Trump nominates new American Ambassador to Tanzania: Spearheading tourism

Trump nominates new American Ambassador to Tanzania: Spearheading tourism
Trump nominates Dr. Donald Wright

United States President Donald Trump named then nominated a new Ambassador to Tanzania, after nearly 3 years of the US Embassy in Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam running without an appointed ambassador.

Trump nominated Dr. Don J. Wright of Virginia as his new envoy to Tanzania. The White House announced the nomination of Dr. Wright on September 30 of this year. He is set to be vetted by the US Congress and Senate before taking up his post in Tanzania. When confirmed, Dr. Wright will succeed Mark Bradley Childress who served as US ambassador to Tanzania from May 22, 2014 to October 25, 2016.

After taking over his new position in Dar es Salaam, the new US ambassador is expected to spearhead economic diplomacy between Tanzania and US tourism – the leading economic sector which Tanzania is looking for an American partnership. The United States is the second of high-class tourists visiting Tanzania every year. Over 50,000 Americans visit Tanzania every year.

Up until now, the US Embassy in Tanzania’s commercial capital of Dar es Salaam is under the Senior Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Dr. Inmi Patterson who has been Chargé d’Affaires of the mission since June 2017.

Dr. Wright is a career Senior Executive Service (SES) member and is currently working in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the United States.

Reports from the US State Department said that Dr. Wright developed and implemented the National Action Plan to Reduce Healthcare Associated Infections and Healthy People 2020, the US’ framework for disease prevention and health promotion initiatives.

His career at HHS includes service as acting Assistant Secretary for Health and acting Executive Director of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

He received his BA at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and his MD at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. He received an MPH at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa. He was honored by the American College of Preventive Medicine in 2019.

The United States is the leading donor to the development of health services in Tanzania, mostly contagious tropical diseases and HIV AIDS, among other diseases, including malaria.

While in Tanzania, Mr. Childress will oversee, among other political and economic issues, the US support to Tanzania in areas of health, human rights, and wildlife conservation.

The United States is the leading donor to Tanzania in health projects targeting malaria eradication, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS prevention, safe-motherhood, and health educational programs.

Tanzania is among African countries doomed with tropical and communicable diseases including the recently-diagnosed dengue fever outbreak which had hit several parts of this African nation.

With budget constraints in health services, Tanzania depends on donor support, mostly from the United States, Britain, Germany, and Scandinavian states to finance health projects. Wildlife conservation is the other area which the US government has committed to support Tanzania for the last few years. America has been in the frontline to assist Tanzania in anti-poaching campaigns aimed to save African elephants and other endangered species from extinction from poaching.

The US government has also been supporting Tanzanian and other African nations in fighting international terrorism and piracy in the Indian Ocean.

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Apolinari Tairo - eTN Tanzania

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