youth since 2008.

Dr. Kevin A. Rushing, Mission Director of USAID/Nepal said, “Our 60th Anniversary campaign is a celebration but it is also about the importance of development as a whole. We want to honor the accomplishments of our past but also build momentum for on where we are headed. Our goals – the Agency’s goals – for the coming years are to harness technology and innovation to make assistance more effective; to introduce new kinds of partnerships; and to create local ownership and solutions that will be sustained long after we move on. The 60th Anniversary also brings an opportunity to raise the awareness of the strong need for further commitment to Nepal’s development – from all elements of the Nepali society. Over the past 60 years, there have been many successes in Nepal and in US assistance to Nepal. However the successes are only a fraction of what can be achieved in the future, with our joint efforts.”
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