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.

HANOI -- Good morning. It is my great pleasure to help open the seventh annual meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee. I would like to thank Deputy Minister Tuyen for hosting this meeting in your new headquarters building. I would also like to recognize the international partners who have joined us this morning, including representatives from the United Nations, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand.

Your presence here exemplifies the multilateral partnership that is helping Vietnam respond to environmental and health challenges related to Agent Orange.

USAID has been very happy to partner with the American Bar Association and the Addis Ababa University Law School in the development and publication of five legal textbooks authored by Ethiopian legal experts. I am especially proud of this collaboration since this is the first set of textbooks to be revised in 40 years. This is a remarkable and commendable achievement. I congratulate the authors who are faculty at Addis Ababa University and St. Mary's College--Ato Getachew Assefa, Ato Muradu Abdo, Ato Elias Stebek, Ato Wondwossen Demissie and Ato Fikremarian Merso.

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.