USAID Administrator Samantha Power in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU: USAID Administrator, Samantha Power, arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday on a two-day visit.

She is scheduled to visit Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Minister for Foreign Affairs Bimala Rai Poudyal and Minister for Finance Bishnu Poudel.

According to USAID Nepal Office, the US diplomat will hold interactions with high-ranking Nepali officials, civil society leaders, students and the local community.

This is the most high-profile visit from the US since Secretary of State Colin Powell’s visit in 2002.

Samantha Power was sworn into office as the 19th Administrator of USAID on May 3, 2021. “In leading the world’s premier international development agency and its global staff of over 10,000 people, Power will focus on helping the United States respond to four interconnected challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic and the development gains it has imperiled; climate change; conflict and humanitarian crises; and democratic backsliding,” the US Embassy in Kathmandu said in a statement.

According to the statement, Power will also ensure that USAID enhances its longstanding leadership in areas including food security, education, women’s empowerment, and global health.

Power is the first USAID Administrator to be a member of the National Security Council, where she will ensure that development plays a critical role in America’s responses to a range of economic, humanitarian, and geopolitical issues.

Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Power was the Anna Lindh Professor of the Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and the William D. Zabel Professor of Practice in Human Rights at Harvard Law School. From 2013 to 2017, Power served in the Obama-Biden Administration as the 28th US Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

An immigrant from Ireland, Power began her career as a war correspondent in Bosnia, and went on to report from places including Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. She has been recognized as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers,” and by Forbes as one of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” Power is an author and editor of multiple books, and the recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.