Biden names U.S.'s former UN ambassador Power to lead USAID

[January 13, 2021]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday named Samantha Power, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as his choice to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), citing her deep experience addressing crises around the world.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power addresses media following a United Nations Security Council vote, aimed at ensuring that U.N. officials can monitor evacuations from besieged parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo, at the United Nations in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

"Power will rally the international community and work with our partners to confront the biggest challenges of our time — including COVID-19, climate change, global poverty, and democratic backsliding," his transition team said in a statement.

"A crisis-tested public servant and diplomat, Ambassador Power has been a leader in marshaling the world to resolve long-running conflicts, respond to humanitarian emergencies, defend human dignity, and strengthen the rule of law and democracy," it added.

The long-time human rights advocate served as U.S. ambassador to the UN under former Democratic President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Biden from 2013 to 2017.

Power, 50, also served as a White House national security staffer under Obama from 2009 to 2013. A former journalist, she won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “A Problem from Hell,” a study of U.S. failure to prevent genocide.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Giles Elgood)

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