[As Prepared]

Thank you, Senator Graham. From standing together at the launch of the New Alliance and to meeting Clemson students in your home state, I have been inspired and empowered by your personal commitment to this mission.

I also want to thank Senators Ayotte and Kaine, it is a privilege to share this honor with you tonight.

I know there are many other members of the House and Senate, who are here. Thank you for your leadership on both sides of the aisle.

Liz, your exceptional leadership at the helm of USGLC has already made a tremendous difference. And Bill, Carolyn, thank you. I am touched by this tribute tonight.

To my friends and colleagues across the Administration, who are well-represented this evening, thank you.

I am particularly grateful that my parents, my wife Shivam, and my kids are here. Shivam has been our family’s pillar of strength and stability. She is a wonderful mother to our three young children, an expert advisor on education, an editor of her first book Moneyball for Government—and she is also going to make sure that this evening does not go to my head—a task that I consistently require!

Every day for the last five years, I have been blessed to serve alongside some of the most talented, innovative, and committed leaders anywhere in the world.

People like Al Lenhardt, Margie Sullivan, Michele Sumilas, Susan Reichle, Nancy Lindborg, Angelique Crumbly, Alex Thier, Carla Koppell—far too many to name individually.

I‘d like to ask my colleagues and friends at USAID—current and alumni—to please stand.

You are an extraordinary group.

You have cared for refugees and displaced children through three bone-chilling Syrian winters.

You have connected aspiring computer scientists in Burma to U.S. tech firms to speed their nation’s path to an open society.

You’ve even reached out to Pope Francis and helped leverage his moral authority to entice investment funds to create more economic opportunity for the poor.

And you have looked after one another at our most profound moments of grief—when the caskets of our fallen colleagues have come home to us at Dover Air Force Base.

Your willingness to take risks, make sacrifices, and confront injustice represent the best of America’s values and prove that we are an exceptional nation.

Over the last few months, you have answered President Obama’s call to enhance our national security by tackling Ebola at its source.

You have calmly and quietly coordinated the full capabilities of the American government behind a science-based approach.

And you have called on the world’s brightest minds to develop new tools in this fight—from redesigning personal protective equipment in maker labs to creating new real time data systems that now stretch from remote forests to the White House.

Two months ago, there were more than 100 new Ebola cases every day in Liberia.

Today there are fewer than 15.

The fight is far from over—and we will not be safe at home until we get to and sustain zero cases throughout West Africa.

But both the scale and effectiveness of our efforts have already proven the absolute necessity of American global leadership in a deeply interconnected world.

In my five years on the job, I have learned that this strength of purpose and courage of heart is not reserved for times of crisis.

It is required of us every day.

The Haiti earthquake and Ebola epidemic are national security priorities precisely because they take place in communities where too many girls are more likely to die in childbirth than complete high school.

That’s why President Obama has—in two State of the Union addresses—called on our country to lead a global effort to end extreme poverty. 

His charge has reenergized our Agency and elevated our work as a part of America’s national security agenda.

And we have seized upon this challenge, advancing a new model of development that harnesses the power of business and innovation.

Instead of only giving away food in emergencies, we launched Feed the Future to modernize our nation’s defining legacy of fighting hunger.

In the last five years, we have rebuilt our scientific partnerships; mobilized our global partners at the Camp David G8 Summit; leveraged more than $10 billion from 200 companies; largely ended the practice of monetization around the world, and achieved the most significant reforms in food aid in 60 years — thanks, in particular, to Senators Coons and Corker.

As a result, Syrian refugees in Jordan can shop for food at local stores with debit cards; children in Honduras are receiving the nutrition they need for the first time in their lives; and a local Ethiopian company can take advantage of newly liberalized seed markets to reach more farmers.

In the last year alone, Feed the Future has improved nutrition for 12.5 million children and raised incomes for nearly 7 million farm families. And globally the number of hungry people has come down by nearly 40 million people.

And just about an hour ago, the House of Representatives passed Feed the Future legislation—thanks to tremendous bipartisan leadership.

The reach of this new model is delivering results across our work, from ensuring children survive and thrive, to educating girls, to lighting homes and businesses in the world’s most impoverished communities.

Perhaps most importantly, it has inspired a new generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and students to tackle once unimaginable problems.

Through the U.S. Global Development Lab, we are tapping into this enthusiasm and ingenuity on college campuses from Berkeley to Michigan State.

At this time of seemingly uncompromising politics, I am especially grateful for friends on both sides of the aisle who have embraced this new way of working, enabled us recapture our budget, rebuild our staff, and diversify our community of partners.

Because American leadership matters now more than ever.

In a world of fierce competition — where the international loan value of the China Development Bank is already greater than that of the World Bank’s — our future economic prosperity will be determined by our ability to engage in the growth markets of the future.

And in a world where girls are kidnapped from school by extremists and young men seek opportunity in terrorist camps, our future security will be determined not only by our military might, but also by our moral actions.

On a day when some will criticize the sincerity of our convictions, you only need to look around this room tonight to see that we are at our strongest when we lead with our values.

Nearly fifty years ago, when my grandfather in India dreamt of a better life for his children, he only had one choice to make.

He emptied his entire retirement account and put my dad on a plane with a one-way ticket to the United States of America.

Today, families around the world have more options—and that is a wonderful and hopeful reality.

But we still, as Americans, need to stand for something special.

So when successive Republican and Democratic presidents call on us to lead the fight to end extreme poverty or advance our basic democratic values, it is in our national security and economic interest, but it also speaks volumes about who we are.

On behalf of the entire team at the U.S. Agency for International Development, thank you for this honor.