This week, the U.S. Senate confirmed Ambassador Samantha Power as the new USAID Administrator in a firmly bipartisan 68-26 vote. Her ceremonial swearing in is scheduled for next week, on Monday, May 3. Please join ALLMEP and our community of peacebuilders in applauding Ambassador Power’s confirmation, and offering her our sincerest congratulations on the appointment!

Ambassador Power formerly served under the Obama administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, when she visited ALLMEP member PeacePlayers – Middle East. PeacePlayers uses the power of sport to unite, educate, and inspire young people to create a more peaceful world and, in 2016, welcomed then Ambassador Power to learn more about their USAID funded programs and join a basketball game with Palestinian and Israeli youth, alongside then Ambassaor Dan Shapiro.

On that same trip to the region, Ambassador Power addressed a group of Israeli and Palestinian Model UN participants, and perfectly encapsualted ALLMEP’ s youth-driven theory of change: “You’re living at a time in which many voices in your world are telling you that even the simple act of meeting with the other side is dangerous, naïve, or disloyal. You have to continue to prove them wrong. No path has ever been built to peace without sides coming together to listen to one another. All of our faiths teach us that, as does our history.”

Almost 15 years ago, ALLMEP played a pivotal role in advocating for USAID’s Conflict Management and Mitigation (CMM) fund, which held a $9m call for proposals earlier this year for the region’s peacebuilders. CMM laid the foundation for U.S. support for the Israeli/Palestinian peacebuilding space, and for ALLMEP’s ongoing engagement with our partners at USAID, who — under Ambassador Power’s leadership — will oversee the implementation of the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA), the result of over a decade of ALLMEP’s International Fund advocacy.

We look forward to working with Administrator Power and her team on the implementation of this game-changing legislation, and on providing a generation of Palestinian and Israeli youth with the tools, experiences and relationships to transform the political reality that they are inheriting.