Remarks by USAID Administrator Shah at the Aspen Institute

Second, within a generation, if we continue on the trend we’re on, we can reduce extreme poverty by more than 60 percent—lifting more than 700 million people out of dollar-and-a-quarter a day poverty and back from the brink of hunger and malnutrition.

But if we accelerate our progress from 3 percent annual reduction to over 6 percent and focus on key turnarounds in some difficult countries, we could get a 90 percent reduction. We could essentially eliminate dollar-and-a-quarter head count poverty.

If you think that’s fiction, just consider the fact that between 2005 and 2008 overall poverty headcount fell in each region in the world—including sub-Saharan Africa—for the first time in human history.

Think about that. From when we started collecting data on poverty through 1993, the total number of extreme poor kept going up. Between 1993 and 2005, the number of people living in poverty fell by an astonishing one-third—more than 600 million driven by Brazil, India, and China. Now we actually see Sub Saharan Africa joining that trajectory.

Much could derail this progress—perhaps most notably food and agricultural insecurity, the challenge of green growth, and the curse of oil and mineral resources managed poorly. But again, these are solvable problems if we choose to engage aggressively. And again we know that because we have proof.

Consider the chronic issue of hunger in Africa. Donors have for decades designed programs that help African farmers – usually a few hundred small scale farmers at a time and for 3-5 years before moving on to the next priority. 

The Obama Administration has tried to change that approach. We launched Feed the Future in 2009 to reach millions of small scale farmers in countries that were willing to make tough policy reforms and increase their own investment. We are investing in science and technology and publishing results online. And we know its working—Feed the Future helped millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia avoid the need for food aid during last year’s tragic drought and in Bangladesh an entire state that has never before had enough food to feed its population is now producing a surplus. 

But the real potential of Feed the Futureis its next, more open source, stage. We’ve worked with six countries in sub-Saharan Africa to help them make reforms to entice private investment and simultaneously worked with 45 food and agriculture companies around the world to introduce them to business opportunities in these nations. 

For this year’s G8 meeting, these firms made $4.5 billion in investment commitments—to expand seed production and distribution, map soil quality, establish small scale irrigation businesses, and source more food for global supply chains. International organizations agreed to ensure these investments reach the poorest farmers—mostly women—and G8 partners agreed to coordinate our aid in a manner that would allow these new public-private partnerships to succeed. 

We expect this New Alliance to move 50 million people out of poverty in 10 years and to show that African agriculture is open for business. Our role is as a facilitator and connector—not the party in charge.