Download logo
EVENT:
Please join us on Monday, October 15 at 09:00 EDT | 15:00 SAST for a telephonic press Briefing with USAID Bureau for Food Security Assistant Administrator Beth Dunford and USAID Food for Peace Director Matt Nims. Assistant Administrator Dunford and Director Nims will discuss food security issues in Africa in advance of World Food Day, including USAID’s Feed the future program.
USAID leads international food assistance efforts within the U.S. Government. USAID provides emergency food assistance to those affected by conflict and natural disasters, and provides development food assistance to address the underlying causes of hunger and improve food security in the long term.
As the world's leading humanitarian donor, the United States provided more than $3 billion in Fiscal Year 2017 in humanitarian assistance to fight hunger and provide other life-saving assistance worldwide. Much of this assistance was focused in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen, where conflict and instability are fueling severe food security crises. However, even as we mobilize the best of American generosity to feed hungry people today, we are also leveraging resources to help countries prepare for future shocks and equip people with the tools to feed themselves.
DETAILS:
Speaker: Food Security Assistant Administrator Beth Dunford and USAID Food for Peace Director Matt Nims
Date: October 15, 2018
Time: 09:00 EDT | 15:00 SAST
- Please use Time Zone Converter to determine the start time of the event in your time zone.
Language: English. French and Portuguese interpretation will be offered.
Ground rules: On the record
Dial-in Info: To be provided once you RSVP
RSVP: RSVP to afmediahub@state.gov.
Please indicate if you will dial in (specify English/French/Portuguese line), or request that we dial out to you (provide the phone number and language to be used).
Twitter: We will use #AFHubPress as the hashtag for the call. Follow us on @AfricaMediaHub.
LOGISTICS:
- Callers should dial-in to the conference call 10-15 minutes early.
- When an individual journalist dials-in, the operator will collect the caller’s name, press affiliation, and location. When an embassy dials in, the operator will ask the embassy’s name and location.
- The moderator will facilitate the Q and A among the connected callers. Journalists on the conference call will be instructed to press the “*” and “1” buttons on their phones in order to enter the question queue. NOTE: You can press “*1” at any time during the call to join the question queue, even before the moderator begins the Q and A portion. We ask that journalists limit themselves to one question and indicate to which speaker the question is directed. Journalists can also submit questions in English to afmediahub@state.gov prior to or during the call.
BIO:
Beth Dunford
Assistant to the Administrator, Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future
Beth Dunford is the Assistant to the Administrator in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Bureau for Food Security, as well as the Deputy Coordinator for Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. In this dual role, she coordinates implementation of Feed the Future across the U.S. Government, oversees its execution, reports on results, and leads engagement with the external community to ensure that food security remains high on the development agenda. She also oversees USAID’s technical and regional expertise focused on improving food security to sustainably reduce hunger, poverty and undernutrition.
A career Foreign Service Officer, Dr. Dunford most recently served as Director of USAID’s Mission in Nepal, overseeing the country’s massive earthquake recovery and reconstruction effort. Dr. Dunford has also served in Ethiopia and Afghanistan where she directed agriculture, resilience and emergency food assistance programs, as well as in a number of roles in Washington, D.C., including Deputy Assistant to the Administrator in the Bureau for Food Security and Senior Development Advisor to the Secretary of State’s Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Dr. Dunford earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University.
Matthew Nims
USAID Food for Peace Director
Matthew Nims has more than 18 years of international development and emergency programming experience. Currently, he is the Acting Director of USAID's Office of Food for Peace (FFP) and been with USAID since 2000. His career with USAID began in Indonesia, where he worked for three and a half years managing and overseeing development and emergency food assistance programs. He then served in Washington, DC for four years backstopping Asia and Latin America for Food for Peace, responding to the Asian Tsunami as well as several cyclone and other disasters. Mr. Nims also worked on a broad portfolio of health and HIV prevention programs in Guyana for a year, followed by another year posting in Afghanistan managing energy and water infrastructure creation programs. Starting in August 2011, he began serving as the Deputy Director of FFP but as of January 2017 is the acting director of the office. With a budget of more than $3 billion per year, FFP is the U.S. Government’s lead in addressing food insecurity worldwide in both emergency and development situations.
Mr. Nims was a water and sanitation technician in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps and has a Master’s Degree in International Public Health from Emory University.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Regional Media Hub.
