Remarks by USAID Administrator Shah, April 16, 2012Footnote 1
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah gave the following remarks in Washington, DC
Administrator Shah. In 1945, 50 governments and a number of NGOs gathered in San Francisco to sign the charter that would form the United Nations, an effort that would change the shape of foreign affairs forever.
Inspired by a world coming together, the World Affairs Council of San Francisco formed, dedicated to helping a diverse crowd engage with the rapidly transforming state of global affairs.
In 2001, another remarkable transformation was occurring, this time in American philanthropy. Anchored for centuries by the Foundations of early corporate titans like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Leland Stanford, new philanthropists in Silicon Valley and elsewhere began to emerge. Having made their fortunes in a competitive private sector, they dedicated themselves to bringing the same level of rigor and analysis to that philanthropic work.
I, myself, am a product of that movement, having spent nearly a decade at the Gates Foundation, developing a deep respect for the importance of bottom-line results and social returns on investment.
But in another show of foresight, the World Affairs Council—in an effort led by Jane Wales—formed this Forum, bringing together a community of like-minded donors to champion this new approach to giving.
That approach is as critical as ever—generosity, even during times of adversity, remains a bedrock of American values.
This past year, despite enduring the long hangover of the global financial crisis, the fifty largest donors gave $10.4 billion dollars.
Today, we at USAID are working to capture the tremendous potential of this community—partnering in new ways to leverage your experiences, expertise and resources. And focus on pivotal opportunities in development will enable us to get ahead of global trends that are placing unprecedented pressures on planet.
In the next forty years, the world will welcome another 2.5 billion people—the equivalent of adding two Chinas. In order to support a population this large, we'll need to double global food production. All while a changing climate leads to warmer temperatures, more erratic rains and longer, more vicious droughts.
The only way we're going to get ahead of this curve is to fight poverty and spur economic growth is to take advantage of three critical opportunities today.
We have to help communities build real resilience to disasters—so that droughts don't shatter development gains or give rise to instability. We need to strengthen food security and drive economic growth. And we need to help countries reap a demographic dividend—focusing on efforts that ensure all children can enjoy healthy, productive lives.
Across each of these efforts, we have new ways to partner than ever before: from our Development Innovations Ventures, which supports entrepreneurs around the world with cutting-edge ideas, to our Global Development Alliances, which leverage the vast potential of the global-and local-private sector.
Every year, as many of half of USAID's emergency staff mobilizes to East Africa. Over the last decade, we've spent more than $11.5 billion in humanitarian assistance for the region. Each of us here is familiar with this similar experience—and a similar pattern of crisis, generosity and response.
This past year's crisis in the Horn of Africa was just the latest example.
As many of you know, last summer, the worst drought in 60 years put more than 13 million people at grave risk. And in Somalia, where decades of conflict and disorder have contributed to the breakdown of governance, drought led to famine. While we can't stop these droughts from occurring, we can do more to help people withstand them.
The development community has to expand our focus from relief to resilience—from responding after emergencies strike to preparing communities in advance. These are exactly the kinds of investments we've been shifting our focus to in the Horn.
Through our Global Development Alliance, we're partnering with companies like Swiss Re to provide insurance to pastoralists. This past October—during the height of the crisis—more than 600 cattle herders received payments.
And we're working with PEPSICo buy chickpeas from 30,000 farmers in Ethiopia—turning their product into a nutritional paste that the WFP can use to save lives. Just an example of the most than 1,000 partnerships we've formed with more than 3,000 private sector players through GDA.
But if we're going to truly help countries escape the cycle of emergency and relief, we have to help them address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition.
In 1985, Official Development Assistance in agriculture was high as $20 billion, but by 2003 it has fallen to a mere $3 billion. When food prices spikes in 2007, millions suffered—increasing the ranks of the hungry for the first time in 40 years.
To reverse this trend, we are helping bring the world together around a new approach to food security—boosting harvests, reducing hunger and laying the foundation for broad, inclusive economic growth.
This approach was first outlined at the 2009 G8 Summit in L'Aquila, where governments pledged to reinvest in agriculture—but in a very different way. Aligning their assistance with plans developed by partner countries and focused on smallholder farmers. But public investment is not enough.
To reach the scale needed to sustainably end hunger, we need to mobilize private sector investment in agriculture. We need companies to sell better seeds to poor farmers, insure them against failure, and help get their crops to market.
Through our Development Credit Authority, we're using small investments to unlock the power of local capital. This past year, we forged a partnership between J.P. Morgan and the Gates, Gatsby and Rockefeller Foundations. This enabled a Kampala-based fund manager to invest $25 million in at least 20 agricultural enterprises—raising incomes for at least a quarter of a million households. And the partnership stands as a great example of bringing philanthropic, public and private sector together to leverage new resources and achieve results on a dramatic scale.
But even if we are successful at fighting hungry and reducing poverty, rapidly rising populations in Africa still puts a brake pedal on its growth. In the next 20 years, Kenya and Ethiopia will see their populations double—and they won't be alone.
In order for these countries to meet the demands of tomorrow, they have to make important investments in their citizens today. They have to improve child survival, expand access to voluntary family planning and educate girls. When child survival increases, birthrates fall—as families willingly choose to have fewer children when they know each will have a chance at a healthy life.
As this pattern emerges, nations in Africa will be poised to reap an economic windfall that has fueled the fastest growing countries in Asia in the 70s and Latin America in the 80s.
Capturing this demographic dividend begins with ensuring every child has the chance to enjoy a healthy life.
Thanks to advances over the last several decades, the global community today has the knowledge and the tools to end preventable child deaths.
In Ethiopia, Bangladesh and 31 other countries around the world, a public-private partnership called Helping Babies Breath is training frontline health workers and giving them cheap tools to save infants' lives. A device made by Laerdal to fight asphyxia costs just $18. By working together, we leveraged six times the amount we invested.
Across the world, we're scaling up proven interventions like this one to ensure every child—no matter where they live—can enjoy a healthy life. From making sure children are born free of AIDS even when their mothers are HIV-positive to ensuring infants can freely take their first breaths to focusing nutritional efforts on the critical first 1,000 days of life to investing in vaccines and malaria prevention.
We don't often think of—or treat—these life-saving interventions as being part of a single effort, but together they have brought us within reach of this remarkable goal.
These are the opportunities we see today, but if we're going to take advantage of them, all of us in this room need to do more than what we've been doing in the past—and we need to do it differently.
Your community should be fundamentally focused on innovation—on taking larger risks and pushing the cutting-edge of this work. And unlike governments that are subject to very strict accountability for every dollar we spend, your organizations enjoy a degree of freedom and flexibility that allows them to be much more effective laboratories for innovation.
But currently many are as risk averse or more risk averse than we are. Philanthropy should also be much more focused on using their ties to the private sector to drive market activity in developing countries. We know that aid and charity alone can never achieve the sustainability and scale we need to affect real change.
Already we live in a world where foreign direct investment is almost 10 times higher than all official development assistance. We need your organizations to partner much more deeply with the private sector—helping channel capital towards investments that can deliver profit and accelerate inclusive growth.
Finally, we need your support and your ability to drive advocacy to raise awareness about the critical opportunities we face today. The truth is that resilience, food security and child survival don't have the advocacy community that other initiatives like PEPFAR do. It is up to each of us to generate the same kind of creativity and generosity that we seen during a crisis towards these long-term solutions.
The New York Times recently ran the story of one man—Andrew Rugasira—who was pursuing his dream of building a coffee company in western Uganda. His dream wasn't about starting collective that would sell beans to roasters in Italy or the U.S.
It was about building modern business that would roast world-class coffee in Uganda—shipping the product to elite markets around the world and allowing locals to capture the entire value chain.
It wasn't easy for him at first. The farmers he worked with lacked basic agriculture knowledge, including how to terrace their fields to improve yields. He didn't have any money for marketing, so it was hard for him to get most buyers to even listen to his pitch. And since Andrew couldn't find enough investors to finance his start-up, USAID stepped in to help—financing about one-eight of his company.
But Andrew persisted—determined that the future of his country would be shaped by business, not aid. Today, Andrew buys beans from 14,000 farmers and has signed deals in the U.K., Austria and America.
Farmers have seen their incomes skyrocket—from around $250 a year to $3,500. And Andrew is making investments to scale-up production, replacing hand-cranked pumps with high-speed processing stations across the region.
Although our assistance provided critical support at a critical time for Andrew, it didn't have the biggest role. Investors, farmers and entrepreneurs took center stage.
Ultimately, if we're going to realize a future with far more countries as partners in development than recipients in aid, then these are the stories that matter—and this is the role aid must play.
Because supporting local entrepreneurs to build capacity—instead of dependence—doesn't just strengthen their futures. It strengthens all of ours.
By making core reforms that allow us to intensely focus on results and expand our partnership base, we're not just bringing our communities closer together. We're changing perceptions about the nature of this work—and its critical importance to economic prosperity and security; we're transforming what's possible in some of the hardest places to work; and we're seizing pivotal opportunities to achieve generational legacies in development—and advance the values of compassion and generosity that unite this community and our country.
Thank you.
Remarks by USAID Administrator Shah, April 17, 2012Footnote 2
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah gave the following remarks at the SAIS Year of Agriculture Conference in Washington, DC
Administrator Shah. Last year, for the first time in history, the majority of all people lived in cities. In China, the world's largest human migration in history continues to lead millions from the country's rural interior to its coast. In India, the migration pattern is North to South, from poorer states to megacities like Mumbai.
Today there are 60 cities in China with populations greater than one million; India has 45 while the U.S. and Europe have 25 combined. But it's not just Asia; Africa and Latin America both have at least 50 cities. And within those growing cities are slums—massive labyrinths of makeshift housing designed to accommodate the swelling ranks of the urban poor. Nearly everyone has seen images of slums like these either up close or in movies like Slumdog Millionaire. And they all look just like this: blue tarps, tin roofs, rubble and litter at every turn.
My first experience with dire poverty was in this exact slum—Dharavi, in Mumbai, India—where my uncle first took me on my first trip to India at age five. Because this is the image of poverty most of us are familiar with, most of us assume that this is how the poorest people in the world live.
But the most accurate depiction of poverty isn't this image.
It's this one [shows slide of South Sudanese farmer].
Most poor people depend on agriculture to make a living and most people who depend on agriculture for a living are poor. 75 percent of the world's poor live in rural settings like this woman in South Sudan.
And for most of them, tending the land is the only way to can grow or earn enough to eat. On average, they tend about a hectare, or two-and-a-half acres, of land and the majority of them—certainly the majority of those who do all the work—are women.
My goal today is to convince you future leaders of just one thing: if you care about ending poverty, then you should care about boosting harvests. Because in order to make poverty history, we must increase global agricultural production.
After numerous studies, we now know growth that comes from agriculture reduces poverty by a much more significant margin. And the poorer you and your country are, the more effective agricultural growth is.
GDP growth originating in agriculture is nearly three-to-six times more effective at raising the incomes of the poor than growth from other sectors like manufacturing or services. And this is near universal phenomenon. In China, agriculture growth was 3.5 times more effective at reducing poverty than non-ag growth. In Latin America, it was 2.7 times more effective.
Since smallholders make up the majority of the world's poor, it makes sense that increasing their productivity and incomes would decrease poverty.
But there's also a long-term effect at play. Over time that increased productivity will lead to lower food prices, allowing the poor to spend less of their income on feeding their families. Instead of spending 70 percent of their income on food, which most of the poor must do, they can invest in education and health care for their children.
As poor countries increase their agricultural productivity, their economies will restructure away from agriculture toward manufacturing and services. We've seen that agricultural productivity growth has been the key precursor to nearly every single industrial revolution in the world, from England to America to Japan to China to Vietnam.
So now you might be thinking, “If the evidence is so clear, why hasn't the world done anything about it?
In 1968, this man [shows slide of Paul Ehrlich], a Stanford biology professor named Paul Ehrlich wrote a best-selling book called The Population Bomb and on the cover was a little yellow box that said: “While you are reading these words, four people will have died from starvation.
Most of them children.”
Looking at the rates of population growth and food production, Ehrlich did some simple math and predicted that billions in the future would be doomed to a life of famine and mass starvation. He bet even money that Britain would cease to exist by the year 2000.
But what Ehrlich didn't count on was this man… [shows slide of Norman Borlaug]… an agricultural scientist named Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was hard at work in the Mexican highlands successfully developing heartier strains of wheat. The hybrids that he produced would go on to transform global agriculture forever, ushering in a Green Revolution that spared hundreds of millions from starvation and death.
Those new strains of wheat, more productive strains of rice and major pro-market reforms in agriculture turned major sources of food insecurity like Brazil, Mexico and India into agricultural powerhouses in their own right. And since that time, the world witnessed the most telling indicator of global agricultural progress: decades and decades of declining food prices. Ehrlich was wrong; productivity was outpacing population growth, not the other way around.
But despite this spectacular progress, the Green Revolution didn't extend far enough and in 2007 and 2008, the world had another “Ehrlich moment.” After decades of declining food costs and hunger, prices suddenly spiked, spurred by rapid increases demand for biofuels, meat and dairy, in some cases pushed even higher by speculation.
The Food and Agriculture Organization released a stunning statistic: for the first time in 40 years, the number of people facing hunger and poverty had increased by over 100 million people. It was estimated that a billion people in the world suffered from widespread hunger.
Just recently we learned that estimate wasn't quite right—even in 2008, the number of people living in absolute poverty was still falling. But we do know there was one clear consequence of the food price spikes in 2008… [shows slide of food riots in Haiti]… anger.
In over 30 countries—including Haiti, pictured here—food riots broke out, fostering instability and awakening the world to the very serious fact that within forty years, the world would have to double food production to feed the nine billion people who would live on our planet in 2050.
And we'd have to increase that production while a changing climate leads to warmer temperatures, more erratic rains and longer, more vicious droughts.
In 2009, largely because of personal appeals made by President Obama, governments pledged to reinvest in food security. After decades of underinvestment in agriculture—public spending had fallen from a high of $20 billion to a low of $3 billion—the world committed $22 billion to increasing global food security, rebuilding political will for the cause, while encouraging developing countries to commit more of their own budgets to agriculture. Perhaps most importantly, that money was directed against agricultural growth strategies developed and led by developing countries themselves. Through this Administration's Feed the Future initiative, we're investing over $3 billion in 20 countries.
But Feed the Future isn't just about new money; it's about a new approach, dedicated to helping countries develop their own agricultural economies so they can feed their own populations, instead of relying on food aid from others.
In each of our target countries, we worked with countries to identify a strategic approach to our investment. We identified the exact regions and crops that had the best market links and most agricultural potential and whose growth would most likely benefit the very poor. We don't just want to help a few farmers increase their harvests; we want to create breadbaskets that can feed entire regions.
Guiding those investments are core principles of mutual accountability. We've created a framework for results at feedthefuture.gov with several specific metrics and indicators for success. And because we know that empowering women is crucial to this effort, we've created a women's empowerment index, specifically evaluating how our programs are helping women get better access to capital, land and new technologies.
It's still early, but initial signs are that this new approach is paying off. Since we began the initiative in 2008, our 20 target countries have increased their total agricultural production by an average of 5.8 percent. That's over eight times higher than the global average of 0.7 percent.
Last year in Bangladesh, we witnessed staggering results when we launched a program to help rice farmers make more efficient use of fertilizer. We helped over 400,000 of these farmers increase their yields by 15 percent, leading to first ever surplus of rice in Barisal, the country's poorest state.
By harnessing the power of science and technology, we can transform agriculture around the world by using drought-and-disease tolerant seeds, better irrigation systems and improved fertilizers to boost yields.
To accelerate progress, we are prioritizing research into new seeds that can withstand droughts, thrive in floods and resist climate change. In the last three years, we have more than doubled our agricultural research investments, building new bridges between American universities and their counterparts in the developing world.
In the Philippines, we worked with scientists from the International Rice Research Institute, UC Davis and UC Riverside to develop a strain of rice that could withstand heavy floods. Over 1 million farmers are already seeing improved harvests by adopting it and we think we can reach as many as 70 million throughout Asia.
Many of the seed varieties and agricultural technologies that could benefit smallholder farmers already exist, but uptake has been slow. That is especially true in Africa, the only continent where agricultural productivity has remained stagnant for the past thirty years.
Hybrid seeds that revolutionized our country's production in the 1930s are only now reaching the continent, the main reason African crop yields can lag as much as 90 percent behind those of Western farmers.
Since the 1960s, Africa has gone from being a net exporter of agricultural products into the only continent that does not produce enough to feed its own citizens. A country with huge agriculture potential is now forced to spend 150 million ever year importing food.
The world has been successful in building political will and support for strengthening food security, especially on the African continent. But we still face challenges. The investment plans of our partner countries are still underfunded and the money that countries have committed has been slow getting out the door.
Perhaps our biggest challenge is encouraging private sector investment in developing world agriculture. We need companies to sell better seeds and fertilizers to poor farmers, insure them against failure, provide them capital to grow, create stable demand for their products and help get their crops to market. Without a strong private sector presence to provide those crucial contributions, farmers can't succeed—in this country or anywhere else.
That's why we're working with J.P. Morgan to drive capital toward small and medium-sized East African agribusinesses. Along with the Gates, Gatsby and Rockefeller Foundations, we enabled a Kampala-based fund manager to invest $25 million in at least 20 agriculture firms throughout the region, raising incomes for at least a quarter of a million households.
We also partnered with PepsiCo and the World Food Program to help 30,000 chickpea farmers improve their yields and join PepsiCo's supply chain. PepisCo will use those chickpeas to create a highly nutritious food paste to sell to the World Food Program, which can use it to save the lives of malnourished children throughout East Africa.
And right now, our teams are working around the clock ahead of next month's G8 Summit to develop new incentives that will encourage private sector investment in African agriculture.
The point of these efforts isn't to reshape the world's farms in America's image. It's to fight poverty and address the growing rates of malnutrition that rob children around the world of their potential.
In all this talk about economic growth, productivity statistics and crop yields, it's easy to lose sight of what we're really talking about—to lose sight of the human cost of hunger and poverty.
But we know that if a child can't get enough nutrients during the first thousand days before their second birthday, they suffer irreversible limits to their potential. They earn 10 percent less over their lifetime and recent MRI images show that their brains are not as fully developed.
We believe if we can continue to support progress in Feed the Future countries, increase investment in food security and continue to crowd-in private sector investment, then we can help sub-Saharan African countries reach a goal of bringing 50 million people out of poverty within ten years.
To reach that goal, the world must stay committed.
Even last year, amidst this global push for food security, the world still spent more on providing food aid to malnourished people than it did on agricultural development.
As I'm sure many of you know—the worst drought in 60 years hit the Horn of Africa, putting 13.3 million people at grave risk. In southern Somalia, where twenty years of conflict wore down the country's ability to cope and a group openly affiliated with al Qaeda prevented humanitarian aid from getting through, the drought led to an outbreak of famine. Nearly 300,000 Somalis were forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries.
I travelled to Dadaab, the site of what has now become the largest refugee camp in the world, to meet families who had escaped the famine. While there, I met a young Somali woman who brought the horror of the famine into stunning clarity.
With an unsettling calm, she described the over 100-mile journey she took to Dadaab, on foot, with her two children by her side. As she pressed on, her children became too weak to stay on their feet. First she carried one. Then the other needed her support.
Eventually the strain became too much and she herself struggled to continue. She looked at her two children, said a prayer and made a heartbreaking choice no mother should ever to face: to leave one of them behind. In a field with its share of tragic stories, hers stands out in my mind.
But it would be an even greater tragedy if her experience didn't inspire the world to do better … if it didn't inspire countries to finally break this cycle of drought, disaster and emergency aid by strengthening resilience to disasters and continuing to invest in food security, and if it didn't inspire us to finally end the scourge of hunger and malnutrition that tears apart families, uproots lives and turns every day of a poor farmer's life into a brutal struggle.
As students who are now deciding how you'll spend your future, I ask that no matter what you do with your life, you use your career to replace these stories of heartbreak and tragedy with stories of possibility, fulfillment and progress.
Thank you.
Remarks by Assistant Administrator Gast, April 24, 2012Footnote 3
Assistant Administrator for Africa Earl Gast gave the following remarks before the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs
Assistant Administrator Gast. Good morning Chairman Coons, Ranking Member Isakson, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.
For over two decades, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) terrorized communities across huge swaths of northern Uganda, abducting civilians and forcing children to become soldiers. The LRA was finally driven out of Uganda in 2006, and since then, northern Uganda has undergone a transformation that is tangible. People can move freely, banks and stores are open, and fields are being cultivated. Poverty declined from 60.7 percent in 2005 to 46.2 percent in 2010, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 95 percent of the 1.8 million Ugandans displaced by the conflict have returned to their homes.
Today the LRA's numbers are significantly reduced, but it continues to commit atrocities throughout large parts of central Africa-the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Republic of South Sudan. It is an area the size of California, and it is harsh, remote, and underdeveloped. Reported LRA attacks and abductions have increased in the first quarter of 2012-particularly in the DRC-and the number of people now displaced by the violence is estimated at more than 445,000.
As the threat of the LRA shifted from northern Uganda to CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan, USAID accordingly adjusted its response to address humanitarian needs and supplement ongoing efforts by regional governments and the United Nations to increase the protection of civilians in these areas. In LRA-affected populations in CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan, the United States' life-saving humanitarian assistance, health services, food aid, civilian protection, and economic recovery totaled more than $18 million in FY 2011.
USAID remains committed to promoting stability and economic development in northern Uganda while also addressing the immediate needs of communities in LRA-affected parts of CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan-though insecurity presents a significant challenge to providing humanitarian assistance and promoting development in these areas.
USAID aims to provide at least 240,000 people with humanitarian assistance in LRA-affected parts of CAR, the DRC and South Sudan, and these programs are having a significant impact on women and children. USAID is addressing the psychosocial needs of children who have either been abducted or displaced by the LRA by supporting the participation of nearly 1,000 children in play therapy and life skills training. In CAR, DRC, and South Sudan, USAID supports protection for LRA-affected children through reunification and reintegration of separated and formerly abducted children into their families and communities. In CAR, one of our grantees supports protection activities for LRA-affected individuals, including gender-based violence sensitization and psychosocial support for displaced and formerly abducted children. In the Haut Uélé District of the DRC, USAID is providing assistance to the Kpezu Women's Tailors Association to purchase sewing machines, fabric, and basic accessories. Made up primarily of women who are the sole providers for themselves and their children, the women of the association can now earn a living through tailoring and producing clothing for clients in and around the community. Kpezu's activities also include training young women who have not had the opportunity to attend school in sewing and basic literacy.
The protection of civilians continues to be central to the overall U.S. Government strategy to help counter the LRA. Because increased military pressure has often resulted in the LRA retaliating against vulnerable communities, we are supporting the efforts of regional governments and nongovernmental organizations to reduce the vulnerability of those communities.
In LRA-affected areas of the DRC, the United States is incorporating high-frequency radios into community-based protection programs to provide early warnings to conflict and violence. Although implementation of this work has been delayed by severe logistical challenges, including undependable air service, negligible road and communication infrastructure, and acute insecurity, the project is progressing. USAID has engaged 24 communities based on their level of insecurity, willingness to take part in the project, and gaps in coverage with other similar programs. All 24 communities have formed local protection committees that are identifying security threats and assessing what actions they can take to mitigate the threats. Each committee consists of around 15 members, including an average of four to six women and representation from displaced populations and youth. USAID is assisting them in developing protection plans tailored to specific needs of their communities and will provide some funding to support priority activities within the plans. For example, a committee in Yassa formed in February 2012 reported that the police had been abusive toward the population, stealing from and harassing them. Since the committee began to work to improve relations between community members, the police, and the DRC Armed Forces, the police have significantly improved their behavior and are now working closely with the community to address their concerns. Once these community protection plans are in place, the use of high-frequency radios will reinforce and extend the existing network of radios managed by the Catholic Church as an early warning network.
Additionally, USAID is piloting an innovative cell phone tower project that aims to diversify the communications options available for use in early warning systems and humanitarian efforts. USAID funding partially supports the construction of four low-cost base transmission stations in strategic towns in Haut and Bas Uélé. Each of the four towers will provide at least 20 square kilometers of cell phone connectivity to 1,200 mobile phone users living in areas previously lacking coverage. This project is one of the most technologically advanced communications projects attempted in the DRC. Although the DRC's main mobile network operators have the potential to expand their operations, their unfamiliarity with the technology has precluded any investment. Despite these challenges, Vodacom accepted the challenge and expects the towers to be operational by fall 2012.
The benefits will be well worth the investment. Vodacom recently sent a team to Ango to begin to educate the community about the project; the residents were excited and believe it will significantly reduce their isolation. Additionally, this project will be a model for how to introduce low-cost cell phone coverage to remote areas located outside of cellular networks. Mobile companies do not typically invest in remote areas because of the difficulty in earning a profit. In this project the low-cost, light-weight AltoPod “stations” replace large, costly towers and are easier to transport into areas which are logistically difficult to access. In terms of long-term development impact and innovation, this pilot project could catalyze additional private-sector investment in rural areas by demonstrating the technical and economic viability to mobile network operators.
USAID has been heavily engaged in LRA-affected areas of Uganda since the late 1980s, and our intervention evolved over the years to reflect changing needs and priorities. With the LRA's departure, we have had significant success in helping affected communities in Uganda make the transition from conflict to relief to recovery to development.
As the conflict in northern Uganda first began to exact severe economic losses, cause mass displacement, and weaken governance and social structures in Uganda, USAID focused on providing humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict. Between 1997 and 2009, USAID provided more than $436 million in humanitarian assistance to Uganda, including $370 million in food aid. Food, health services, camp management, and other aid provided by the American people saved lives and helped communities survive the worst of the conflict.
In 2006, when the LRA was finally driven from northern Uganda, we shifted our programs from relief to recovery. We helped internally displaced persons return to their homes and re-establish their livelihoods. Investments in seed distribution programs improved food security, the rehabilitation of water points reduced health risk, and road repairs opened up access to markets, supporting local economies. As a result of these investments, in 2009, we were able to shift our programs in northern Uganda to focus on long-term development.
USAID's Northern Uganda Transition Initiative was a critical step in this evolution. This 2008-11, $23-million flagship program renovated public service buildings throughout war-affected regions, including government office buildings, schools and teacher houses, health clinics and health clinic housing, markets, boreholes, and police and justice facilities.
In Agago district, physical additions to congested court and police buildings strengthened the rule of law by allowing courts to process more cases. As a result of USAID's infrastructure support, in 2011, the Kiryandongo court received 10-15 cases a day, as opposed to one or two cases before the court construction. Officials used to send cases to Masindi-over 70 kilometers away-and the complainant was forced to pay for the travel of the accused, police officers, and witnesses. The cost forced many people to opt to settle cases, but now that the facility has facilitated speedy trials, more cases are being reports, and witnesses even come willingly.
In addition, USAID worked with media, especially radio stations, to communicate correct and timely information on issues such as public services and land rights to returnees in northern Uganda and to support traditional and cultural reconciliation processes, which helped communities heal from the wounds of war. Radio messages on amnesty helped the return of former combatants and the disarming of civilians; in fact, in Kitgum and Pader districts, guns were found surrendered after these messages had aired.
At a time of tremendous risk and uncertainty, the initiative quickly became a cornerstone of USAID's strategy in northern Uganda and was highly valued by Ugandan partners for its speed, flexibility, and impact. By partnering directly with government departments and offices, the initiative not only helped communities begin to rebuild, but also increased the visibility of, and confidence in, all levels of government. At the same time, local officials appreciated how the new infrastructure, especially markets, increased their revenue, making them less dependent on allocations from the district government and giving them more flexibility in development planning. This effort sent a clear message that peace had returned to the region and the Government of Uganda was now at the helm of the reconstruction process.
USAID's strategy is now woven into the Government of Uganda's Peace, Recovery, and Development Plan, which has ushered in the return of stability to the region. USAID has helped nurture this progress by providing medical care and counseling to abductees, promoting reconstruction, supporting transitional justice and reconciliation, increasing opportunities for ex-combatants, and addressing key issues such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, water, and sanitation. In addition, USAID is helping northern Uganda to redevelop its farms; in 2010, agricultural training and projects helped increase the region's crop sales by more than $7 million. USAID's unique Northern Uganda Development of Enhanced Local Governance, Infrastructure, and Livelihoods program enables local governments to expand basic services to areas with ex-combatants, abductees, and returnees, while at the same time infusing capital into the recovering economy by using labor-intensive methods of construction. In FY 2011, this program supported the construction of 70 boreholes, six schools with latrines and teacher housing, and contracts for 19 farm-to-market roads in four districts.
Our efforts in northern Uganda demonstrate that development can flourish once security has been assured. However, the north remains the poorest region in the country. Underlying grievances over land rights, the discovery of oil, poor political processes, and ethnic divisions have the potential to slow development and raise tensions. Recognizing these challenges, USAID continues to take a conflict-sensitive approach. We continue to dedicate resources to address some of the remaining drivers of conflict and to build local government capacity to deliver services. USAID's new Supporting Access to Justice, Fostering Equity and Peace program will continue our efforts while also proactively addressing emerging development issues and sources of tension, such as land disputes. Our field office in Gulu, northern Uganda, not only remains open, but is expanding its staff numbers.
The United States is committed to continuing its long-term support to the people of central Africa in their efforts to respond to the threats of the LRA. Although we have made progress in addressing humanitarian assistance needs and increasing the protection of civilians in LRA-affected areas, critical gaps remain in CAR and parts of the DRC and South Sudan. USAID and the State Department are working together to determine how best to utilize the $5 million in 2012 Economic Support Funds to address gaps in the region. We have determined that programming will focus on the LRA-affected areas of CAR, where the greatest gaps remain, although some funds may be programmed in the DRC and South Sudan. USAID's efforts in LRA-affected areas in the region and northern Uganda are closely coordinated with the Departments of State and Defense, as well as other donors, such as the European Union and the United Kingdom, regional governments, and civil society on the ground, to make this a truly concerted push to help communities finally begin to rebuild and recover.
Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today on this critical issue, and I welcome any questions you might have.
Remarks by Assistant Administrator Lindborg, May 8, 2012Footnote 4
Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Nancy E. Lindborg gave the following remarks in Kansas City, Missouri
Introductory Remarks Omitted
Assistant Administrator Lindborg. Last June when I visited Kansas City for this conference, the United States was in the midst of a full throttle response to crisis in the Horn of Africa. More than 13 million people in the dry lands of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia were in urgent need of help, including more than three million in Somalia alone, where conflict exacerbated the most severe drought in 60 years. We had been tracking the potential of this crisis through the Famine Early Warning System (FEWSNET), a tool USAID has funded for the last 25 years that gives us much earlier and more precise data about climate conditions, projected rainfall, crop production and marketplace functioning. As a result of early warnings that FEWSNET began signaling in August 2010, we were able to have food pre-positioned by that fall.
The Horn Drought Response required that we use every possible available tool. In addition to sending life-saving food, we used local and regional procurement options and cash and vouchers in areas with functioning markets. We focused on health prevention based on our lessons from past famines that preventable disease is the number one killer of children under five, and we emphasized targeted and therapeutic foods to assist the many, heartbreakingly, severely malnourished children that came in waves across the border from Somalia.
I am relieved and proud to be able to say that, by the end of 2011, the famine that had been declared in six regions of Somalia had ended. Ultimately, with USAID teams working around the clock for months, we provided 429,000 metric tons of life-saving food along with critical health care, cash-based programming and medical supplies, reaching more than 4.6 million people, primarily women and children, when they needed help most. For your partnership in and commitment to this consequential effort: thank you. Thank you to partners who worked tirelessly and often with great courage in tough places. Thank you to the farmers and producers who enabled us to feed 4.6 million people when they needed it most. I visited Dadaab refugee camp when Somali women and children were arriving after walking for weeks, bone thin, lined up for life-saving, literally, food rations. I visited clinics in Garissa where children were listless on their mother's laps. The importance of the compassion and leadership of the Unites States has never been more starkly underlined for me.
None of this would have been possible without all of you. It was the hard work and generosity of America's farmers, commodity producers, manufacturers, and shippers, and of our many implementing partners, that made it possible for the United States to respond effectively and to ensure that millions of people would not go hungry.
Building Resilience
We also know that we can do better. We can act earlier; we can focus more on prevention than response; we can do more to build resilience so these families and communities can withstand the inevitable shocks that will continue to occur. We know we can't prevent drought, or any of the shocks that repeatedly drag communities into crisis, but we can make real progress in ensuring that the next one is less devastating.
I am encouraged by this increased emphasis on resilience. We are seeing early results that are promising, where our emphasis on building resilience helped families withstand the great drought of 2011. I visited a program in which we support CARE to help a group of 57 women pastoralists in Garissa, Kenya, form a collective to increase their earnings from milk production. Together they make and market yoghurt to help them reduce spoilage; they have a joint marketing system to get their production to market faster. And they have substantially increased income for their families, helping them feed their children and pay school fees, even during the drought. Another USAID program in Kenya used a combination of food transfer and technical support to help farmers like 65-year old Losekon Ayanga harvest a bumper crop of sorghum through improved irrigation, compared with neighboring villages that had no harvest at all when the rains failed.
In Ethiopia, USAID has supported the Productive Safety Net Program since 2005, along with the World Bank, the Government of Ethiopia and other partners. This program effectively kept 7.6 million more people from falling into crisis and moving to seek emergency assistance as they have done in past droughts.
Our commitment is to connect America's powerful humanitarian relief efforts to longer-term resilience, with the goal of lifting these countries out of chronic crisis. We are working along with our international partners and African leaders to vaccinate livestock, improve local crop yields through better seeds and irrigation, and strengthen nutrition to make communities more resilient to humanitarian crises and ensure that the next drought doesn't wipe out years of development gains. Last December, with many of you, we convened “An Evidence Based Workshop on Strategies for Success” with 180 participants in Washington -donors, private voluntary organizations, researchers and academics, and the private sector-to identify the most effective strategies for building resilience and look at real cases of success and failure.
I am also pleased to report that in the last year USAID has played a pivotal role in building international momentum for resilience along with our African partners. In April, at a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, we formed a new Global Alliance for Action on Drought Resilience along with African governments and our international donor partners. This Alliance is focused on ensuring that global commitment to food security equals action, with the goal of having a solid progress report in six months on the programs and policies that will address chronic food insecurity in the Horn of Africa dry lands.
Transforming Food Assistance
Our American food assistance programs are a critical component of our global leadership, both for the most critical moments when we are saving lives and for building resilience that mitigates the worst of a crisis. To do this most effectively, we are transforming our food assistance programs to be timelier, more effective, more targeted, more nutritious and more market sensitive. We have made tremendous progress since we spoke last year—and I want to tell you about how we are working with American farmers and producers to ensure that our food assistance is making a real difference in three key ways.
First: by improving the quality of our food aid. Last year at this conference we presented the findings of US AID's Food Aid Quality Review. Since then, we have deployed those findings to advance the food aid quality agenda and improve the nutritional quality of our food aid to meet the special nutritional needs of the most vulnerable groups, especially women and children. You will hear more over the next few days from my colleagues about just how we're doing this together with many of you here. But I am proud to report now that we have worked together with American farmers and manufacturers to produce a ready to use therapeutic food for severely malnourished children that we offered for the first time last year as part of our in-kind food basket. By the end of May we will have emergency food bars and paste pre-positioned to feed general populations during the initial stages of a rapid onset emergency until conditions stabilize and more traditional foods can be accessed. Nutrition is critical to our larger food security agenda and yet another area where our partnership with academia, industry, producers, and civil society is key to making the greatest impact. We look forward to making the most of these next few days of discussions to drive this effort forward.
Second, we are making strides in how we provide food assistance to make sure our efforts best meet local needs and yield long-term benefits. In addition to our direct food aid, USAID is now among the leading providers of cash for food assistance. In places where markets are functioning and food is available, food vouchers can enable local populations to get food fast without disrupting local markets and prices. For example, in Niger, a World Food Program effort that USAID helps to support, now allows families facing the risk of hunger to use smart cards to withdraw cash for food. After Haiti's devastating earthquake in 2010, this kind of effort allowed 20,000 households to eat.
Third, we are connecting up our food assistance programs with Feed the Future, President Obama's landmark initiative to increase food security by battling the root causes of poverty and under nutrition through increased investments in agricultural productivity and nutrition. In response to global food price spikes a few years ago, this administration made a bold commitment to helping farmers around the world as a key driver of economic growth. By investing in a targeted set of countries where we can make a real difference, Feed the Future helps link farmers to local and regional markets and secure other safety nets to withstand price shocks and increase food supplies where they are desperately needed.
Crisis in the Sahel
We're proud of these efforts and confident they're making our assistance more effective. But we also know just how great the challenges remain. The situation in the Horn is extremely fragile: current forecasts indicate the return of poor rainfall for some areas and the numbers of people in need may increase in coming months. On the other side of Africa, we are unfortunately having the opportunity to put some of the lessons learned in response to the Horn into immediate application. Last fall, we began receiving early warnings that the dry season this year in the Sahel could be especially difficult. A new drought is now pushing millions into crisis in these dry lands that stretch from Senegal to Chad. In the face of recurring cycles of drought, farmers in Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and other countries in the Sahel are incurring crippling amounts of debt-in a part of Africa where even on a good day many children under the age of five face severe malnutrition. We pledged, along with other international partners, to take early action in response to early warnings and began a response in January. We have already shipped 83,800 metric tons of food to the region-enough to feed 2.5 million people-and we are working to bring the same focus on saving lives and building resilience to the Sahel as we have to the Horn.
Still, while for many, circumstances are indeed dire, we also cannot lose sight of where there is hope. I'd like to close by just briefly telling you about a woman I met on my last trip to the region in February, in the village of Tougouri, in Burkina Faso.
Safieta was one of four women I met in this village while visiting areas once again experiencing drought. Among them, they had 31 children and not a single husband to help support their families. Safieta was worried: the rains were bad last year and none of the women were able to harvest the maize they'd planted during the rainy season. But Safieta proudly took me on a walk along the edge of three plots filled with bright green onion sprouts. Seven years ago, USAID began a program in partnership with Catholic Relief Services to increase the resilience of villagers dependent on rain fed crops. That program ended two years ago, yet Safieta and her fellow farmers are continuing to thrive on the proceeds of their dry season products. Safieta-who told me she chose onions because she knew they were strong enough to survive a few days without water-is now sending her children to school while still managing to save some for the unpredictable needs.
Standing in that field, wearing a bright yellow scarf, Safieta told me she was “resilient now, just like the onions.”
Next year, with your continued partnership, I hope to be able to share with you many more stories like Safieta's. We know that by helping her, we not only help Safieta feed her children but to do so with the kind of dignity we all deserve.
Thank you all again for playing such a vital role in this effort—and for the chance to talk with you this morning.
Remarks by Assistant Administrator for Africa Gast, June 19, 2012Footnote 5
Assistant Administrator Earl Gast gave the following testimony before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Assistant Administrator Gast. Good morning Representatives McGovern and Wolf and members of the Commission. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today.
The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) remains amongst the most persistent perpetrators of human rights violations in the world. As recently as last month, a UN report found that the LRA continues to commit all six grave violations against children identified by the UN Security Council as war crimes:
Killing or maiming of children Recruitment or use of children as soldiers
Sexual violence against children
Attacks against schools or hospitals
Denial of humanitarian access for children
Abduction of children
These violations extend to the adult population as well. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by the LRA over the years, and sexual violence continues to be a systematic characteristic of the LRA's modus operandi. Today, more than 445,000 civilians remain displaced due to the fear that the LRA's brutality has engendered.
Since the early 1990s, Joseph Kony has promulgated a policy of forced recruitment, particularly of children. With the exception of a handful of senior officers, nearly all of the LRA's ranks were forcibly abducted from their communities. Abducted girls and boys are beaten into submission, are sometimes required to commit atrocities against others, and serve as combatants as well as cooks, porters, and spies. Many children are killed or wounded during fighting; others are murdered if they are unwilling to obey orders or try to escape.
Grisly gender-based violence, rape, and the use of girls as sex slaves have also been rampant. Amnesty International held scores of interviews with victims of the LRA in July 2010. In one of the interviews, a 26-year-old mother of two told how she was abducted by the LRA near the village of Obo in the Central African Republic (CAR) with as many as 80 other men and women. LRA fighters took the captives to their base in the forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Upon arrival in the camp, “women were distributed among LRA officers and were subjected to repeated rapes. Women who refused to have sex with the officers were beaten into submission.” Those who escape, especially girls and women returning with babies, are often stigmatized by their families and communities, who find it difficult to accept them.
Survivors continue to suffer long after enduring horrific traumas at the hands of the LRA. Abducted by the LRA at age 12, today Jacob says that, still, “we worry. The rebels, when they arrest us again, they will kill us. My brother tried to escape. Then they killed him using a panga [machete]. They cut his neck,” he said. Now a law student, Jacob remains haunted by the pain of his past. “When you wake up in the morning and you hear that people are still being abducted in Congo, it takes my mind back to the situation when I was abducted,” he said.
While the LRA has been weakened, it continues to pose a deadly threat to the communities across the CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan. Between January and March 2012, the United Nations recorded 33 attacks, three deaths, and 51 abductions in the DRC, of which 16 were children; in the CAR during the same period, the UN recorded a total of 20 attacks, six deaths and 39 abductions.
As the threat of the LRA has been eliminated from northern Uganda and shifted to the CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan, USAID accordingly adjusted its response to address humanitarian needs and supplement ongoing efforts by regional governments and the United Nations. USAID aims to reach at least 240,000 people with humanitarian assistance, including emergency food, relief commodities, primary health care services, psychosocial and protection programs, and livelihoods support. In LRA-affected populations in the CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan, the United States' life-saving emergency assistance totaled more than $ 18 million in FY 2011.
Insecurity presents a significant challenge to providing humanitarian assistance and promoting development in these areas. Farmers' access to land is limited, and deteriorating road conditions further hamper commerce. That is why we are implementing activities to mitigate the disruption of livelihoods. For example, USAID support to Mercy Corps in Haut Uélé District, DRC, has worked with more than 4,000 families to restore the assets that drive their small businesses and implemented cash-for work activities to rehabilitate community infrastructure. This program enables vulnerable LRA-affected beneficiaries, particularly woman-headed households, to provide for the needs of their families.
To address the severe trauma the LRA inflicts on individuals and communities, USAID support to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) addresses the psychosocial needs of nearly 1,000 children in the CAR and 1,100 children in the DRC who have either been abducted or displaced by the LRA. UNICEF also strengthens local networks to protect children and helps reintegrate formerly abducted children into their communities. USAID funding to UNICEF enabled JamesFootnote * , a 13-year-old boy from South Sudan who escaped the LRA in Dungu, Haut Uélé Province, the DRC, to be placed with a foster family and access psychosocial care and a place to play with other children. James is one of many who, as a result of our efforts, has been given the opportunity to become a child again.
The protection of civilians continues to be central to the overall U.S. Government strategy to help counter the LRA. Because the LRA preys on vulnerable communities, we are supporting the efforts of regional governments and nongovernmental organizations to reduce the vulnerability of those communities. On June 7, 2012, USAID issued a solicitation for a new three-year cooperative agreement to implement the “Secure, Empowered, Connected Communities program, or SECC, which will help communities to better protect themselves from the threat of the LRA and other armed groups by empowering them to address community security threats and helping them to be better informed and connected with each other and the outside world. The program will focus on the LRA-affected areas of the CAR and will work closely with UNICEF and other stakeholders to prepare communities to receive potential defectors and escapees from the LRA. In LRA-affected areas of the DRC, USAID is incorporating high-frequency radios into community-based protection programs in 24 communities to provide early warnings to conflict and violence. Additionally, USAID is piloting an innovative cell phone tower project that aims to diversify the communications options available for use in early warning systems and humanitarian efforts.
This project could be a model for how to introduce low-cost cell phone coverage to remote areas located outside of cellular networks and is expected to be operational by fall 2012.
USAID supports programs in LRA-affected areas that mainstream protection approaches into multi-sectorial initiatives, ensuring that sexual and gender-based violence survivors receive appropriate care, while also seeking to minimize the risk of further atrocities. For example, in LRA-affected areas of the DRC and the CAR, USAID partners provide resources that help health centers refer survivors to facilities that have a comprehensive package of services, including psychosocial, legal, and livelihoods support. In addition, child protection programs screen children for medical and psychosocial needs and refer them to appropriate care.
USAID also integrates protection considerations into its programs in the area—even those that don't specifically focus on protection. Agriculture and food security programs in LRA-affected areas, for instance, ensure that women tending fields are able to organize adequate care and supervision for their children and maintain safety in numbers while cultivating their farms.
USAID has been heavily engaged in LRA-affected areas of Uganda since the late 1980s, and our intervention has evolved over the years to reflect the changing needs and priorities. When atrocities carried out by the LRA made communities unable or afraid to seek assistance, USAID and other donors implemented preventative measures that focused on community awareness, engaging traditional leadership, and ensuring that access to justice was available to all parties. In addition, USAID and others worked extensively to improve policing, jails, and other government functions to better respond to incidents of sexual violence among those displaced by the conflict. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, approximately 80 percent of known survivors of sexual violence receive support.
In 2006, when the LRA was finally driven from northern Uganda, we shifted our programs from relief to recovery. We helped people displaced by the conflict return to their homes and reestablish their livelihoods. Investments in seed distribution programs improved food security, the rehabilitation of water points reduced health risk, and road repairs opened up access to markets, supporting local economies. As a result of these investments, in 2009 we were able to shift our programs in northern Uganda to focus on long-term development.
USAID's conflict mitigation and reconciliation program made significant contributions to the return of peace, recovery and development in the region. An estimated 95 percent of the 1.8 million Ugandans displaced by the conflict have returned to their homes; there has been a significant reduction in poverty in northern Uganda, from 60.7 percent in 2005 to 46.2 percent in 2010; and household consumption expenditures increased by at least 34 percent between 2005 and 2010.
USAID's Northern Uganda Transition Initiative was a critical step in this evolution. This 2008- 11, $23-million flagship program renovated public service buildings throughout war-affected regions, including government office buildings, schools and teacher houses, health clinics and health clinic housing, markets, boreholes, and police and justice facilities. By partnering directly with government departments and offices, the initiative not only helped communities begin to rebuild, but also increased the visibility of, and confidence in, all levels of government. This effort sent a clear message that peace had returned to the region and the Government of Uganda was now at the helm of the reconstruction process.
To respond to the health needs of residents, USAID helped rebuild hospitals and clinics that were abandoned or destroyed during the conflict. USAID joined forces with the private sector to improve the delivery of health services and designed comprehensive workplace programs to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Our malaria control efforts protect 85 percent of the people in ten northern districts. USAID has improved the conditions for peaceful development by involving communities in education programs. Services include psychosocial support, guidance and counseling, school leadership and governance, peace education, promotion of girls' education, performing arts, and community integration and participation.
USAID has helped nurture this progress by providing medical care and counseling to abductees, promoting reconstruction, supporting transitional justice and reconciliation, increasing opportunities for excombatants, and addressing key issues such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, water, and sanitation. In addition, USAID is helping northern Uganda to redevelop its farms; in 2010, agricultural training and projects helped increase the region's crop sales by more than $7 million. USAID's unique Northern Uganda Development of Enhanced Local Governance, Infrastructure, and Livelihoods program enables local governments to expand basic services to areas with excombatants, abductees, and returnees, while at the same time infusing capital into the recovering economy by using labor-intensive methods of construction. In FY 2011, this program supported the construction of 70 boreholes, six schools with latrines and teacher housing, and contracts for 19 farm-to-market roads in four districts. Altogether, USAID supports 432 ongoing projects that are fully aligned with the Government of Uganda's Poverty Reduction and Development Plan that targets the war-affected northern region. This innovative approach to recovery and development continues to strengthen local government while promoting long term sustainability.
USAID remains committed to promoting stability and economic development in northern Uganda while also addressing the immediate needs of communities in LRA-affected parts of the CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan. USAID staff in northern Uganda continues to work to consolidate gains, and broaden our long-term efforts to improve livelihoods and build good governance practices that will solidify peace and security in the region. Our sustained efforts in northern Uganda demonstrate that development can flourish once security has been assured. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today on this critical issue, and I welcome any questions you might have.
Remarks by Secretary of State Clinton, June 22, 2012Footnote 6
Secretary Hillary Clinton gave the following remarks in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Introductory Remarks Omitted
Secretary Clinton. Brazil has done the world a great service by hosting us all here. This can be a fractious time. But thanks to Brazil's deft and effective leadership, we have coalesced around an outcome document that marks a real advance for sustainable development. We know this is one of the most pressing matters of our time, because how we grow together over the long term isn't a question for only some countries. It is a question for all countries. And here in Rio, thanks to Brazil, we are at the center of our shared efforts to find answers.
I want to thank the President of Samoa for his remarks and the reminder that we meet at a critical moment. For some countries and some people around the world, this is not just a matter for long-term planning, but for immediate, pressing action. And we know that voices are being raised demanding expanded opportunities and a greater role in the decisions that affect the lives of us all. We have the potential to answer that call. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of extreme poverty in just the past generation, laying the groundwork for even more progress. We are working together to end chronic hunger, an area where Brazil has shown particularly strong leadership. I believe we can end preventable child deaths and chart a path towards an AIDS-free generation.
In short, this is a time for us to be pragmatic, but also optimistic. A more prosperous future is within our reach, a future where all people benefit from sustainable development no matter who they are or where they live. But let's be honest. We know what is possible. We know what we could do. But we also know that future is not guaranteed, because the resources that we all depend upon—fresh water, thriving oceans, arable land, a stable climate—are under increasing pressure. And that is why, in the 21st century, the only viable development is sustainable development. The only way to deliver lasting progress for everyone is by preserving our resources and protecting our common environment.
So we have come together, here in Rio, to identify practical ways we can all promote sustainable development. And while our views may differ sometimes, I believe we agree on some fundamental principles. We cannot be boxed in by the orthodoxies of the past. We should and must make decisions based on research and scientific evidence about what works. And above all, we need fresh, agile, action-oriented partnerships that can produce results year after year after year.
The only way to deliver lasting progress for everyone is by preserving our resources and protecting our common environment.
So while the outcome document adopted here contains many important principles and proposals, the most compelling products of this conference are the examples of new thinking that can lead to models for future action. It should be said of Rio that people left here thinking, as the late Steve Jobs put it, not just big, but different.
We should be thinking different about harnessing the power of the market. Remember in the 1960s, official development assistance accounted for 70 percent of the capital flows to developing nations, but today it amounts to only 13 percent, while at the same time, development budgets have actually increased. Why is that? Well, you know very well. Because while continuing to provide assistance, the private sector investments, using targeted resources and smart policies, have catalyzed more balanced, inclusive, sustainable growth.
The United States has taken this idea to heart. And earlier today, I helped launch a partnership between the United States and African nations that will use $20 million in U.S. Government funding to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in private financing for clean energy projects in Africa and beyond. It's part of our contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All initiative, which has secured significant private sector investments for sustainable energy. And we hope to see even more coming out of Rio.
You also see the power of the market in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which aims to help 100 million families adopt clean cookstoves and fuels by 2020. By supporting consumer research and creating incentives for manufacturers, we're helping to create a market for stoves that people will pay for and use, while at the same time preventing health problems in women and children, and cleaning the air of black soot.
Now in addition to tapping into the private sector, we should be thinking different about new types of partnerships to solve problems that might otherwise seem insurmountable. Here in Rio, the United States launched joint efforts on everything from deforestation and water to solid waste. We're also leading Feed the Future, a global effort to improve food security that is helping food producers adapt to climate change even as they reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.
And earlier this year, I was privileged to host six countries in the United Nations Environment Program as we launched the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. The goal is to reduce short-lived climate pollutants that cause more than 30 percent of current global warming, as well as millions of premature deaths and extensive crop losses. We know we have to keep working together on CO2, but we think that our Climate and Clean Air Coalition, to which many more countries are joining, and we welcome you, can take targeted action and produce results with respect to methane and black soot and HFCs.
We also have to be thinking different about development in our cities. That is, after all, where most of the world's population lives today, where most of the growth is and will take place, and where innovative ideas are being put into action. Under the Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability that President Rousseff and President Obama kicked off last year, we are bringing political officials from every level—from state, county, local, municipalities—together along with industry leaders and developers to find creative ways to generate sustainable economic growth. If, as I heard earlier today, that 70 percent of the structures that will be needed in 30 years to house, to provide economic opportunities for the world's population have yet to be built, then we have a tremendous opportunity we cannot waste.
And finally, the only prosperous, sustainable economy is an inclusive economy. That means we should think different about how we recognize the needs of workers in the informal economy, how we unleash the talent and energy of young people, and how we act on the compelling evidence most recently published by the World Bank that women are essential drivers of sustainable development. I applaud the bold call to action issued here in Rio by UN Women, and likewise the Rio+20 outcome document devotes a strong section to expanding opportunities for women.
And while I am very pleased that this year's outcome document endorses sexual and reproductive health and universal access to family planning, to reach our goals in sustainable development we also have to ensure women's reproductive rights. Women must be empowered to make decisions about whether and when to have children. And the United States will continue—the United States will continue to work to ensure that those rights are respected in international agreements.
Now none of this is an abstract discussion. There is just too much at stake, too much still to be done. And many of you visited the U.S. Center here in Rio and saw practical solutions related to some of the work I've discussed and other goals we hold in common. We believe solutions require action by all of us. Governments, yes; let's do our part. Let's do more than our part. Let's pave the way for more clean energy investments, take on the entrenched political and economic interests that stand in the way of clean energy, technology, and sources being used in nations around the world. Let's use the private sector, particularly the consumer goods companies, as they have agreed to do, to make sure they have sustainable supply chains, the right kind of packaging and marketing that puts the least amount of burden on the earth we share. Let's bring in the nonprofits, the civil society organizations, faith groups, individuals, all of us, committed to realizing the sustainable development goals that we have embraced. We know that we will be judged not by what we say nor even by what we intend to do, but by whether we deliver results for people alive today, and whether we keep faith with future generations. I'm very honored to be here with all of you, and I pledge my country's, the Obama Administration's, and my own personal efforts to continue our work together. We simply cannot afford to fail. Thank you all very much.
