[As delivered]

That Girl Boss thing is on my desk, where usually the plaque says something boring like “Madam Administrator.” It says “Girl Boss.”

And I just want to say I’m really excited to be here because I met Saving Lives at Birth when she was an infant. I’ve been with President Obama since the beginning of his first term. So when this was just an idea, and when many of the people here and many of you conceived of it, built it, laid the ground for it, I saw what the potential was. Now I get to see what the reality is, so congratulations to everybody here.

And I hope you will join me in giving a particularly loud and raucous shout-out to Wendy for everything she has done and continues to do.  

I also realize that I am standing between you and some exciting things you may be waiting for, so I will be brief and to the point.

Let me also thank our partners – the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, DFID, and KOICA. USAID has been so proud to partner with you over the past five years. And you have my word that as we meet with, later in the fall, a transition team – because you might know there’s an election going on in America – one of the things that we will pass on to them is the strength and power of things like Saving Lives at Birth, but also the strengths and results that come from these partnerships.

And to all of our innovators here today, thank you for rising to the challenge in a way that none of us thought possible. Now there are probably some who thought it was possible, but there’s some of us for whom this was new and a big idea, and the way it blossomed has been beyond our wildest imagination. So thank you for your work, and for your perseverance. And congratulations to all the finalists for this year.

You may know that just last week President Obama hosted the White House Summit on Global Development here in this building – another phenomenal piece of work that our team with other agencies in the government was able to pull together – to celebrate what we achieved. But the other thing he reminded us of is that we need to continue to make progress and to do even more.

And I know that all of you are primed to answer that call. And that’s a good thing, because we need you. We have set some ambitious goals – kind of mildly ambitious goals – for saving the lives of women and children. And it is a fact, this is not just a nice thing to say because I’m here speaking to you, it is a fact that we need you and it is because of you that we’ll meet them.

So I was out in the marketplace a little earlier, and I’ve been to these marketplaces before but each time I go to one I’m more convinced than ever. There’s some really cool stuff out there. There’s the portable fingerprint scanner that can instantly link mothers to their health records, ensuring they get the care they need. There’s a wristband that fits on my finger that monitors a baby’s temperature, alerting parents and healthcare workers early to the threat of hypothermia.

I think what we know from these innovations is, they’re not just cool, they are actually transformative. And that’s the power of innovation. These innovations can change people’s lives, and with that change the world.

So we’re going to continue to do everything we can, and as Wendy said we are very focused on institutionalizing all of this so that it will live on and continue. But we’re going to be guided by three things:

The first is the fundamental belief that all of us share: that in 2016, or 2017, children and women should not be dying of treatable, preventable causes. It’s unacceptable for 2.6 million babies to die before or during delivery; for 2.7 million to die in the first 28 days of life, or for 300,000 women to die giving birth. It’s unacceptable, but we can change it.

And the second guiding principle is the knowledge that will allow us to change it. The knowledge gleaned from the evidence that this is a solvable problem. And look, the solutions are all over the room. Since the start of this Administration alone, and this is something President Obama referred to last week, our collective efforts have saved the lives of 4.6 million children and 200,000 women. That’s real change and transformation.

And third is a commitment to equip agents of change like all of you with the tools you need to transform your ideas into reality and take your innovations to scale.  

One of the things I’m really proud of, and it excites me to see, I’ve known USAID for a long time and I’ve worked very hard throughout this Administration with USAID to ensure that it is elevated and strengthened. The way that it has brought the idea of innovation into the Agency, the partnership with innovators like you, has been a real game-changer for the Agency. We want to, again continue that, and it’s hard. But to get you the tools and the resources you need so that you can continue as well.

And I’m proud that since the first Saving Lives at Birth Event six years ago – it just feels like yesterday –we have supported the development and scale of over 90 novel technologies and solutions. So we know that this is a model that works. And we’re institutionalizing it so that it’s something that USAID does and the U.S. Government does far into the future.

We’re also committed to continue investing in science, technology, innovation, and partnership across the board. This is something the President directed us to do in 2010 when he signed the first ever Policy Directive on global development. Ironically, there had actually never even been a policy on global development before. But part of it was to make these investments. The Agency has done that, and we’re seeing the world bear the fruit of that, and we will continue.

Now I know that the longer I talk, the less time you have to mingle and meet –so I’ll just leave you with a couple thoughts.  

As you put your lab coats on, put pen to paper to sketch out a new design, or go back to the drawing board for what feels like the billionth time, just remember that you have a lot of people in your corner.

So think big. Pursue your hunches. Connect with fellow innovators. Keep going. And let’s leap forward together.

Thank you, very very much.