{"id":19489,"date":"2013-06-30T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2013-06-30T11:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=19489"},"modified":"2013-06-30T07:04:47","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T11:04:47","slug":"from-a-white-house-fact-sheet-released-on-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=19489","title":{"rendered":"From A White House Fact Sheet Released On Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The information below is from a <a href=\"http:\/\/m.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/2013\/06\/27\/fact-sheet-us-support-strengthening-democratic-institutions-rule-law-and\">fact sheet<\/a> released from the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"White House\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8976694444,-77.03655&amp;spn=0.01,0.01&amp;q=38.8976694444,-77.03655 (White%20House)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">White House<\/a> on Thursday.\u00a0 Follow the link above to read the entire fact sheet.<\/p>\n<h1>FACT SHEET: U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Rule of law\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rule_of_law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Rule of Law<\/a>, and <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Human rights\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Human_rights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Human Rights<\/a> in <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Sub-Saharan Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sub-Saharan_Africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Sub-Saharan Africa<\/a><\/h1>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667 (United%20States)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">United States<\/a> strongly supports the great strides many African countries have made to ensure good governance, rule of law, and respect for human rights.\u00a0 We commend the progress they have made to broaden political participation and improve governance, and will remain a steady partner as they continue to work to strengthen electoral processes, ensure transparency and accountability in government, and provide security while respecting and protecting universal rights and fundamental freedoms.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In addition to our ongoing diplomacy and our efforts in multilateral institutions, in 2012 the United States \u2013 through the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States Department of State\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8941666667,-77.0483333333&amp;spn=0.01,0.01&amp;q=38.8941666667,-77.0483333333 (United%20States%20Department%20of%20State)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">U.S. Department of State<\/a> and the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States Agency for International Development\" href=\"http:\/\/usaid.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage\">United States Agency for International Development (USAID)<\/a> \u2013 provided more than $292 million in support for these efforts, including in the following priority areas:<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Supporting <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Civil society\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Civil_society\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Civil Society<\/a> and Independent Media<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Civil society and independent media play a critical role in any vibrant democracy.\u00a0 Across sub-Saharan Africa, the United States supports efforts to ensure civil society organizations and independent media can organize, advocate, and raise awareness with governments and the private sector to improve political processes, transparency, and government performance.\u00a0 Examples include:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>In Kenya, the $53 million Yes Youth Can program empowers nearly one million <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Kenya\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=-1.26666666667,36.8&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=-1.26666666667,36.8 (Kenya)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">Kenyan<\/a> youth to use their voices for advocacy in national and local policy-making, while also creating economic opportunities.\u00a0 In advance of Kenya\u2019s March 2013 general elections, Yes Youth Can\u2019s \u201cMy ID My Life\u201d campaign helped 500,000 youth obtain National identification cards, a prerequisite to voter registration, and carried out a successful nationwide campaign with Kenyan civic organizations to elicit peace pledges from all presidential aspirants.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In Tanzania, the United States has dedicated $14 million to strengthening government accountability institutions and linking them with Tanzanian civil society watchdog groups and civic activists in a constructive partnership to further government transparency.\u00a0 The program focuses on improving access to information for Tanzanian citizens in four key development sectors:\u00a0 health, education, natural resource management, and food security.<\/li>\n<li style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">The United States will soon launch a program in West Africa to build the capacity of civil society organizations to responsibly advocate on land tenure issues, including land rights, working closely with governments and the private sector to improve responsible natural resource utilization and the protection and advancement of human rights and economic development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In plain English, this means that the United States is giving Kenya $53 million to set up <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Identity document\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Identity_document\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">national identity cards<\/a> to be used for voter identification in elections. The purpose of this program is to ensure an honest election and promote peace.<\/p>\n<p>If voter id cards ensure an honest election in Kenya, why aren&#8217;t they necessary in America? I particularly like the part about civil society and an independent media playing a vital role in a vibrant democracy. I wonder if the White House reads its own press releases.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=f8fde730-984d-4a26-9f98-7c27f9c4aa68\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The information below is from a fact sheet released from the White House on Thursday.\u00a0 Follow the link above to read the entire fact sheet. FACT SHEET: U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=19489\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2238,1349,1277,3625,5822,285,1278,211],"class_list":["post-19489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-civil-society","tag-human-rights","tag-kenya","tag-rule-of-law","tag-sub-saharan-africa","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-agency-for-international-development","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19489"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19493,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489\/revisions\/19493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}