The River Club of New York
New York City, New York

ADMINISTRATOR GREEN: Thank you, John for that introduction.  I often say that the mission of USAID must be a very simple one: we believe the purpose of foreign assistance is to end the need for it's existence.  And that means two things that I think are relevant here tonight.

Number one, we need partners.  We need to help great leaders around the world take on their own challenges, not have us taking those challenges on, but building capacity and working with them and their own national plans to take on their challenges like the challenges of (inaudible) species diversity. And so it is a very important part of our work.  

But secondly, and what we celebrate here tonight, is the public-private partnership.  

When my agency was created more than five decades ago, 80 percent of the money flowing from America to the developing world, was what we call ODA - traditional development assistance.  That number is now nine percent.  

The great news is that the private sector, along with large scale philanthropy and remittances, are now becoming the most important force in the world.  And so it is only when leaders like the President are able to partner with all of you from the private sector, that we can hope to achieve the goals that we have set forward.  

So USAID can help a little bit (inaudible) perhaps we can help with policy, but I'm really here tonight to thank you and to pledge to you that we want to partner with you because these partnerships, and our partnerships, those are the most important relationships in the world today for conservation.  

So again, my role here really is to salute all of you.  Thank you for what you are doing and thank you for what you will do.