and good afternoon everybody. it has been a wonderful day and i was energized by the panel and the networking so thank you all for hanging in with us through a long and very full day. to reduce myself to those of you who may have been here this morning my name is wade warren and i'm the chief strategy officer for development in the chair of the u.s. chapter of the society for international development. i am very excited about the panel we are about to have. you cannot come in. where is alice?

i was more excited that the panelists were here. let me tell you a little bit about this panel. we wanted to have an important plenary here at the end of the day to feature the millennial corporation which we have not a lot of time talking about today and will have a fireside chat with alice albright who is the ceo. let me tell you a little bit about them. i'll start with chizi igwe. chizi igwe is a heartbreaking much appreciated member of the westport she started out leading in our youth working group and became a member of the board and the chair of the programs committee so we are so delighted for everything you do. she is also -- [applause] she is also a senior associate for corporate social

responsibility at jpmorgan chase where she helps to develop programs that produce economic growth and neighborhoods in cities and countries word j.c. morgan chase sirs. before that t she worked on the gates foundation. she is a proud immigrant parent and has a master's degree in international business from the university of international business and economics. so thank you. alice you don't need my trip an introduction. people know who you are and it's great you are with us today if you don't know alice albright is the ceo of the millennium challenge corporation working in her field of international development for more than 30 years in the private-sector. she is, has been the lead of the a global partnership for education and executive vice

president and chief operating officer of the bank and by happenstance works there. you have that in common. i'll turn the microphone over to you. thank you. thank you. so i think you wait. can all here is? [applause] >> at afternoon i hopee you all have enjoyed the conference so far. i had a chance to walk around and pop in on some sessions in the lot of energy and hopefully will bring that energy to our conversations with imax excited to share the stage with alice. will spend 20 or 30 minutes talking about mcc legacy and history and where the agency is going in h the future. i'll start things off on a celebratory note. happy 20th anniversary to your agency. it was signed into law two decades ago. it's a unique model to address global poverty through economic

development and since then and correct me if i'm wrong has invested over $17 billion project's in upwards of 47 countries. is that right quick can we give a round of applause. that is no small feat. [applause] and weighed you've been on the nvisible world tour giving speeches talking about history and i'm wondering as you have reflected and thought about the last 20 years in the 20 years to comment beyond to talk about the challenges and triumphs and what excites you most about the next 20 years. >> thank you for the question before i give if you thought let me thank everybody. it's wonderful to be here. we have 15 people here in 1500 people on line and it's the

first time we have outgrown i should say the ronald reagan building so congratulations. even though i'm sure everyone in the room is facing challenges of various kinds it's an enormous moment of joy to be with all of you and talking about all the things we all care so much about. so yes you got that right and we celebrated our actual birthday january 23 and 24 with a great party.ty it's a very important moment for us and we have been spending time looking backwards at what's really made the agency special but also particularly given the challenges that we are facing now are always asking ourselves what is the value that we happen

why does it matter so much right now click the things that are really special is that we are highly selective. we work with countries that are emerging democracies. we are a grant maker. we cannot give loans. when we work with the country that has become eligible to go big and we go deep. the size of the brands we give them the countries we are entering into its 300, 400 sometimes $500 million. very few agencies in the world are providing grant funding of that magnitude. what is that our heart is that we are compact. we are an agreement, we are an arrangement between ourselves and the united states with a partner nation around the concept of reform, testing and bringing down the barriers to growth and creating opportunity for people in looking at where

particular parts of society are not included. that whole construct of the compact in behalf of big compact and a smaller program called the threshold that stood the test of time. you are very right inciting your figures. we have deployed over $17 billion in 78 compacts and 47tr countries and in multiple sectors and multiple, multiple sectors. we are very proud of the track record thatt the agency working closely with our partners in countries that put together. very interesting is asking the question how is the model importance being the answer is very pink grant maker is a difference. we call it locally led development. we are working very much on localization.

our business model is premised on working closely with countries. countries are involved from the very beginning in our analytical processes and we set up an entity in the country to implement the work. we have been working very much in a locally led way since the very beginning and we are also very adaptable. if you look at the range of things we are working on at any one time it is a reflection of what the countries need to overcome their particular challenges towards economic growth. we continuously adapt in the sectors that we are we are working on. we are very well-suited in addressing issues of climate issues are prepared to send issues of 20th century skillss for example. these are some of the things we know will be very hot topics moving forward. >> you mention a localization which is a hot topic across our

breakouts and our sessions. i'm curious at 20 years above going forward we think about innovations in how you work with partners to deepen partner led engagement. >> with a pretty strong business model around this already. it's at the core of what we have going on but we continue to refineo it and we have a group right now that internally is working on making sure we are leaning into this. there are lot of questions on how we operated and are we doing this enough? one of the things we are working on in streamlining in the -- internal about procurement and who has responsibility for what. one of the things i know is we have a reputation for perhaps being a bit hard to work with. we know the challenges so we are

trying, i know challenges in the middle lane. he can be challenging sometimes that we are trying to streamline some of the procurement efforts to make it easier to work with. there are innovations of all kinds to make us fit for the moment that we are in. >> that's helpful in talking about the middleman politically in this country we are at a very interesting moment in particular when it comes to our views on the u.s. role in foreign aid and how much and what to give. i know mcc has recently opposed leftist -- propose legislation that wouldeg help expand the school. i'm curious and i think members of our audience are curious about that legislation also our strategy about working with congress, congress who may not understand the need for foreign

aid and the critical role that mcc plays. can you talk about the strategy to work with congress around mcc around the world? >> let me back up for a second and ask the question what is the rationale behind the legislation we are seeking a reform at the heart candidates and right now we work with using the world bank classification, low income or lower middle income countries and we are seeking to add the lower range of the upper middle income countries to take us up to about 112. the reason for that is poverty and inequity within poverty the first piece of the discussions around need and we all know we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us. that's the driver for us. we are making good progress with

congress and having discussions about it and that is very gratifying to us. but we have to keep doing is forging the consensus politically. it's a difficult political environment from when we were created around leadership. this gets back to our business model. we are all about helping marquis to thrive in helping democracies delivering doing it in a very transparent data-driven and accountable way working closely with countries and working on critical issues of institutional reform butut also helping countries with critical infrastructure and the need to pay half. that need is eschewing now as it was 20 years ago. the more that we talk to people up on the hill they absolutely agree with that. on the budget and this won't be

a surprise to anybody i think the overall amount of money, you all know better than i do that there is a misperception that 25, 20 to 30% of u.s. budget goes into foreign aid foreign assistance etc. and you know just as well as i do it's around one is not less than 1% so it's tiny. .. all the wonderful things we could be working on with countries we should be leaning into that so there are many examples of great countries more technology, healthcare and different ways solutions, the list goes on and on. >> i couldn't agree more understand the need for engagement.

when we think about landscape outside of our borders the partners we work with our potential partners, who makes the u.s. differently or who are now faced with a greater number of opportunities or avenues to fund projects back home, how do we think about that evolving nature of our partners their contacts, how does mcc become more plentiful. >> countries have options. one of the reasons why countries are increasingly indebted is a lot of those options tend to be debt. it's one of the distinguishing features of mcc as i have said we are a granted. countries also want very much to be in the driver's seat about choosing the produce they were gone. that is one thing about our business modelng we think is vey appealing. once a country's selective start with something called a constraint to growth analysis

which is what it sounds like it's working with countries very closely as a partners to dig into what are the main challenges on the road toward prosperity and economic growth? and then countries choose of the things that emerge the countries choose what they want to work with. break from the very beginning of how we work with countries, they have the ability to choose what they want to do and determine what they want to invest in using funding. long term sustainable country owned development. is something absolute the right way to go in terms of the relationships our agency is looking to build with countries. also against u.s. leadership.

>> as we think about potential expansion of the countries in which we can work with much of the success in your 20 years. how does that change and evolve as you renew countries into the fold? >> it is that legislation has passed. it will be fingers crossed. it will add more countries from whom we could select if they pass our scorecard. more countries would be scored by our scorecard it in of itself is strongly incentivizing aspect of how we work. the core aspect of how we work every country will be scored. who will pay a lot of attention to the court features of what constitutes eligibility.

to fight corruption. very intuitive linear business model constraint to growth you figure out and chooses what it is. what are the root causes of the constraints what are the challenges designing programs. we then worked to set up the local entities and they become responsible for implementation but once we start implementing everything has to be done within five years. we do of a lot of evaluation work to see what we can learn to do better next time. that will not change, what i iljust said, that will not chane her but will changes will have more countries to score will then start to get into the discussions what areas of reform working to ncc. will broaden our footprint

central and latin america. there will be some additional countries in eastern europe and the few more in southern africa and a few more in the pacific. confident i'm in a position to do some terrific work there. the u.s. strategically. >> i want to turn things a>> bi, education is one that works in. also effects that's important to you. if you think about your work and education, and the work across a section of 20 years one of the trends and outlooks focused on in education in the next 20 years and beyond. >> is a great question. right now we have got really interesting education programs that are sort of our works in

progress as a like to say. first of all education is absolute a driver of economic growth. better educated people, literacy, digital skills. but also the b skill sets that e private sector is asking of it workforce in order to fulfill job opportunities. there's lots of linkages at different levels of education and economic growth. we are increasingly getting asked to work on things that will help countries prepare for the 21st century. it's digital digital literacy and the skills -based approach. it is a slightly different focus countries are really interested in making sure they've got a workforce that's prepared for the future.

many of the countries that we work and in all of you will who are here as well have rapid population growth. countries are getting younger and younger and younger in terms of demographics of the population. education is a pressing need for many countries we are now meeting with. >> i could not agree more. as we think about both the countries you work with your agency and the potential expansion, one question that comes to mind is as you approach these countries from the bread and better. how do you think about mcc role in advancing equity with the pole and you work with? and even before that how would you define h equity when you tak about global poverty reduction we talk about develop me and what that means. what is the agency's role in furthering that? quickset is a great question.

one that touches on a lot of what we just talked about. very simply put for us, equity means not leaving people out. you think about what is the connection between that and economic growth? you cannot foresee a country successfully growing leaving huge parts of the population out. continue to refine for us the gender and social inclusion strategy and policy. with this process i've outlined at the very beginning of it we started starting where are the issues of exclusion? is it certain rural communities? is it certain ethnic minorities we focus assumedly coat. whypl are people being excluded deceptive geography? the legal framework?

what is it exactly? and then we start figuring out how can we work? we do a lot of consultation with different groups locally to make sure we are really understanding it well w. it's a critical part of how it work that we start weaving in these systemic solutions. let me make it real by giving a very real recent example. couple weeks ago we signed threatened million-dollar contact to work in the horticulture sector. and working with the country in understanding at all what became clear was the fact women could not inherit land from their deceased husband was really going to stand in theta way of women being able to own the land and use it to its collateral to finance the scaling up of the horticulture business. a lot of close work with local

parties, people from the traditional communities after a lot of work a lot of people locally the laws have now been changed. women can inherit land that will be a fundamental change for giving them a better opportunity in this critical part of the economy. that is an example of how we take a systems based approach to looking at issues of gender and social inclusion. it's the right thing to do for so many reasons. it matters what the rationale of equity. also it matters for democracy. more people able to vote and participate and understand and contribute to the dialogue. it certainly matters for economic growth. >> absolutely want to close out the one question you mention at the top of your remarks and

seats see main vehicle for investment of the compact working in partnership with partner countries to figure out the pressing needs of how to address them. we look at 20 years forward jp morgan we talk about the full force of the bank bringing in our different parts that addressed our customer's needs. what we think about the u.s. government and bring the full force of our government to support povertyio reduction? when did they think about as they move forward working alongside other agencies to help partner countries get the best of the best of the best in terms of helping them meet their development needs they have identified as pressing for them? but with that look like in the 20 year trajectory and beyond? >> we have very good relationships with all of the other development tools, usaid, and we are in regular contact with them. we are in very close contact with our friends at state.

there's a lot of information we share together to try to be complementary. the tools themselves are quite complementary. we have an arrangement with dfc where we try to co- finance in certain countries. so we have to take i won't say if we must take a whole of government approach in the u.s. if were going to be successful in making and roads and working around the whole international development challenge. so we must. git goes be on that we need to work with all of you. it's a great gathering of many people from many different parts of our community. private sector, foundation, ngos. a lot of folks seem to work with all of you to because you all something to offer. whether it's work with us directly, providing us information through consultation. comparing notes.

what we know about this? what are good ideas about that? you all are a critical part of whole of government approach. many of you will be familiar with the billion trillion agenda that's also going to have to involve the private sector. going to put you all into the whole approach too. the one thing that is a real opportunity for the american environment is because we have such a richness and depth in our capitol market and our foundation oral and the types of government tools we have. if you begin to stitch it all together that u.s. can make a powerful contribution in internationall development for. >> absolute i will relay the message to jamie. our conferencing is a spark of hope. i would love you to show the audience in guest one think that is exciting you or make you hopeful about the feature in

future interms of engagement ab. or our engagement partners work in their veryhe best to create n environment where the citizens can thrive. what is one thing you can leave us with? y >> sure. i can imagine reading the headlines, listening to the news et cetera there may be a bit of egg columban us set and at the moment. you look at ukraine, the middle east, you name it it's a difficult moment. we will be shortsighted if we were acknowledging that. but what gives me hope and i have experience with it is it's difficult moments that spark opportunity and spark people leaning in. spark great moments of innovation the u.s. is really good innovation really good at making the best of those moments i'll give you three examples.

a long time ago i was working in banking. even before that i was working in banking early on that when there is a latin american debt crisis people thought the sealant was falling in the world would never be the same. mutts, what came out of that was a series of transactions called debt equity swap to take the fault of debt and bought it at 30,000 dollars or $20000 and he turned it into equity to start investing in companies in those areas that defaulted. that then became emerging markets. which is a whole sometimes successful sometimes less so while asset class onto its own you argue over the hole. the very difficult moment during the initial defaults was a very difficult moment that led to something really interesting. then in the earlyly 2000's we we

perplexed by how do you get vaccines to countries in the developing world did not have access? we put together whole entity to do that. it is now, along with a global fund has become very, very successful. i remember i was at gpe in marce and work from our homes. the sky was falling because of covalent. not own a health crisis it was immediately an education crisis the only public policy tool not only our government but governments around the world had to curtail the spread of covid with the shut schools. which has obvious, obvious ramifications. what we did at gpe, and how we're doing our financing and became 500 bovis 250 million and another tune of

50 million we put together 500 billion-dollar window to put all the countries who work with the gpe a five -- 7 million-dollar grant to enable them to do education on the basis. that is something that was not ideal, but we did it but we gave it 60 or 70 countries we got grants we did because we had to do it. it's only way to keep education going. so, there's a small little examples. the u.s. is good and abating. absolute confidence but will come out of the difficult. we have now is a renewed understanding of how critical this work is. a renewed desire to form the best partnerships that we can makean the best of what we haven offer it. i'm very optimistic we just have a lot of work to do progress we do it worth the right place with the right people. i know it's been a very busy week for you on a busy year is your silver eighth anniversary so thank you for taking time to

come join us of the conference. i hope that you all enjoyed the conversation. i hope you get some rest this weekend. i hope you stay for the closing of our plan array. >> thank you. thank you very much. [applause] >> what a great discussion when excellent day. i'm sure that leg meat you've got a moment, a thought, an idea has come out of the last few hours you are going to take away with you. many is mark ashley is her senior vice president for government services of opportunity international. we are thrilled to be a diamond level sponsor of the annual conference.

we really value the work. whether it's these annual conferences or the fantastic annual dinners. of course the workgroups were so much of our interaction, dialogue and ideas happen. and so i know that firsthand as having served as their cochair agricultural workgroup. there are so many fantastic things and we really appreciate all those things. i really look forward to the next session. it is our closing one. we'll talk about the foreign assistance act. it designates with what all of us that think do at this conference. i am quoting from the language of the act here. the encouragement and support of the people of developing countries and their efforts and that knowledge and resources and build the economic political and

social institutions. i don't opportunity international these ideas have animated the work we have done for the last 52 years. i'm sure that fory many of you n this room and in your organization that resonates in a similar way. while the purpose of the act has remained the same about usa achieves it over the years has evolved. we have evolved together with it for us an opportunity international that evolution look like a spartan with u.s. aid in the late '90s and early 2000's to implement projects. and then it moved on to work workingwith global development e to capitalize fledgling financial institutions. and then to utilize development credit authority to do you risk lending to small farmers. and then implementing their newest strategies driving

capitol into the education sector to improve our education outcomes. i am sure the same as the case e for many of you who worked over the past few years. you've grown and evolved as well with them. so i am looking forward to hearing from this excellent panel on how usaid does respond to the global developing challenges we are confronted with today and knew an even more impactful ways. there is perhaps no better person to kick off this session then dennis baker he's swearing in as chief of staff administrative powers said you are the leader that i need that this agency means that this administration means that the people out there in the world need to help me this moment. dennis might be forgiven for wondering whether the administrator undersold the job to him. we have experienced some of the most challenging global

situations geopolitical, environmental, social. as a key member of the leadership team dennis is meant the forefront of the agency's responses and many more. despite the challenges and then this obviously sees both sparks of hope that we have been talking about over the last few hours. hot off the press i can tell you that as of monday dennis will be stepping into usaid deputy assistant role. it's my pleasure to welcome chief of staff of baker to share insights from his tenure so far and help frame the final discussion today. [applause] >> thanked mark. thank you everyone. it's good to see everyone i'll be very short i know we are

keeping you will from the epreception. i do not want to be too long. we are all dealing with the reit realities right on the world. the first is the development challenges are outpacing our ability to meet them from a resource standpoint and from a people's standpoint we are in a situation the problems are bigger than any government, a one government or any agency can deal with. the second's new technologies is are really going to force change and how society functions and we as a development community have to adapt to change its third and when i feel most in my day-to-day's development issues and challenges are increasingly becoming court tort geopolitical issues in the foreign policy priorities of our administration more broadly across the world.

it's for santa see how we can do things differently. how we can work in a way that meets thosey challenges. that is where our approach around progress beyond programs really started. this idea we have to think beyond our programmatic efforts think about how we catalyze change it. we are doing that in three ways. we are focused on how quimby the callous the world how quick bring more resources into the work we are doing and work with hdifferent partners. we look at how we can best of private sector more use as a catalyst for work. we have had real challenges in that space. we do not the capacity right now to engage with private sector and the weight we need. absent a lot of work to build that capacity internally by establishing new policies.

but also really doing catalytic work with different private sectors. with increased private sectorwe engagement by 60% it's a big accomplishment for us. the second thing is focusing on how we empower the communities we work with more. how we partner more locally. that is frankly where progress has been slow. snow supplies to any of you it takes a while to turn things around in government these are long and take a long time to really bring change. we have seen progress and the amount of partners we are working wither locally. work with local partners and bring them early on the programmatic developed also in policy development. the second thing we are focused on how we can get better bang for our buck that's a focus on

cost effectiveness and how can we make sure were having the most impact by dollar spent dollars spentweaker the office f economist and really have worked with them to increase programmatic effectiveness. last year our chief economist is work with our w mission and with our bureaus to affect the positive change in over $900 million of contracts and grants. the last thing necessary for all of this is to build a stronger workforce. we work across all of our agencies to bring equity to our workforce and a orkut how do we incorporate our contractors better? how do we give the benefits? how do we modernize a foreign service to meet the needs we have today. the last part of that is how do we value our foreign service nationals we done a lot for

foreign service national empowerment to focus on how can we make them better leaders within our mission. that's really what they are trying to do. you will hear from my colleagues about that work. but, for us it is a focus on how can we deliver the impact together in the community we need to over the next few years. hope you had a great day today and looking forward hearing from a college as well. thank you. [applause] >> welcome.

as you get settled and i wanted tell you when opening for the servant she had asked chatgpt to describe the panelists. she was told wee are going to be radiant and celestial. [laughter] so i just want to put that out there so that you know what the expectation is. when the only thing standing between you and the happy hour. we thought it was really important to pull together a group of senior officials from u.s. aid to hear about some the important issues you are grappling with. their bios are in your agenda in your program. i will introduce live quickly all herwe friends of my we work together for years and it really, really happy you're h

here. bureau for humanitarian assistance. he is a longtime fixture he has worked there for 28 years and emergency programming. i don't think it is an exaggeration to say some of the world's leading experts on food aid so thank you for being with us. he also did peace corps in the dominican republic. senior deputy assistant administrator and theis bureau r inclusive growth, partnerships and innovation she is a senior foreign service officer. she is served all over the world including admission director in zambia has particular expertise and democracy of human rights and governance. and then michelle's assistant administrator and the bureau for planning, learning and resource management she has been in and out of usaid a couple of times she was under the obama administration she was chief of

staff at the agency. she has worked for bread for the world she worked for the house subcommittee on state and foreign that bill and melinda gates foundation global council. did not go to the peace corps. same with me. good. i want to get right into things. i mention your bureaus. i do not know if all those are meaningful to everyone in the audience is kind of as a way of level setting. i want to ask you to describe a little bit more about the bureau and what you do there is special because the agency's undergone a reorganization. a couple of you are bureaus that have been reconfigured to some extent. i'll start with you, cheryl. you're aheadch of bureau for inclusive growth partnership and innovation. as a very broad mandate. tell us briefly what areas you cover? workednk first, thank you for

having us here today it's great to be here thanks your long commitment to international development were grateful for all your work. indeed ipi just became operational last october l actually. our mandate m is to apply spot leadership that catalyze inclusive growth, expands partnerships generates innovative solutions with a complex of element challenges that we are facing today. and seeks to ensure admissions canoes execs and things by building their capacity. we do a work on a good bunch of key priorities for the agency. gender equality, closer development, expanding private sector engagements. we also the center of excellence for education and economic growth. and also we do innovation technology and digital transformation.

crews want to probe that a little more that's a lot of things. you mentioned education, gender, localization public-private engagement, digital access how you as a leader of that bureau bring all those disciplines together you can help folks in the field to their work. >> it is true it's a diverse bureau there are center for education center for economic growth, economic market develop their we definitely realize interconnectivity our focus is on making sure the missions get the services they need. we really believe we provide better services when we integrate the expertise across the hub.

i would say we don't try to integrate everything for a mission to try to be demand driven tell what support we provide and training on the specific needs and context of the country. we are trying to streamline, strengthen and modernize the approach. that includes more additional technical assistance we provide. christians have digital gender, localization, inclusive development advisors in addition to officers we provide a wide array of training and capacity building. one thing very different or more modern where are trying to take a leap to make sure the systems are in place for the offer there's a thriving printing of one example the private sector engagement work pse modernize is

a great example probe or concept in court reforms that seek to flip the way does private sector engagement. to be successful. we are really trying to figure out all the things the mission would need their officers become capable and comfortable engaging the private sector. one thing i would mention for this group particularly as we just lodge of the corporate partnering portal i won't surprise this audience but sometimes the bad habit of speaking to people and acronyms are in development lexicon. let's look at engaging the private sector by speaking their language and make sure we come to the table to talk to them.

that's a switch of what we're trying to do. second your question and scrimmages some of our parts again we are very clear in trying to be tailored to respond to needs. if i could give one example of that it be that when an digital economy fund. we sort a woman's digital economy fund that strength it to the point of how do we make sure that women and girls have better access to the internet? access to digital technology that is secure and meets their needs. we create a digital technology of women in a digital economy fund. $78 million by other private sector investments we could that women and digital economy initiative and received $700 million in commitments to work on closing the digital gender divide.

take a big bite out of the gender divide by impart providing or 63 million jobs and 68 different digital companies and 77 different countries. so for us, that's the whole. it's digital, it's education, it's localization, it's private sector engagement private sector investment. i think i forgot one. we are trying to look at all these pieces and how we do programming to have more impact. we also think more integrated programs a focus on leveraging look at to the idea of having project beyond program. lastly when talk faster but lastly i would say or focus on a leveraging won't be able to see

ipi and think that is a bureau that works on leveraging. leveraging private sector investments we also want to leverage innovation and technology leverage the collaboration may have other wer agencies like mcc or heard from alice and the development of finance corporation. on the innovation front for example of development innovation initiative that looks at bringing scientists and researchers together to find the most cutting edge of problems to it seemed like intractable problems and find solutions that is a big focus. we do have a dedicated unit that works with dfc and mcc to better equip to advocate and to work on programs that more directly use

investments to achieve development objectives they're trying to further. i will try to stop there. michael on all day. >> that is a great tour of very broad mandate. thank you very much. michelle come when we turn to you next year bureau has recently been restructured a bit and renamed is now the bureau for planning, learning, resource management. just so everyone here is clear can you tell us what your mandate is and what changed? think of her sync so late on a friday. you can all get to happy hour and socialize we know what it's all about. thanks again for hosting us. for many of you it would be familiar if you remember. many of you are former folks including gloria. a lot about the same. we are still the home of the program cycle accuse the

buzzword here because over here knows it. we are still the bureau looks at country strategies, country evaluation, policies and plans. we look at their strategic activity design. we are also the bureau responsible for policy development policy. if you are looking for the agency work with ipi on the gender policy we continue to do that we continue to work with missions and bureaus to implement those policies. we also continue to serve as the center for usa development diplomacy it we are responsible for bilateral and multilateral and now we have a new foundation hauber working with foundations we are responsible for the relationship for the relationship with the bank and then the hub for g7. we are also doing those things but what is coming to our is different is the budget office. if integrate with us what they're trying to do the country

has decided when to change our strategy and be different how can the budget numbers reflect that change? how can that happen question workable cabinet one year but two or three. the front office the leaders interested inn starting a new initiative chocolate move resources toward that. how can we work with countries to integrate that in? we are working right out on gender, digital, howan can they become part of what the doing? for us it is exciting but it's not rainbows and unicorns every day. we are learning how to work together and bring all those key pieces together. we also are helping to think about how to have the greatest impact. i know it later we'll talk about resources the learning evaluation research piece we are not always linked to budget decisions we are and one bureau is starting to think about how you talk, how to work the office of cheap economists on cost effectiveness question of how to

bring that evaluation of learning into the budget decision-making. it's a rubric that can work and will work. >> will get a little wonky here at the end of the day. i've obviously sort of follow the fortunes of the policy bureau over the years. many of us in the development community are placement resource management piece of what the agency does was moved to the bureau so there could be eight union of policymaking and budgeting. but then we got a little confused luke took the word policy out of your name, out of your bro and created a separate office of policy and the agentsy should you tell us why we shouldn't be confused with the policy doesn't hi all work together? >> as you said before it's responsible for developing policies where work with ipi on than economic growth strategy. work with them on the digital

and gender strategy it's also the policy was parted in order to think about new crosscutting issues we all know develop and is changing. yet new issues which issues of climate change, national security challenges like migration, pandemics and other things like that for its administration looked at our organization chart she said there is not a group that is not continually engage in the day-to-day that can set aside from all of that. much like ft does over as state department. that thinking has to be integrated back into the agency. that's a virtuous cycle i'm going to talk about the policy office works first both led by cindy most if not she was the other places. she is lovely. has really taken to heart the fact the integrate into the agency.

they think about specific issues will give an example of how it works to start a task team multi- lateral banker from the start eight months ago. that team is co- led by policy and plr because we are the home for engagement with the world bank. and so they went across the building for them outside, then inside the government and said what are those that should be part of reform? we do not need that those treasuries job. went to feed into treasuries profit for the came up with a very long paper he was great as 20 pages thank god i did not write that paper. and how it could be different. we then worked there our channels to share that with treasury. to share that with others and now that task team is sunsetting because the whole work is coming back, it will continue the relationship will continue to him that often over.

another focus of our administrative issue probably all know is sustainable economic growth. with an economic resilience initiative. that's the policy plr at ipi co- coletta process to think about what's the framework for that effort? we are in the process right now plr fit that into country programs. policies and integrating country programs they're asking us to help make that happen. it's all of us working together to say how did these new issues, new areas get woven back in? often there is some overlap. it really means we had think about lulu were the lines are and how we work together. it's people who can think about new issues. talk about artificial intelligence which will talk about later they're working on the nexus. too really help to think about how to move us forward. we're trying to have clear lanes i think it will get blurry at

times. i think working together we can work through all those things. >> that is really helpful. mats, first i want to thank you. and the brand-new head of the bureau of humanitarian assistance was supposed to be with us this afternoon. she had to travel unexpectedly and stepped in o on short notice we are grateful to you. responding to natural disaster and complex crises around the world of which get your head around how you manage everything you've got on your plates right now. a quick overview of what you're grappling with? >> sure. i apologize on behalf and she was like don't screw this up. [laughter] you probably should have stayed. but when they need to go to gaza so i totally get it. that sort of what we do. apology on behalf for not being

herere and sorry you all are stk with me i will try my best year. it is an honor to be her third bureau of humanitarian assistance. again talk about recent even though i really was about three years ago bha did come into existence from food for peace and some of us kind of at the front line the line that would never happen. but i stand here today to say two and half plus years later feel like we are starting to gel as the lead humanitarian coordinator for the u.s. government and i am proud to be sitting here to do exactly that to be honest with you all. for those of you who do not know our goal remains the same to alleviate suffering, save lives get communities back on the emergency recovery path. and unfortunately we are not winning week, the mentoring

community are not in the best ways to look at a time frame let's say a year before covid, to now, we had over double increase upwards towards 180 million people in need of not just regular aid but like life saving humanitarian need. the air was gone very erratically back a different way. we can traces back to covid and some of the impacts. we can also very a much trace tt to climate change on one very real level in the sense of increased intensity of the natural disasters. then let's just put it out there there intensity the number of conflicts in the world has changed the game again. ii think if i take my hat off a little bit and i prophesies will probably need to look at this grader in the humanitarian

community we are in pivotal moments are going up to more radically think on that. i would think usaid and dha and our partners here are incredibly well-placed to be a leader in that discussion i cannot wait for that to go forward. almost 180 million people in need in the world we currently have five major crises we are responding to rightnd now. those of you know we have disaster assistance response team out in the field right now. not even for five years ago booted two or three at any given time. we just shut down one so we are at five. we had up to seven going on at what time. what that means is a huge amount of resources the people we have fielded a swell is in washington

to do this. what it really means all of you, all of the humanitarians and develop partners on the front lines were impacted greatly by this i should have started my talk about the incredible gratitude for your teams out in the field who are when it literacy on the front line ite really does mean the front line. it's an important aspect to remember please note that is not lost at all. our local squads on both sides really having to be impacted so greatly just a continual feeling of respect and humbleness from our sides of that continues in places where we are rolling with the responsibility of haiti and ukraine, gaza, sudan, and a

yemenalways comes to the list. continues to bee where we're doing our focus in the cruiser out there. going into drc, the horn or take huge amounts of times and resources as well that continues to be something. i wish i could be better on the numbers and how is getting better but i do feel like we at her at a better place to start working on those pricks thank you, thank you it is daunting we spent a lot of today talk about the backdrop is part of our conversations been about the crisis in the world. matt there's not enough people not enough money to meet the challenges. tell us a little bit more how do you prioritize? are you looking at new ways of working student try to meet the challengess with the resources that you have? >> adeptly to all the time.

our budget change from houseboat to everything else we are continuing to have to do exactly that. one thing i will not go into detail on but it's really irrelevant and tracks allowed that the agency is doing and what dennis was talking out earlier about systems and processes internal there's a big aid in how we do granting an award internally has really decided to knock down the walls and take it down to its basics and rebuild thatnd up. who are actually trying to change some those practices. let it impact how we go for which dovetails to me the other big things. but localization of humanitarian

assistance. luckily for us here and a half ago or two years ago grudgingly. i'm kind of like a convert. this a local idea on the humanitarian side was like no, no, no it's your too fast. we are doing a localization you better jump on board. it is changing a lot of how we mechanically do things but also with our partners as well across the board. i think a localization that idea move faster in certain ways to do that. the locally led humanitarian side was something this talked about for a long time again i thought we are internalizing that and getting that to be real but we're talking a little about nexus and the efforts to be part of that. another buzzword that's been talked about for a long time

pulled more readily into this. the different sites of development the emergency site is pointing back. that is okay that should continue. to segregate off to that kind of thing.in what it does it mean foror us ad the seachange we have a bigger role we hit the humanitarian side with cannot be over there not to make not sing with that impact is because the needs are growing. and bringing in the aspect of it is a really good binding force. i actually see that really happening within usaid the pool and i see on that side a little better participation in this then we have at that mission level but also with our partners all across the board. i'm positive as we go forward.

beyond the locally led and the nexus i think what we are trying to do i'm going to use another buzzword dennis throughout we couldn't hear exactly what dennis was saying. but the idea of progress without programs. it is a buzz thing but in actuality we the humanitarian side of netflix into that. how we can re- bring our skills of convening and having that impact without just the program entering the dollars were flexing in the humanitarian tose bring those together we see that on the private sector engagement. we see that a lot with dovetailing which was not talked about before but the ongoing multi- lateral world bank engagement. now we are a part of that we are right on that team and it is important. who at the bank guys to be doing

stuff that will have impact on humanitarian side. i do think that is what the agency is moving forward i was kicking around were not just sheltering the j humanitarians n the corner we want to go play ncaa rule there. we'll see that moving forward. to end on a one sentence what we are seeing i think is yes the humanitarian unfortunately side of this is going to continue. instead of suctioning ourselves off of pretending we don't have more of a role, let's more readily engage piss build and get to a place where we can do it in a better way. no other time really does call for that with leadership before and as we go forward it's becoming more of our dna. quickset is great, thank you for going to church or localization and an minutes.

i wanted to ask you, michelle, hard budget question be like resource management now and the bureau so you are fair game. last month congress appropriations. for understandable reasons. global health, development assistance all went down. set the world we live in there's a trade-off between development assistance? what are your views on the balance between the stew? >> might let me say a couple of things is a very fairhi questio. is like a winner i will skip it. weo have to wait and see. last year we spent over $70 billion on0 development and health programming. other like-minded donors the

world is changing we're all going to face some hard choices. i'm not sure it is a trade-off. i think amount was saying we are trying to understand where is the connection between the development funding and in some ways i see it as an opportunity. that sounds very trite but i seriously do. how should they be adjusted how should they be done differently to meet the needs of today and now we make this connection between humanitarian and development funding for it for many years we have not had to do that because both the been very, very well-funded. these other thing forcing us to do across all of the like-minded donors is think about had to be become more harmonized of the country level at which i think will be much appreciated by our countries the countries are work. for example if it working very closely with ireland to think

about how can we work together on agriculture programs in zambia we were never forced to do that kind of thinking before. are all trying to figure out how do we leverage each other's resources and get a bigger outcome? last year in october we hosted the trilateral conference with japan and korea. thinking about where that new ways we could all be working? and now we are doing global health security program work korea is funding this pc. we are finding that peace in japan is funding this piece. it's really going to be beneficial of the country level also beneficial for us to really think about was the added advantage of these conversations? i think i have avoided your question is much as i possibly could. it is going to force us to ask and be different. i am hopeful that next year out lot of advocacy i'm not asking you all to do perhaps we will see different numbers in the appropriations. >> we didn't hear you projects i know it's on c-span.

i've been given the high sign we started late don't want to keep people too long on a friday afternoon. we are going to move to the lightning around it now drive to quick things iqu want to ask about.ng i'm not going to do at this time i do want to touch on and artificial intelligence. bothee of them have been a very large subject of discussion today. which one of you wants to look at the localization? what i would like to know is the administrator set a very ambitious target. the agency is having trouble reading themng for reasons we understand. can youit talk about what the challenges are and how the agency is trying to address them? is that for who? >> hope? >> i'm happy for the general and given you a couple. >> it's quick and brilliant and

radiant and celestial. what are you worried about. are there things we need to work on together to make sure we don't? >> i'll answer that. >> i have a few points. first thing i'll say the administration said we should work with local organizes, multilaterals, etc. when i know she sets the target of 25% for local organizes 75% goes to the partners.

that's the first thing. second thing, we did this differently than u.s. a. forward. we set up t a task force. what do we need to do to change ourselves as an agency? how do we make it easier for our partners to partner with us.an we did everything from changing the risk management statement to tnew tools. we partnered with new folks. weol had three mlus to bring in different partners. we collaborated with the agency to change the code of federal regulation. that was huge difference this is something we are committed too. we have intimidate of 52% of

programs working with the partners and the development and valuation of the programs. giving us new tools and new ways of working. over to you. >> that was excellent. i think, quickly, with the side we could have thrown a flag. you don't want us to do this. the administrator would have said no. we actually did the compact same thing you were talking about. okay, let's consult with partners, especially our field side. there is a massive desire to do this, first of all. i can say, i don't think it was theren before. with that desire, okay, what do we do differently. we are hiring translating services and paving the way to have a capacity building crew that works with local guys to get through awards.

now we have the agency working to make the process easier. something changed in the dna of how we'll respond better. not only that, pushing hard into disaster reduction. that's 1,000, kind of 1,000 flewers blooming. we are going directly to do those types of things they have been doing and getting paid by three or four different layers. a half dozen countries and $60 million with local organizes. stem cells to work on the disaster production beyond red cross and community driven type of things to build the capacity at local levels and up to nationwide response. this is something we are all in aon. i think it will have that impact. i agree, percentages an

targets are important. also the change of crusties like me that have been a bureaucrat lofor a long time. do you believe in this? yeah, we do. to hold outs are onboard too. again, we have been working now 2 years on the policy coming out. for the agency and partners as well. it's one of the indicators when i was growing up we rarely did anything about a pool fund. the country funds actually have prettyoo good local contact. we are able to do a lot of that. dh did a lot more. i think that's a barometer of how we take it seriously. >> okay, thank you.

bring us home with something quick and smart. >> okay, i was going to mention forget the opportunities on digital. we are worried about cyber security practices across the program it's an area of practice to do more on and we have a major initiative on that. on the ai side specifically we see opportunities as well as risks. we want to focus on having more impact on the responsible usage of ai. this is a point and time to do that. so,ty we are very concerned abot aie and how it's used and roll back themp gender equity thingse are looking at. ai can be used to undermind women's experience on resumes or credit ratings between men and women. we are concerned about that.

we have a responsible ai challenge to crowd source solutions ciwe also have a joint partnersp looking at responsible ai in africa with the canadiens, cwrits, and gates foundation. focused on that very much. several things the u.s. government is also doing to really, at this point and tame look c at opportunities. we are working, there is a new executive order out from the whitero house.se we put an ai action plan in place. we are looking at digital lecosystems among the partner countries and training more people in the response only usage of ai. this is an area that demands and exceeds availability. i wouldn't say more unless you want me toooo because i can tel. >> i do want you to.

i'll get a hook. thank you to the three of you. you all milwaukee me provideds proud to worked there and i'm glad you were here. [ applause ] ] so, with that, i said at the beginning of the day lorie was an animating force behind the entire conference. she was the conference chair and closing us out with a quick closing remark and one final video. thank you again. [ applause ] >> thank you, wade, michelle, cheryl, and matt. thank you for coming and sharing your views with us. we have come to the end of the conference. i can'tel believe it's over mark

after meeting every week for the last four months this is it. on behalf of the planning committee i'd like to thank you you for being here today and to our sponsors for the support you havegy -- have given us. we hope you found the events of today worth wild and they spark hope and optimism for the future. i'd like to invite you to the g reception. before we do we have one last contest winner. this is a everywhere interesting one. it's called pre-schoolt. entitlement. talks about the hope for the future, our children. something overlooked and miss understood and the way around it.d it's interesting. ies hope you enjoy it. it's for 3 minutes and i ask you

to watch it and join us for the reception. once again, on behalf of the planning committee. thank you for being with us the whole day. thank you. good night. [ applause ] ♪ [ music ] ♪♪ >> do you swear in the testimony you about to give is the truth so help you god.