Speeches

Remarks by Ambassador Jeanine Jackson on USAID Development Cooperation with Malawi

dharper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 14:48:32 +0000

Malawi's Minister of Finance Dr. Ken Lipenga and U.S. Ambassador to Malawi Jeanine Jackson sign bilateral assistance agreements.

USAID/Malawi

Remarks by Ambassador Jeanine Jackson on USAID Development Cooperation with Malawi

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Lilongwe, Malawi

Today we celebrate the historic partnership between the United States of America and the Republic of Malawi. At this ceremony we mark the signing of bi-lateral agreements between The United States Agency for International Development and Malawi’s Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for programs in education, health, economic growth, democracy and good governance. This cooperation is implemented through NGOs, international organizations and Government of Malawi partnerships that support Malawi’s own development priorities.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the University of Michigan

sgruber — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 16:12:36 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the University of Michigan

Friday, September 28, 2012

Remarks as Prepared

Good afternoon, Ford School staff and students, University of Michigan community members, and fellow Wolverines fans. It’s great to be back.

Looking around the room, it’s clear that our university’s commitment to serving our nation and all nations has not changed one bit since John F. Kennedy’s legendary visit in 1960. President Kennedy’s impromptu remarks that day on the steps of the Michigan Union challenged students to give two years of their lives to help people in the developing world.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at MDG Countdown 2012

sgruber — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:06:40 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at MDG Countdown 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

This is an exciting and important time for development. We’re beginning to see incredible results taking shape—results that aren’t just impacting individuals or communities, but entire nations. El Salvador has achieved 96 percent primary school completion rates for boys and girls—up from 81 percent 10 years ago. In Ethiopia, in the last six years, under-5 mortality has fallen by almost 30 percent—thanks, in part, to efforts to empower 30,000 community health workers with live-saving tools.

And in Afghanistan—probably one of the hardest places on earth to see clear development results—we’ve helped reduce maternal mortality to one-fifth of what it was a decade ago and expand basic services from only 6 percent of the country to 64 percent. Some of these results have brought us above and beyond our MDG targets, as we’ve seen this past year, when the world met the goals of reducing poverty by 50 percent and halving the proportion of people without access to clean drinking water.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the New Alliance Event

sgruber — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:38:23 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the New Alliance Event

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Remarks as prepared

We are here not only because we have a deep appreciation of the importance of food security, but also because we understand that hunger and undernutrition have a long-term impact on our nations’ health, economies and security.

Around this time last year, the worst drought in 60 years had put more than 13.3 million people at risk across the Horn of Africa

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Ensuring Resilient Livelihoods Event

sgruber — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:13:59 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Ensuring Resilient Livelihoods Event

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Remarks as Prepared

It is a pleasure to join you today, because I believe we have a real opportunity at this moment in development. For decades, our community has talked about the importance of building community resilience to perennial disasters, like droughts and floods.

But every year, as many as half of our emergency workforce mobilizes to East Africa. And every year, communities from the Horn of Africa to the Sahel brace for a possible season of lost livelihoods—a season of starvation.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Ford Foundation

sgruber — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:32:43 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Ford Foundation

Monday, September 24, 2012

We know that more than 90 percent of the adult population in the developing world is unbanked. And more than 2 billion of these unbanked individuals are already using mobile phones in deeply innovative ways. In fact, I’ve seen the real potential for this work myself not far outside of Nairobi, where I met a dairy farmer named Gitau who didn’t have access to the electric grid or running water. But by using a mobile phone app called iCOW, he could invest in his business, vaccinate his animals, improve their feedstock, and track milk output and local prices. “Information is power,” he told me.

There’s an exciting opportunity here for those of us working in this field. An opportunity to usher in a new era of development by forming public-private partnerships that change the way we do business—while expanding opportunity to millions. That’s why we came together to build a network called the Better Than Cash Alliance—to accelerate the adoption of electronic payments around the world and to bring electronic payments and mobile money into our USAID programming with an eye towards greater gender equality and financial inclusion.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at Florida International University

sgruber — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:44:30 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at Florida International University

Friday, September 21, 2012

Time and again, the U.S. Agency for International Development has turned to the researchers, professors, and students here at FIU to help us tackle some of the greatest challenges of our time: from minimizing the risk of disasters in El Salvador to ensuring the sustainability of some of our most precious natural resources, like the Mara River in Tanzania. It’s a partnership that has not only grown over time, but has delivered some extraordinary results for people around the world.

In the late 1980s, FIU and USAID partnered on the Agency’s first major media initiative, which focused on training journalists across Latin America in investigative journalism and election coverage. Within a few years, it brought media owners and journalists together to produce the first journalist ethics code for Central America. This effort built on a long-standing partnership—dating back to 1984—to strengthen the capacity of justice systems in Latin American countries.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at Mississippi State University

sgruber — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 18:58:08 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at Mississippi State University

Monday, September 10, 2012

At USAID, we believe we have the opportunity today build a new, more open model for development that builds on our strong legacy of university engagement to solve some of the greatest development challenges of our time. In food security, that challenge is more pressing than ever. By 2050, the world will need to double agricultural production in order to feed a world of 9 billion people. At the same time, a changing climate will lead to warmer temperatures, more erratic rains, and longer more severe droughts.

Here in Mississippi, you know this better than anyone. The Mississippi river has fallen to near record lows—and a stretch of the mighty river near Greenville has had to close briefly. And rural communities across the country continue to feel pressure from a parched land. But the truth is that our nation has some remarkable systems in place to support farmers and ranchers in a time of significant drought. They can buy insurance products, access our government’s real-time data monitoring, and count on the USDA and universities like MSU to study the problem and foster new solutions.

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Za’atri Refugee Camp, Jordan

sgruber — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:36:12 +0000

Remarks by Administrator Rajiv Shah at the Za’atri Refugee Camp, Jordan

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

The United States, President Obama and Secretary Clinton, have been very clear that we are calling on the Assad regime to end its brutal treatment and attacks on its own people. And President Obama has also asked us, the United States, to do everything we can to support the critical humanitarian needs that are in this region.

That's why we've already provided more than $82 million of support for humanitarian priorities, reaching more than 700,000 Syrians with food, water and medical support. And that's why, today, I'm quite pleased to announce an additional $21 million commitment. In this case to our colleagues at the World Food Programme, who are taking responsibility for providing effective food access to people who are in dire need, here in this camp, throughout parts of Syria and in other parts of the region.

USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict & Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg Remarks at a Press Availability

sgruber — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:07:42 +0000

USAID Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict & Humanitarian Assistance Nancy Lindborg Remarks at a Press Availability

Thursday, August 2, 2012

The United States is gravely concerned by the multiple crises that are affecting the people of Mali: a political crisis following the military coup d’état of March 21, a security crisis as a result of conflict in the North and the actions of several armed groups, a food security crisis affecting populations across the country, all resulting in a complex humanitarian crisis that is affecting the people of Mali as well as its neighbors in the Sahel. 4.6 million Malians face severe hunger; 175,000 Malian children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition; and more than 450,000 have fled their homes because of ongoing violence coupled with food insecurity.