Elections. Frankly, it is just as daunting today. It is great to be with you. Yous an honor to be joining for these important discussions that you are undertaking. We are obviously here at a historic moment for america and a role on the world stage. If you look around us, there is an awful lot to process. In nearly, of sorts every corner of the world. So i know we are tempted at times to feel like the story of the millionaires pool party. That story goes in millionaire had a party at his swimming pool. It wasnot just any pool, filled with man eating alligators. And he turned to his guests and said i will give 1 million and the hand of my daughter to the first man who was from across this pool. Silence. But as he turned to walk away, he heard a splash and there was a guy in the water fighting his way across, pushing the alligators out of the way. He got out, dripping wet. The millionaire ran over and said that is the most courageous thing i have ever seen. What is going to become a 1 million or the hand of my daughter . And the swimmer said neither, i just want to know who pushed me in the pool. [laughter] we feel like that sometimes. But in reality, many of the problems we see have their own distinct context. The underlying causes have much in common. Many, if not most relate back to something simple yet profound. The innate desire of every person, every family, every community to have a meaningful voice in their own future. Unmetere that desire is or attacked for example, i understand why many are confused, even confounded by what is going on in the eastern drc. The Ebola Outbreak is the second deadliest in history and it continues to play claim lives. Even though we have an approved vaccine. Even though we have promising treatments. Too few of the vulnerable are coming forward to testing or treatment. Worse yet, Community Protests and armed attacks seem aimed at the very officials and facilities leading the response. Great thatity is so humanitarian and Health Care Workers are unable to get to some of the most important hotspots. I understand where we are confused. But then we pause and reflect in realize these are the same communities that have been betrayed by their leaders for so very long. I understand where we are confused. Drc has an abundance of officials interested in selfenrichment more than serving everyday people. An election system so broken that many of the most affected communities were not even allowed to vote. And a political system so messed kabila is still a serving member of congress and his family appears still to be Holding Hundreds of millions of dollars in interests. Appreciate that people are frustrated, even bewildered by what is happening in haiti. Less than 600 miles from our shores. The u. S. , canada, and others have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance and relief. Toilities have been built create new export opportunities, hospitals have been launched or rebuilt to improve access to health care. Staff to helpal alleviate hunger. Violent protests have often shut nearly everything down. End, kids cannot attend school, patients cannot get to market, patients were hindered from reaching clinics. Promising Small Businesses could not get supplies and equipment. Donors like the u. S. Could not even get human carrying relief where it was needed most. It is true. A magneten seems like for misery in terms of natural disaster. Rocked by a, it was terrible earthquake and there have been tropical storms before and since. But the haitians are not ticketing mother nature. They are not raging against the hurricanes. They are outraged by a Political Class that has let them down time and again. Parliamenting of that rarely seems to even meet, let alone author reforms. Officials linked to aid and invest and never quite reaches the people. And outside peacekeepers who have been linked to the spread of cholera and even sexual misconduct. On a recent flight that i took to an orphanage, i asked my helicopter pilot how he would describe haiti and its challenges to those who had never been. He paused and then he said forget that haiti is a caribbean island. Some even seemed puzzled by what is going on in hong kong. Lets face it. The island has been doing pretty well economically. Per capita income is among the highest in the world. Unemployment less than 3 . But when she executive carrie lam and her government tried to push through a law authorizing quick extradition to the mainland and its system of justice, all in the name of peace and stability, every day, citizens, especially students, immediately take to the streets. Lam seemed to believe that the protest would quickly and quietly fade away, that citizens were willing to surrender individual liberties. But the crowds grew to one million and then two. Even in the face of tear gas and rubber bullets and more. Bill the extradition appeared seven months ago, more than 2000 protesters have been injured and 6000 arrested. When hong kong held its District Council elections in the midthe ball of this, the results were unambiguous. These District Councils dont have a lot of power. And so, the elections generally dont see much in the way of turnout. But sending the clearest possible signal on the value they place on democracy, nearly 3 million turned out to vote. The highest turnout in hong kong history. Prodemocracy candidates captured 17 of the islands 18 District Councils. Some would argue that none of this is american concern. We certainly did not push hong kong into the streets. Reality, we all realize the health and freedom of democracy does affect our own interests. History tells us that states with more democratic characteristics are usually more prosperous, stable, and reliable partners. Better Economic Partners because they possess the characteristics and conditions that we believe are vital for economic vibrant city and sustainable growth. They are better Strategic Partners because they are citizen centered, making them less likely to produce terrorists, proliferate weapons of mass destruction, or engage in armed aggression. Conversely, authoritarian regimes are at best unreliable partners and at worst pose significant risk to peace and fidelity. Riseritarian regimes give of forced migration and refugees burdening and potentially destabilizing their neighbors. And in order to maintain their hold on power, regimes like these, regimes like iran re press their people by isolating their citizens from outside influence is an ideas. They often attack, directly or indirectly, physically or digitally, those outside their borders. So, as we look to troubled lands and fragile turf, i think these are the principles that we need to keep in mind. We are placing a new, Even Stronger emphasis of fostering democratic governance, citizen responsiveness. We believe it is crucial. Weve institutionalized through our transformation process which aims to build tomorrow. Among other things, were launching a new bureau for development, democracy, and innovation. We will bring together expertise from across the agency and we will serve as a onestop shop for Technical Support and designing solicitations and programs. Implies, it will elevate democracy and governance with the goal of promoting human liberty and citizen responsiveness in all of our programs. Feature focus that will help carry this out like our center for youth and inclusive development, the center for equality and womens empowerment, the center for democracy, human rights, and governments. Thanks to President Trump and with the bipartisan support of the senate, ddi will be led by a longterm democracy assistant administrator. Strong also see our requisites on democracy and the credit governance in the country by country metrics that we have assembled, that we use to guide our investments and our priorities. The country roadmaps, as we call them, incorporate metrics that measure a countrys commitment to elements like freedom of expression, association and conscience. The rule of law, retention of civil liberties, and government transparency. Score low ins these areas, it will challenge us to ask if we are dedicating enough resources to those causes. Well, well, itscore will challenge us to find ways to best leverage their strengths. In coming months, he will also see our greater emphasis on newcracy and democracyfocused communications plans but im announcing today. That campaign will highlight our democratic governance investments all around the world as well as how this works tackles the underlying challenges and causes that ive mentioned and how all that serves americas strategic interest. We want to help americans understand how modest investments in country institutions and self governments can prevent or extinguish the brushfires that seem to be burning in so many places. We will feature personal stories at individuals who are promoting democracy and Human Dignity in their own communities and countries. People like the tireless advocates for holiday and inclusivity in the hall. In nepal. The first female president of the first face a court of pristina. We will tell their stories to help americans understand our story. That campaign will run through world democracy day on september 15. You will seetly, our stronger commitment to democratic governance. So, what will it look like . Im going to take a few minutes to give you a brief overview. Countries, particularly those countries struggling to emerge from an authoritarian we want to emphasize programs that help bring Greater Transparency to institutions. I think we are guilty of two often assuming that transparency and openness and decisionmaking is the natural state of governance. For countries emerging from communism, there is no tradition of openness. It has never really occurred to officials that they might want to keep their citizens effectively informed. We are looking at ways to train a new generation to make routine matters a public submitted in my recent visit to albania, the Prime Minister told me how much he appreciated all of the largers u. S. Government over the years. Then he said to me, you know this Traditional Development programs, that is no longer what we need. And when you look at the metrics, they are on the charts. The high achieving countries. He said we need help to fight corruption. We need help to restore peoples faith. And their leaders. So we plan to respond with tools and Technical Assistance that can help foster a true culture of government transparency. Approval,ngressional we are looking to partner with his government to establish u. S. Albania transparency academy. We hope this academy can focus on three pillars. Loading Budget Transparency in government, ensuring public visibility on Government Procurement procedures, and creating demand for transparency among youth. A second focused our programming will be fostering and supporting genuine choices in elections. We want to invest in free elections and strengthening electoral integrity. Authoritariancant propose elections outright. Even Nicolas Maduro say they support democracy. They want elections. And then they work to bend them in any way that they can. Advance of the elections in cambodia, for example, they not only dissolve the main opposition group, a bandit from politics and arrested and jailed its leader. Then at the same time, he announced he actually wanted free elections and he wanted to bring observers in. They would see how smooth elections can be. Especially when youre essentially unopposed. Voices inl democratic the u. S. , canada, europe, all of us refused to take part. China, which purchased the election equipment, was only to then happy to oblige. Too happy to oblige. China, which purchased the electionwe will look for ways tt elector assistance and observation teams Meeting International objective standards, and we will express dismay at those which do not. Third, we want to support citizen responsiveness in government. Spare when citizens see little hope that officials will listen and respond to their needs and priorities. And so, well support programs that help leaders, especially new leaders become better constituentdriven officials. One of the most uplifting things that i have ever seen was meeting with a young mayor in guatemala. She had a particular way of conducting town hall meetings. She would have her team bring road equipment to the town hall and then when someone would say i have a pothole, she would point and while the town hall was going on, the guy would go and fix the pothole. Myself, what,g to why have a use for a person like that. All be as action oriented at that mayor. But we can teach such modest how toas town halls, utilize polling and surveys, helping parties to construct issuebased platforms that are clear and which lead to accountability. Fourth, inclusiveness. No democracy can be called representative if it is not listening to all of its people. No political system is truly stable if it dehumanizes large segments of its population. Stability is not merely the absence of conflict. Environment which all groups have a clear stake in survival and success. We will work to support and foster civic space and help counter dialogue that vilifies the vulnerable and reinforce the independence of journalists and media organizations. Towill pay special attention the largest marginalized community in nearly every part of the world. Women. Ramping up our work on the w gdp, the Womens Global Development and prosperity initiative, which aims to empower girls, women, in numerous ways. We will support investments in womens educational training, expand access to finances and market opportunities. And tackle barriers to economic participation like the laws which prevent women from holding property. We will alsowe will also work to operationalize the framework known as the womens peace and security. History shows that reconciliation and dispute resolution have had women at the table and almost always produces more sustainable results. Furthermore, we know that women are often times the best Early Warning indicators of the rise of extremism. Finally, there is no more important work for building stability, tackling marginalization, and reinforcing the bond between citizens and their gft than creating pathways for youth engagement. Young people the world over are eager to make their mark and to be heard. They are anxious to see a world in which they have a realistic chance to create, toe contribute, to provide for themselves and their loved ones. There are over 1. 8 billion youth in the world. 90 of them live in the developing world. And sadly studies show that most of them dont believe that their government cares about their views or listens to their ideas. That disconnection cannot ontinue. It must be adoctorsed if democracy is to be received in the feature. Well work on mechanisms to bring young people together especially across political an demographic lines and give them a chance to be heard. Well place a premium on projects that teach young people how to disagree and coexist. Debate and reach conclusions and how to become productive citizens. Well place an even greater premium on those that reach out to the many young people caught up in the historic waves of human displacement that we see in so many parts of the world. A final thought, we recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall and i had the honor of being there as the reagan statue was unveiled not so far from the brandenburg gate. It reminded me of the 25th anniversary which i celebrated and marked in a different way. I was at i. R. I. In those days and it suddenly occurred to me as we were approaching the 25th anniversary that hi staff that werent alive when the wall was up. That i had staff that werent alive when the wall was up. Ok, how can i help them understand what this means . I went to one of our board members, general scowcroft, and i said, general scowcroft, you were there. You were there for europe hold and free. What do i tell young people . And he looked and he said, tell them it wasnt easy. He said these days look back and say, of course, of course the wall will fall, of course germany will unify. It wasnt easy and often in doubt. There were moments when we did not think it would happen. He said that when george h. W. Bush brought up to his cabinet that he was going to give that speech, many told him not to do it. Scowcroft told him not to do it. Good afternoon. I dont want to interrupt your lunch so feel free to keep eating, but as promised we are going to have a really good, important discussion that will help to draw on what we heard this morning b