The U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce the opening of the application period for the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship Program. Through the YLAI Fellowship, up to 280 business and social entrepreneurs from across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada build leadership skills and collaborate with U.S. host organizations and mentors to address shared business challenges. Applications are now being accepted at https://ylai.state.gov through February 25, 2021.

Launched in 2015, YLAI is the Department of State’s flagship program to empower emerging entrepreneurs from the Western Hemisphere to enable the full economic potential of the region’s citizens. Combining a fellowship program, an active and open online network, and ongoing activities organized by U.S. embassies and consulates, YLAI fosters prosperity, inclusive development, and democratic values. YLAI also promotes U.S. business models, increased trade, and job creation.

The YLAI Fellowship Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and implemented in 2021 by IREX. For press inquiries, please contact ECA-Press@state.gov. To apply for the YLAI fellowship program, and to join the free YLAI Network, please visit https://ylai.state.gov. U.S. businesses or organizations interested in serving as hosts or mentors, or building business connections with YLAI Fellows, can find more information from partner IREX here.

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January 19, 2021. Ankara, Turkey: The United States and Turkey signed a new bilateral cultural property agreement that solidifies our shared commitment to combat looting and trafficking of cultural artifacts. This cooperation helps prevent terrorist financing from trafficking, combats transnational crime, and strengthens law enforcement cooperation. It will protect cultural heritage in Turkey, promote a clean U.S. market, build respect for the cultural heritage of minority communities, and increase academic exchanges, museum exhibitions, and research opportunities for the American public.

This agreement allows the United States to establish import restrictions on certain categories of Turkish cultural property, reducing the incentive to loot sites in Turkey. The agreement will give U.S. law enforcement the ability to return potential future trafficked cultural objects to Turkey, and it will foster interchange between U.S. and Turkish cultural institutions. The pillage of heritage sites and the sale of antiquities on the international market not only benefit transnational criminal organizations but also represent an irretrievable loss of historical information.

Turkish and American law enforcement are already working together successfully to stop the theft and trafficking of antiquities and cultural heritage artifacts, such as manuscripts and sculptures. This agreement will only enhance that strong cooperation. And through programs like the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the United States has supported a decade-long conservation project that brought together local and regional neighbors to preserve the thousand year old Church of the Holy Redeemer at Ani in eastern Turkey.

This cultural property agreement was negotiated by the State Department under the U.S. law implementing the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. The United States has cultural property agreements with countries around the world, as well as emergency import restrictions on cultural property from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Follow @ECA_AS on Twitter for social media coverage of the ceremony.

Agreement in Turkish (PDF)

108 International Women Leaders in STEM to Connect with U.S. Mentors

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One hundred and eight women leaders in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields from Africa, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia will participate in the virtual TechWomen 2020-2021 exchange program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through mentorships with U.S. women leaders in STEM fields, the TechWomen participants (Emerging Leaders) will strengthen business ties and build stronger professional networks to advance their work and benefit their communities. As a result, participants will encourage more women and girls to pursue STEM careers.

Throughout the fall virtual program, which began in September 2020, the 108 Emerging Leaders are supported by over 70 members of the TechWomen community in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as 23 TechWomen program alumnae. For the month of October, Emerging Leaders learned about teaming for success, leadership, design thinking and impact models for change, in small groups based on shared professional interests. Facilitators, many of whom are TechWomen mentors, led participants through weekly discussions designed to encourage groups to relate the topics to their careers and professional lives. In November, Emerging Leaders will begin the action planning process, working with their country teams to identify an issue in their communities they are compelled to address and design an innovative and sustainable solution to the challenge. Emerging Leaders will be led through the action planning process by a coaching team comprising TechWomen community members from the San Francisco Bay Area and program alumnae. In addition, action plan teams in each TechWomen region will connect over three regional summits (Middle East and North Africa - MENA, South and Central Asia - SCA, Sub-Saharan Africa - SSA) in December 2020 that will allow them the opportunity to receive speed-mentoring and real‐time feedback on their proposed solution from other coaching teams.

In spring 2021, the Emerging Leaders will complete the action planning process with training on how to pitch their projects and will have an opportunity to win seed grant funding for their proposed projects. In addition, Emerging Leaders will also engage with host companies, from Silicon Valley, through a professional mentorship experience, and learn more about life in the San Francisco Bay Area and the United States through cultural exchange.

Please watch the 2020-2021 Meet the Emerging Leaders video and join the conversation on Twitter at #techwomen20_21.

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The 13 women have been paired with executives from the Fortune Most Powerful Women community and are spending a month working virtually with their mentors to enhance their business and leadership skills. At the end of the mentorship, the emerging leaders will collectively reflect on their experience and discuss future opportunities. The partnership leverages the expertise of American leaders in the public and private sectors to support and advance women’s economic empowerment.

This year’s class of mentees includes women from Egypt, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, South Africa, Ukraine, Uganda, and Vietnam. The women were nominated by U.S. embassies around the world. Throughout the program, they will strengthen their skills and build networks to accelerate positive change in their home communities.

Nearly 350 alumnae of this program have worked with mentors from U.S. companies, such as Guardian Life Insurance, Johnson & Johnson, and Accenture. Follow the program on social media at #FortuneMPW and #Fortune15.

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The COVID-19 global pandemic has placed health at the forefront of everyday conversations around the world. When it comes to mental health, there is still a lot of stigma but open discussions on this topic can strengthen communities in the U.S. and around the world by creating awareness and acceptance, and finding solutions.

On Friday, October 9th, the U.S. Department of State’s Sports Diplomacy Division hosted a Facebook live session around mental health awareness. This event is one in a series of engagements around mental health and sports, in partnership with the Office of Global Health Diplomacy and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Office of Alumni Affairs.

This episode focused on destigmatizing discussions around mental health in sports by featuring two well-known and very successful professional basketball players talking openly about their struggles with mental health in a discussion moderated by the Sports Diplomacy Division’s Dr. Ashleigh Huffman. The event recording can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1031349870663737.

To learn more about State Department Sports Diplomacy, follow the program on Twitter @SportsDiplomacy and Facebook @sportsdiplomacydivision. For additional information on the Office of Global Health Diplomacy, follow them on Twitter @GlobalHealth@State. Join the conversation on Twitter #sportsdiplomacy, #exchangealumni, and #healthdiplomacyusa.

Gabriela Lee, Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) graduate from 2019, is the founder and chef at Damn Good Kitchen (DGK) in Dominican Republic. They offer a subscription service to deliver daily meals covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks and help people with busy lifestyles or special diets. Gabriela started this venture cooking from home and conducting all tasks.

“I used to do everything from shopping, cooking, packing, customer service. I was afraid of hiring a team, investing in a bigger kitchen, and delegating," she says.

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Gabriela attributes her improved business management skills and strategic decision-making to the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program and said that the training helped even alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Since the culmination of the program, the DGK team has increased from one to 11 full-time employees – 8 of whom are women – and they moved to a new industrial kitchen.

“With the tools I gained in the AWE program, I managed to increase my sales by 500%. I started with 20 clients per week and now we have over 300 weekly clients,” Gabriela says. She now sells over 1,500 plates of food per week.

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Gabriela learned how to launch her business brand, reach her target audience, and expanded her services across Santo Domingo using outsourced delivery services. Also, after the COVID-19 outbreak, Gabriela and her team developed new services such as family plans for people who are now working from home.

“What I value most about this program is the connections I made with other women business owners in my country and how close we got on a personal and professional level. We have developed several business collaborations together.”-Gabriela.

To learn more about Gabriela and Damn Good Kitchen visit .... Instagram: @ damngoodkitchen

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When the COVID pandemic started to affect the hotel industry in Fiji, Alisi Koroveibau made a bold decision to adapt to this unanticipated challenge.  She came up with a plan to become an entrepreneur and join the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) after losing her job at one of the hotels, and being unable to join her partner overseas.

“I wanted to do something that would allow me to give back to my community and add happiness to peoples’ lives. I approached a church-based primary school out from Lokia landing in Nausori where the only means of transport was by boat. I wanted to sell quality, healthy meals for the children at their school canteen.”

Even though Alisi received an approval from the school to sell food, she knew unlocking the key to success and starting up a business wouldn’t be straightforward.  Alisi’s difficulty was that the school did not have a kitchen where she could prepare meals.  It would cost her $1,000 to renovate a spare room into a canteen. Although she didn’t have the funds for such an expenditure, Alisi stood firm in her path.

“I’ve come to learn that inspirations share similar struggles and to never give up when things do not turn in your favor in the first instance,” said Alisi. “For me, success is when I am thrown into a challenging situation and I find myself having the freedom to choose how I can be different to overcome the situation.”

“AWE workshops have been a great eye-opener which built my self confidence in the work that I do to maintain my business and helping me understand sales and marketing very well. I think AWE has taught me to treat my business with priority if I expect others to do the same.”

After receiving some helpful advice from her family, Alisi is now into doing door to door sales of her very own custom-made savories which she sells quickly and is seeing a growing demand.  Alisi anticipates by the next school year, she will have collected enough funds to renovate the school kitchen and be ready to start her dream business.

“I want to encourage other women entrepreneurs to embrace their ideas and find their personal version of happiness rather than waiting for others idea of success. Although it takes money to make money, I hope by sharing my story, I can inspire others that there is always a blessing in disguise, so stay motivated to following your dream in becoming a successful entrepreneur.”

Cultural Property Advisory Committee will meet October 27-29, 2020, to review the request by the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria seeking import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material. The Committee will also review the proposed extensions of the cultural property agreement with the Government of the Hellenic Republic and the cultural property agreement with the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The Committee invites public comment on the new request and the proposed extensions. The public may provide written comment in advance and/or register to participate in the virtual open session of the meeting on October 27, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Nigeria Request Summary

The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has requested U.S. import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material from Nigeria. This request was submitted pursuant to Article 9 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property as implemented by the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act. Nigeria requests U.S. import restrictions on archaeological and ethnological material. The archaeological materials requested include terracotta (figurines and vessels), bronze (vessels, insignia of office, staffs, staff heads, plaques, and ornaments), stone (carved figurines, funerary markers), ceramics, and carved ivory and wood. The ethnological materials requested include metal (staffs), leather (masks), manuscripts, wood (masks and figurines) used in religious activities, part of community or ancestral shrines, and/or royal activity.

Greece Extension Summary

An extension of the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Hellenic Republic Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Categories of Archaeological and Byzantine Ecclesiastical Ethnological Material through the 15th century A.D. of the Hellenic Republic will be considered.  The Government of the Hellenic Republic has requested that the agreement be amended to include post-Byzantine archaeological material and ethnological material dating up to A.D. 1830. A history of U.S. actions concerning the agreement can be found on the Current Import Restrictions Page

Bolivia Extension Summary

An extension of the Memorandum of Understanding Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Bolivia Concerning the Imposition of Import Restrictions on Archaeological Material from the Pre-Columbian Cultures and Certain Ethnological Material from the Colonial and Republican Periods of Bolivia will be considered. A history of U.S. actions concerning the agreement can be found on the Current Import Restrictions Page

The Review Process

The State Department follows these procedures as it considers cultural property agreements. The State Department considers import restrictions for materials that meet the definitions in the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act.  See our website for more information.

Comments on the Nigeria Request, and Greece and Bolivia Extensions

Public comments on Nigeria’s request and the possible extensions of the cultural property agreements with Greece and Bolivia should focus on the four determinations described at https://eca.state.gov/cultural-heritage-center/cultural-property-advisory-committee/foreign-government-requests. All comments must be submitted in writing no later than October 13, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT). Use regulations.gov, enter docket DOS-2020-0036, and follow the prompts to submit written comments. Please submit separate comments for each country.

Join in the Virtual Open Session

The virtual open session of the Committee meeting will be held on October 27 at 2:00 pm EDT using Zoom, a web conferencing service. The open session will start with a brief presentation by the Committee, after which public participants will comment on the new request and possible extensions, and answer questions from the Committee. Time permitting, participants may be asked to provide additional oral comments for no more than five (5) minutes per participant. Due to time constraints, it may not be possible to accommodate all who wish to speak.

Anyone may observe and/or participate. If you are new to Zoom, these tips will help you get started. If needed, please request reasonable accommodation no later than October 20 by contacting the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at culprop@state.gov. Requests made after that date may be considered, but it may not be possible to fulfill them.

To Participate

Participants in the open session can speak and may be asked questions by the Committee. If you wish to participate and want to be guaranteed a slot, you must request to be scheduled by October 20, 2020, via email (culprop@state.gov). Please submit your name and organizational affiliation in this request. After you pre-register, you will receive a unique link and instructions on how to participate via email.

To observe

Observers can watch the open session, but they cannot speak. It is not necessary to pre-register to observe.

To join as an observer:

Click the link to join the webinar: https://statedept.zoomgov.com/j/1610292443

Or by Telephone:

Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

US: +1 669 254 5252 or +1 646 828 7666

Webinar ID: 161 029 2443

International numbers available: https://statedept.zoomgov.com/u/adc0FAqazp

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The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) is proud to champion inclusivity with its comprehensive programs. With alumni who are members of the disability community, the impact of their efforts goes beyond their time participating in their exchange programs. ECA applauds the efforts of program alumni, and their community efforts are especially appreciated amidst a time of unprecedented crisis in the United States and abroad.

During the summer of 2020, ECA spotlighted three International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni who are positively shaping their communities as disability rights’ advocates. Timed to coincide with the ADA 30th anniversary, these three alumni “returned” to the United States to connect with their U.S. counterparts as part of the first-ever virtual Gold Star programs. Each 2020 Gold Star participated in an individual virtual IVLP with several components, including a public online presentation as well as professional meetings, home hospitality, and cultural activities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers all spheres of public life including: education, culture, employment, transportation, and other spaces where public access is present. The Gold Star program recognizes outstanding alumni who returned home and used their IVLP experience to impact their communities. It also highlights the local American communities that organized their program as part of the Global Ties U.S. network. The program has recognized over 50 alumni in the past 10 years.

Below are the three 2020 participants’ presentations, shared with audiences across the United States through IVLP’s partner network.

WorldOregon: Watch Video

2017 IVLP alumnus Fadi El Halabi is the Executive Director of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network in Beirut, Lebanon. He is also a psychologist and TV commentator and works on projects related to inclusive education and urban design. In 2019, Mr. El Halabi took the lead on a national advocacy campaign with a collective of 70 NGOs and academic partners to push for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Lebanon. He shared his insights into disability rights and resiliency in Lebanon through a presentation with WorldOregon, which hosted him in Portland during his original IVLP program.

Northern Nevada International Center: Watch Video

2017 IVLP alumnus David Anyaele is an entrepreneur, speaker, advocate and Executive Director of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities in Lagos, Nigeria. Through his presentation Mr. Anyaele spoke with partners in Reno, Nevada about the challenges of implementing the 2019 disability rights law in Nigeria, which he and other activists successfully championed over several years.

Graduate School USA and the Harkin Institute: Watch Video

Finally, 2014 IVLP alumnus Arman Ali is the Executive Director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment in New Delhi, India as well as a pioneer activist for the rights of persons with disabilities in India. In collaboration with the Harkin Institute in Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Ali shared advocacy strategies for integrating opportunities for employment and education, as well as the legal rights and accessibility challenges that relate to persons with disabilities.

ECA plans to organize three more virtual ADA Gold Star alumni programs by the end of 2020. Follow updates on the ADA 30th anniversary on social media using #ADA30 and #AccessforAll, and follow IVLP updates on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @StateIVLP.