USAID Appoints Partnership for Peace Fund Board Chair, Announces Board Members

USAID Administrator Samantha Power appointed the Honorable George R. Salem as the inaugural Board Chair of the Partnership for Peace Fund (PPF) Advisory Board.

Mr. Salem’s appointment as Chair makes him the most recent addition to the now 12-member Board, established by the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act (MEPPA). The Board will advise USAID on the strategic direction of the People-to-People Partnership for Peace Fund.

MEPPA provides for $250 million over five years for USAID and the DFC to fund projects to strengthen people-to-people engagement between Palestinians and Israelis, increasing understanding and building the foundation for peaceful coexistence and a sustainable two-state solution. A bipartisan group of Congressmembers appoint twelve Advisory Board members. The Board members will serve three-year terms in which they will provide recommendations on the types of projects USAID should pursue, recommend partnerships with foreign governments and international organizations, and inform USAID’s reporting to Congressional Committees.

Mr. Salem, who previously served as the Department of Labor’s Solicitor of Labor during the Reagan Administration and as a member of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy’s Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, a State Department initiative during the George W. Bush Administration, has a longstanding commitment to peacebuilding across nations and cultures. He is widely regarded as a bipartisan consensus builder whose strong history of engagement in the Middle East will provide valuable experience in his new role leading the PPF Advisory Board.

More information about how USAID is implementing MEPPA to increase people-to-people partnerships between Israelis and Palestinians is available at USAID.