Contact: USAID Press Office, 202-712-4320; Public Information, 202-712-4810

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 /Standard Newswire/ -- The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced it will make a nearly $4.6 million dollar donation to the United Nations Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Humanitarian Assistance Cluster Appeals.

The IASC is a unique inter-agency forum for coordination, policy development and decision-making involving key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners. The goal of the IASC cluster groups is to better coordinate for humanitarian emergencies.

"Our donation to the IASC will help strengthen overall humanitarian response in international disaster situations by building response capacity as well ensuring the effectiveness of the clusters. We are proud to be supporters of the effort to improve delivery of humanitarian assistance and on the ground coordination," said Ky Luu, USAID's Director of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.

In addition to this donation, USAID has also been involved by providing technical assistance to the following IASC Clusters: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Cluster, Nutrition Cluster and Health Cluster.

The specific breakdown of the USAID donation is as follows:

• $ 1,297,000 to UN Children's Fund for Water Sanitation and Hygiene coordination cluster activities
• $ 1,400,000 to UNICEF for Nutrition cluster activities
• $ 1,029,000 to World Food Program for Humanitarian Logistics cluster activities
• $ 430,000 to UNICEF for Logistics cluster activities
• $ 400,000 to WFP for Protection cluster activities

For more information about USAID and its emergency humanitarian assistance programs, please visit: www.usaid.gov