I am excited to see how USAID is supporting Kenyans as you strive to improve your communities, your health and your quality of life.  This water distribution system, built by Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company in a densely populated urban neighborhood is a great example of how USAID is supporting Kenyan-led development. 

-As prepared-

Thank you for inviting me to join you in celebrating the leadership, talent, potential and promise of Kenyan women.

For decades, USAID has been leading global efforts to achieve gender equality – believing that long-term, sustainable development will only be possible when women and men enjoy equal opportunity to rise to their potential.

With support from the Lab, we will ensure that this story—of solutions rigorously tested and applied on a transformational scale—increasingly defines how America works around the world. As we do, our students will have greater opportunities to develop math and science skills—and lend those skills in service of mission bigger and greater than themselves.

Our entrepreneurs will form connections in the markets of the future. And all of us will be inspired by the contributions we can each bring to the task of ending extreme poverty.

With those opening comments, I just want to say thank you to all of you who have made it your life's work to help fight hunger and poverty around the world. I wish more people around the world—certainly in the United States Congress, but also all around the world—saw that your efforts are in fact succeeding, and that over time, if we all make the right decisions, if we all continue to work together, and if we are all blessed by the kind of leadership like we see here in Rome right now—that we can achieve the end of extreme poverty within the next two decades. Wouldn’t that create a more stable more productive world for all of us to live and prosper in?