TACOMA, Washington — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has appointed Jeffrey Goldberg as the USAID Interim Global Water Coordinator and as Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
Jeffrey Goldberg’s Background
Within this new role, Goldberg’s responsibilities entail the direction of USAID’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) efforts in the realm of foreign aid. Goldberg has prior experience in the field of water and sanitation, previously standing as director of USAID’s Center for Water Security, Sanitation and Hygiene. In this previous role, Goldberg’s responsibilities included providing technical expertise and advice to USAID’s leadership on strategic, technical, legislative and budgetary issues pertaining to non-humanitarian water and sanitation initiatives.
For upward of 15 years, through technical leadership, Goldberg has guided WASH programs across Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa as well as the South and Southeast Asian region. Goldberg’s educational history provides a strong foundation for his roles — Goldberg has obtained a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations & Economics from Tufts University and a Master of Science in Integrated Water Management from the International Water Center at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Goldberg’s appointment follows that of Maura Barry Boyle who fulfilled the role of USAID Interim Global Water Coordinator for a year.
Addressing Global Water and Sanitation Inadequacies
In 2017, more than 785 million global citizens could not access “basic water services” and more than 884 million global citizens could not access safe and clean drinking water. Not only does a lack of water and sanitation lead to an increased global disease burden but these inadequacies also prevent the growth and economic development of nations. Recognizing these realities, the USAID water team sets goals to provide adequate water and sanitation services to the most disadvantaged people in the most vulnerable nations. In fact, the USAID water team set a goal “to provide 15 million people with sustainable access to safe drinking water services and 8 million people with sustainable access to sanitation services” by 2022.
As part of implementation efforts for the U.S. Government Global Water Strategy in 2018 and 2019, USAID allocated $835 million to support water and sanitation initiatives across 51 nations. Between 2018 and 2019 alone, USAID’s water team played a key role in achieving global water and sanitation-related goals. During this time, USAID’s work contributed to almost 8 million people obtaining sustainable access to clean and safe water for the very first time and 10.6 million people obtaining “access to sustainable sanitation.”
Under the direction of Jeffrey Goldberg as USAID Interim Global Water Coordinator, USAID’s water team can continue making strides in reducing global poverty through water and sanitation programming in the countries most in need.
– Staff Reports
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