{"id":69790,"date":"2016-05-13T13:33:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T11:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/usaid-announces-new-south-sudan-mission-director\/"},"modified":"2016-05-13T13:33:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-13T11:33:46","slug":"usaid-announces-new-south-sudan-mission-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/usaid-announces-new-south-sudan-mission-director\/","title":{"rendered":"USAID Announces New South Sudan Mission Director"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n JUBA, South Sudan, May 13, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ —
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

On May 12 in Washington, Jeffrey Bakken was sworn in as the new U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director for South Sudan.\u00a0 He will begin his post in Juba on May 18.\u00a0 He succeeds Teresa McGhie, who has served in that position since July 2014.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

USAID is the largest donor to South Sudan, having provided nearly $1.6 billion in emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan since civil war erupted in December 2013, as well as $1.3 billion in development assistance since South Sudan\u2019s independence in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

As mission director, Mr. Bakken will oversee USAID\u2019s extensive humanitarian and development programs in South Sudan, which include lifesaving food and other emergency assistance.\u00a0 He will also supervise development programs in health, education, conflict mitigation, democracy and governance, and economic growth focused on livelihoods and agriculture development.<\/p>\n

\n

A career member of USAID\u2019s Senior Foreign Service at the Minister Counselor level, Mr. Bakken has worked in overseas development assistance for over three decades after joining USAID in 1993.\u00a0 Mr. Bakken most recently served in USAID\u2019s Global Development Lab as Agency Engagement Director.\u00a0 Before that, he was deputy mission director in Pakistan and director of USAID\u2019s Office of Pakistan Affairs in Washington.\u00a0 Previously, he led the interagency Humanitarian Intelligence Unit at the Department of State and headed U.S. Government efforts to help Haiti recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake.\u00a0 Other positions include serving as director of the Office of South American Affairs in USAID\u2019s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean and senior development advisor in Iraq.\u00a0 He also served with USAID in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and South Africa.\u00a0 Before joining USAID, he served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a volunteer, trainer, deputy director and acting director in Ecuador.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe want to thank Teresa McGhie for her outstanding service during her assignment, and welcome Jeff Bakken, whose distinguished background in the development field positions him to play a strong leadership role in supporting the Transitional Government of National Unity during this critical period,\u201d said U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Molly Phee.<\/p>\n

\n

Mr. Bakken, who is from the state of Minnesota, earned a Bachelor of Science in Spanish and Latin American Studies from St. John\u2019s University in Minnesota and a Master of Science in Aquaculture Development from Auburn University in Alabama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JUBA, South Sudan, May 13, 2016\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — On May 12 in Washington, Jeffrey Bakken was sworn in as the new U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mission director for South Sudan.\u00a0 He will begin his post in Juba on May 18.\u00a0 He succeeds Teresa McGhie, who has served in that position since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-69790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}