Transcripts For CSPAN3 Politics Public Policy Today 20141028

We would like to thank mrs. Obama, mrs. Bush and all the wonderful first ladies who are here. We are delighted to have you. In the United States, we have a very powerful notion that we all hear about from the time were children that education is the key to a Better Future for us and for each successive generation. I heard about it in my family where i was the first person to graduate from college. Mrs. Obama spoke about it today. I think it was a similar experience for her. Here in the United States, we refer to it as the American Dream. But in my travels around the world as the ambassador for global womens issues, i have discovered it isnt really just an American Dream at all. Its a universal dream. Millions of parents want their children, girls and boys, to learn more, to do better, to achieve greater things than they did. I saw it at st. Josephs girl school in sierra leone. We all saw it with the girls trying to hard and against such incredible odds to again an education in northern nigeria. These girls and thieir parents know what the data shows us, that Girls Education is one of the smartest Development Investments that the International Community can make. Education increases a girls individual earning power by 10 to 20 , the majority of which she invests back in her family. Girls who stay in School Longer are up to six times less likely to be married as children. Girls attendance in formal school is correlated with later childbearing, lower rates of hiv and aids, fewer hours of domestic and labor market work and greater gender equal. A child born to a mother who can read is 50 more likely to live past the age of five and more likely to remain healthy, safe and in school herself. We know that keeping girls in school through secondary school most importantly is better for girls, their families and their communities. Its absolutely critical to expanding womens meaningful participation in the work force and its the key to the universal dream of empowering the next generation to do better than the last. Im so pleased to be here today with our distinguished panelists to talk about what we can do to ensure that girls in africa get the education they deserve and they need to become the leaders of tomorrow. Let me briefly introduce our wonderful panelists. Dr. Sara ruto, we are not in order here. Dr. Sara ruto is the regional director for uwezo west africa, operating in kenya, ouganda and tanzania who draws attention to childrens learning. She will talk about completion of primary education and about getting parents involved in supporting education. The honorable aicha bah diallo is the founder of faway. Shes working to make sure education is tailored to address the needs of girls. Ann cotton is the founder and president of camfed inter international. Miss cotton will speak about empowering the next generation of Women Leaders in working with government and other partners. And finally, shelley esque is board chair of intel and Vice President of legal and Corporate Affairs to the intel corporation. The Intel Foundation is working to give girls and women more opportunity to participate in the global economy. She will speak about the importance of empowering girls through access to technology. Let me begin with my first question to dr. Ruto. Sara, i understand that uwezo used an innovative device to improve literacy. What barriers do you see that keeps g girls from getting education . What interventions do you think are most successful . Thank you. I think when you are looking at the barriers, its against tremendous progress that we have made. Our evidence along allow me to talk about the evidence. We reached a million children since we started in 2009. It shows s 90 who have had education. Then theres the 10 that are missing. They are often found in the poverty hot spots. They are to be found in rural, remote districts that the districts are not country specific. If you go to kenya and ouganda, they are neighboring. And the reasons that are keeping them out have been talked about by so many people. Attitu attitude, religion, practices Much Research has told us about them. We need to listen to the evidence a little bit more. But even the 90 who are in school, they have only been there for five years. When you look at the numbers who are getting to school in terms of gender parity, its almost equal boys and girls. And at that level, because we test the childrens ability to do literacy and numbers, that level, they are not any better or worse than boys. But later on, you will find that girls drop faster than boys in the preteenages. School inefficiency is affecting our children, because our data tells us that in uganda, for example, the school is supposed to be seven years. Children are taking 11 years to complete. The older a girl is in school, the more vulnerable she becomes. We need to look at that. In terms of the successes, let me talk about three of them. The first one i brought the dad the data is telling us that when the mother has primary and secondary ed indication, you see her daughters and children have Higher Learning outcomes. The evidence is there. Not so much for the men, fathers, but more so for the mothers. The second piece of evidence which we need to be looking at is the role of school leadership. Where a school has got a dynamic leader, in charge of 500, maybe 1,000 children, they serve girls and boys. And the third is the girls resilience. When you introduce girls to many activities, you know, whether its in sports, they learn confidence and when things are bad, then they will have to draw on their own strength. So building on a girls resilience becomes important. As you have seen, i started with the mothers and then the school and then the girl herself. All of us have a role to play. Could you talk a little bit about the role of the family . In particular, what you can do to convince families, particularly when they are facing situations of limited resources, of how you deal with that problem and convince them if they have, you know, a couple of children or if they have to choose between sending boys or girls to school, how you enro encourage them to send the gir s girls to school. When you see that 90 of the children are in school and its near gender parity, for me it looks like at least half the battle is done. Because many parents believe and are sending their girls to school. I think the biggest thing that will lead to skepticism that will destroy this belief is in our girls, our children have nothing to do for the years they spent in schools. So the owe us in is on us. Those of us seated over here are evidence of the success of schooling. This has to be spread to all the others. And i think if we do that, i remember when i went to a village one time and we had a fundraising and the daughters sent many to the church because our mothers told us this was very important. Later on when i met the pastor, he told us, you know, its important to send girls. Did you see how they built the church . It was evidence of success that will be what will drive us. And show that actually its worthwhile to educate your children, your girls, your boys. You are the evidence . Thank you. Aicha, i understand you are working in 33 african countries to foster positive policies towards Girls Education. You worked with governments, communities, Civil Society to help make education for girls a priority. Could you talk a little bit about what you see that works best, what more can be done and if you could deal with some specific examples of genderbased violence, Vocational Training and give us your based on your experience what your views are about the best opportunities. Let me start by giving you some statistics. We have 30 million kids out of school, 54 are girls. 22 million adolescents are out of school, 54 are girls. Therefore, we have to do something. We cant just sit and wait. We have to Work Together. To get to these people the right to quality education. We are working for gender equity and equality for all children, in particular girls. What we have done is to deliver up innovations to convince. Because if you dont convince, you cannot reach the results you want. We start with the advocacy at the community level. I think you touched about it. You have to convince both male and female. Because these two are the ones who have to take the decisions, are we going to take the girls or the boys to school . You have to tell them and explain to them the value of education, the benefit of educating girls. I think today we have seen it. This video has shown us. I dont have to go through it. What we have found out is today men are supporting Girls Education. Women support Girls Education. They even form what we call mother clubs. They are the ones now who are tracking the girls that are going to school. So School Attendance is looked after by the women clubs. We have another innovation which is very important. Its empowering girls and boys. Its to speak out. In the school, men the girls and boys get together, they identify their problems, they analyze them and they together find solution to solve them. What we have found out through grammar, songs and activities, we have found out that now girls are empowered to speak out. They are selfconfident. They have leadership skills. They are fighting against what they call culture cultural values. Now, they know that they have rights. They claim their rights. We have another innovation, giving boundaries. The first lady from ghana talked about it. When you give to a girl who is bright, it makes a difference. So we give to more than 46,000 girls and boys. 30 were boys. You see, you cannot just discriminate boys either. We have to pull them they have to Work Together. With the foundation, we have are going to have 1,200 scholars in rwanda. It has been announced already. And in ethiopia, 800 scholarships. Its going to make a big difference. You educate a girl, you will get a family and a nation. A boy is just a person. [ laughter ] we also have what we call the center of excellence. Im mentioning it because bush visited one. In that school, we transform it into a gender responsive school. Girls are empowered and boys also. Teachers are trained to be gender aware. Now they know how to treat boys and girls equally so that the girl girls in math and science is better. And its amazing how the school now has an environment which is conducive to learning. There is no gender bias at all, which is important. We have trained out of School Adolescent Girls in six countries which were affected. What we did was to give them the skills and competency in the disciplines that will be male recipients, such as mechanics, electricity, carpentry. And they did very well. Before they finish, we go and lob y lobby we lobby the companies to hire them when they finish their studies. It made a big difference. When you are confidence in a girl, she can do i would say even better than the boys. Im saying that because africa in 2011, population was 1 billion. 20 were youth. In 2015, 50 of the population is going to be youth. Therefore, africa will have to invest in its youth in particular girls if you want our continentdynamic, productive continent. I believe in Girls Education. If we are here, its because we were educated. My father said, all my girls have to go to school. Therefore, please, lets get together and work for Girls Education. [ applause ] thank you very much. Id like to ask you a little bit about camfeds unique approach, which i understand you call the virtuous cycle, which i would like you to explain. Camfed has educated girls since 1993 and supported young women to help tackle poverty working through national and local systems. I think its really critical in many of the communities. I would like to understand how you have worked with girls through development and education and beyond that. If you could give us if you would also explain the virtuous cycle, i would appreciate that. Yes, of course. Well, we work in rural areas. And thats where poverty is deepest. Really, families are not in a position to make choices, in fact. They make decisions based on the economic realities. The choices are forced. So we understand and work and respect that decision making. So the process is one of partnership with parents, inclusion of parents. And the point of transition from primary to secondary school is where so many girls drop out, because the costs of education rise. So our partnership with parents means that they dont have the means but they certainly have an abundance of love and are our data shows that that support they get at home, that encouragement, we are seeing between 88 and 93 attendance across five countries. The numbers of girls are high, 108,000 in secondary education. Parents are not withholding their girls from going to school, domestic and agricultural schools. At schools they teach a network because girls come to school with problems. We have teacher mentors across 5,000 government schools. That is having a Significant Impact on progression, which is 90 across all programs. You mentioned traditional leaders. T they are some of our most powerful advocates. One leader said some years ago, he said, i have understood in speaking with girls that they are refugees in their own mother land. He is an advocate and theres a network of leaders working with us, particularly on Child Protection and child marriage. And, of course, government, really our partnership with government is the foundation. We work in government schools. Our partnership there is a district level and national level. Our directors in africa all recruited from africa as policy work very closely with ministries of education. They share data. Strategies. They are at the policy table. Its really a very Inclusive Program for the education of girls. And we are seeing significant improvements in academic results. All those poorest children, when they leave secondary education, what next . They are confronted sometimes by a lack of employment and often they will be in a position where they are under pressure to marry and also they make go to town in search of work where they are very, very vulnerable. So at that point we support beyond secondary education depending on grades and aspirations into university, into Technical Training colleges and with Business Training and loans and grants. Thats where you really see the investment in education start to pay highly significant dividends. The family as well as themselves. But how do you make that dividend grow . How do you make that dividend grow for the district, for the nation . So what we have done is created an alumni. So that is the completion of the virtuous cycle. This is the leadership emerging of young women. There are 24,435 graduates in the Network Across ghana, tanzania, zambia. Oechl t extraordinary young women. One indicator is that every one of the members is supporting between two and three children into school outside her own family. Shes also supporting within her family. So this is really the power. And i think what they say we are united by background over poverty and a commitment to change. They are proud of their roots. So often poverty carries with it the marks of embarrassment and shame. But they have transformed that into pride and empathy. I think thats at the heart of their power. Thats at the paheart of their activism. We have an incredibly powerful group of people here, first spouses. I am curious about how organizations, including governments, spouses, engage in this vital piece of the womens empowerment process. Yes, its an extraordinarily powerful. Im deeply honored to be here. The partnership is wide and broad. The partnership with the private as well as government. One of our partners is the master card. We are working on a program of support secondary and tertiary education. The young women and girls in the program have prepared a chronicle of their experiences for the first ladies that they want to share. It will give you an indication, one of they were in junior high school, she was living with her family in one room. It was so noisy that she didnt have time and opportunity to study. So what she decided to do was to go to bed at 7 00 p. M. Every evening, to get up at 2 00 a. M. And to study when everyone else was asleep. Then go to school. Now she wants to be a pediatrician. What she says is, i want to be a pediatrician because i see my role as being with children. I love children and i see their vulnerability. Thats a theme that we hear time and time again. The girls and young women whom we support, who havent had a background in education, sharing our personal experiences, my grandmother left school at 12. No one more committed to education than she was. Read a book was her constant mantra to me. That commitment to education grows exponentially when you are suddenly having that opportunity. Suddenly, that latent power becomes live because of your education. So they all say, we want to be doctors because we want to change our communities. We want to be midwives because we see women suffering. We want to tell the world about our community. Its about them but what they can do in the world. First ladies, they are so ready to work with you. As you have mentioned, they have tremendous ideas to share. The platforms that you have to really bring their voices forward are just extraordinariry. I would urge you to use the platforms effectively. Thank you so much. Shelley, i have a couple of questions for you. I was struck by the all of these networks of people that ann mentioned and that it strikes me that that might be agoa good project to network the people together. Not that intel needs anything else to do. It seems there are so many groups of people here that we could try to get together. In any case, the internet is a powerful tool for education. Intel is doing so much to address gender gap. I was curious about how you see technology really advancing literacy and Economic Opportunities for women. I was hoping you could give us some idea of the things that you all are doing in that field. Absolutely. Thank you for the great idea. We were talking about that in the marketplace this morning. How do we network all these concepts together . Make it easy for people to access them. At intel we have been committed to education and ensuring that women and girls have access to quality education. We have a three pronged approach. First is around raising awareness and assuring access. The second is inspiring girls and women to not just be consumers of technology but creators. We want girls and women to know that they can create the next solution that will solve the problem that their community is facing. We want them to know they can play an active role. Women often dont take that role in most parts of the world. In the third area is this idea of bringing people together in an ecosystem and connecting people so they have a platform to communicate and they have a network to support them. We find that this idea of the community is critical even when we use technology. People need to know theres people that are behind them. One young woman told us, i know theres an army of women ready to support me and they are all over the world. And that kind of confidence comes from knowing that they exist. But what we found when we did a study in 2013 is that women are sadly left behind in terms of internet access. In our report, women in the web, which dwe wiwe did with your of we identified for first time how large this gap is. Unfortunately, in africa, its the largest gap that we identified. These women and girls are being left behind for a variety of reasons that have been mentioned here today. We found that when they have access to the internet, they have access to education, to information that can help them with healthcare, job creation, Society Development and this empowerment that comes from meeting others that are like you. So we know that by closing that gap, we can have make a tremendous impact. We have been committed to a goal of reducing the gap in africa by 50 in next five years. We have numerous tremendous partners that are working with us on that project. We are very excited about the possibilities, because as we all know the possibilities of education, the possibilities of information, what they that can do in the hands of young women all over africa. So we are looking forward to welcoming more partners and working with more governments who also share this goal of bringing access and closing that gender gap. Could you talk a little bit about the role of Public Private partnerships in your work . Absolutely. I think its been shared today and we firmly believe that its only through partnership that were going to have sustainable impact. We have worked with partners in government for many years and most of our education programs. And now we are reaching out to a larger ecosystem. Many Technology Companies are interested in this work and other players, other foundations. So bringing all those people together toward a common goal is really what were trying to do is create this ecosystem of people that care about this gender issue and want to help educate girls and empower them to really be a voice and a leader in their local community. Great. Sara aicha, i was wondering i was struck by what mrs. Obama was saying about the Important Role of men and boys in this effort. Its something that when i travel sometimes i get an initial schedule and it will be a lot of meetings proposed or visits proposed to meetings with women and visits to womens centers. I will say, i think i need to talk to the men, too. I need to meet with boys and understand what they are doing as well. I think sometimes we do spend a lot of time talking to ourselves. I was wondering if you could either of you had some insight into the really Critical Role that men and boys play and how we need to engage them, how best to engage them and if you had thoughts about that. In the family, most of traditional africa, men are the ones who are doing the choice. Therefore, you have to talk to both men and women. Explain to both the value of education and give exbelieample the benefit of education for girls. Then they will understand. Otherwise, they will always send the boy if they dont have enough money to send both. Thats one. Second, in the school, if you dont bring them together to talk to each other, in life are they going to separate . They will be together. Therefore, its better to train them together, to make them understand the concept of learning to live together. Thats where the teacher has a key role to play. So training teachers for them to be gender aware, gender responsive, to allow that in each child there is a potential and they have to tap into that potential and make both boys and girls succeed. Perhaps just to add to that, i think one of the things we need to do is be more multidisciplinary in our approach. It has to do with teachers. When we look at the missing 10 in east africa, the things that are keeping them out of school is not because the mothers dont want them to go to school. Its a cultural something where you have to look at who has the power, where does the power reside, who is the Decision Maker . You have to talk to them. When you talk about issues of fgm, you know, i think for a long time we have focused on the victims. One needs to widen, understand who is the Decision Maker, where the power lies. Then get them to be your friend and partner in creating change. Changing of attitudes, it needs a lot of trust so that the discussion can move on and you start bringing those changes that sustain and they show that girls actually get to school and succeed. An example i want to give you mentioned it. I will not tell you in what country we did it. But what we did was to take a movie showing how girls were suffering when they were going through that operation. So we gathered the male. When they saw the pictures, they said, oh, my god. We did not know. They were shocked. They were shocked. And they said, we are going to be the advocate to fight this. Just to see it. I think the power of film is its very important. Because the film somehow mediates the dialogue. It takes away the tension. Because theres a story. And everybody is connecting with the story. We have a film called the child within which is about early pregnancy. That film has unlocked tremendous understanding and empathy in communities. My colleague in africa, who actually is one of the first girls who was supported by co camfed, she was telling me about an incident. They gathered together, it was a chiefs meeting, it was men. She said, how about the wives . The chief, not terribly keen on this idea. But there was a little bit of discussion. Suddenly, he was on his mobile phone. Soon, his wife came. And then the other chiefs wives came. They had a very inclusive forum. I think its about sometimes humor, opening it up. But that power of the film and introducing stories and really understanding. I mean, were seeing in our data coming through the extraordinary impact of education on child marriage. In our program, just 5 of the girls who are supported are becoming mothers in the same age group where the National Rate is 26. 8 . So that intervention in terms of education is preventing a significant child marriage, preventing another generation really being born into poverty. I would like to thank you all im sorry. We just wanted to make an announcement. Of course. Were very thrilled to announce a new alliance. Its called the women in the web alliance. Our goal is to bring 600,000 young women online in nigeria and kenya in the next three years. And we are going to do that by cat liesing an ecosystem. Its intel, world pulse, world vision, u. N. Women and women in technology nigeria. I just wanted to share that news with you, because we are open and welcoming of all partners who are interested. We think its critical that we create local content, localized training with gender specific resources for women and really try to create this network so they can support each other. Im proud to make that announcement. [ applause ] i would like to thank all of you so much first for being here but also just for the tremendous work that you do every day to support women and girls. I met a woman many years ago i think i cant remember what country she was in. Maybe in the drc. Her name was chris. She told me which is that one woman can do anything but many women can do everything. It always resonated with me. I think when i see amazing women like all of you, i believe that and i think together we can do tremendous things for women and girls everywhere. Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you all for being here. [ applause ] be part of cspans campaign 2014 coverage. Follow us on twitter and like us on facebook. Cspan is bringing you over 100 senate, house and governor debates. You can instantly share your reactions to what the candidates are saying. The battle for control of congress, stay in touch and engage by following us on twitter and liking us on facebook. The final event from this years u. S. Africa summer was a discussion on um powering women and girls to promote healthy lives through technology and job training. This is an hour and ten minutes. [ applause ] good afternoon. What a fabulous morning we have had so far. What a fabulous song and dance we have had at lunch time. Its truly been an inspirational day. We are here to celebrate the power of the african woman. And in particular, the power of those fabulous and fortunate African Women who are the first spouses of their country. I was the wife of the british Prime Minister. I still am tony blairs wife. But in my ten years when my husband was in 10 downing street, i learned myself what a significant platform being married to the Prime Minister was to address not just pressing needs in our own country but those around the world. And during that time, i met with many first ladies from africa and indeed have continues to do so since. And i am always inspired and impressed by the work that they do either supporting and sometimes initiating great work in their country. I want to commend, of course, my dear friend laura bush and the bush center for all they are doing to foster a network of first ladies working to advance education, good health and Economic Opportunity for women and children in africa. But to be truly effective, of course, first ladies cannot do it on their own. We need to foster and to grow valuable public, private partnerships. And this, of course, is what this conference is about. And its about what the work of the bush center is doing. Bringing together partners, both in business and in the voluntary sector to Work Together so that we can achieve so much more than what we can do on our own. Effective partnerships are the best way to achieve change. My own foundation is committed to partnering with different organizations across different sectors. And im really delighted that a number of our partners are here today. I want to of course acknowledge our friends from exxon mobile where we are working with them in tanzania to build up the capacity of Women Entrepreneurs in tanzania and to those from ge who have sponsored our work for the last two years of working with the first Womens Business Network in sierra leone helping them expand their capacity and build the network to bring the power of Women Entrepreneurs together. Africa is a priority region for my foundation. And we continue with exciting new projects. We are working in rwanda, with a new initiative combining business train, use of the mobile phone, Financial Literacy and mentoring. With visa in nigeria where we are training and helping visa set up a network of women visa money agents. Across africa, online monitoring platform links women with men and women across the world who want to help them expand and grow their businesses. But in all this, we have to focus. We have to prioritize. We all have limited resources. And if we dont focus on key issues, then people can be confused about what we really stand for. I have to say, its easier said than done. I found it particularly challenging when i was at number 10 downing street, because people are always asking me to support their good causes. We always want to help, particularly when we have such a great platform. But, of course, as we say to our children all the time, if you try to do everything, you may end up focusing in nothing in particular. And so, we need to wait. We need to look for inspiration. Actually, it was in tanzania where i got that inspiration. Because the ifc of the world bank asked me to gone i a visit there to launch a line of credit that they were giving to business to banks to give to business women in that country. And i met some extraordinary Women Entrepreneurs. And i realized that with the right support, these women wouldnt only just improve their businesses and their own status, but actually would be the drivers of development with their own economies. Making most not just of their talent but of the talents of the other men and women who they employed who they contracted with who they helped to make their country grow. And thats why womens Economic Empowerment is so important. Its important for the bottom line of their business. Its important for the development of their countries. But its more than just Economic Growth. Because we know that empowered women ensure that their children are healthy. Empowered women send their daughters to school. And as we have heard already, empowered women make sure that their daughters are not driven into early marriage and early childbirth and sometimes sadly, unfortunately, death. Today, we have a wonderful panel to talk about the work that many different organizations are doing across africa to help women fulfill their potential as partners in the growth of their economies. Im looking forward to hearing from them all as im sure you are, too. So let me stand back and let the panel commence. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, welcome isha sesay, noa gimella, knee ya misra, kay kuenker, damaris odeny. Deb elam and dr. Bernard olayo. Good afternoon. A very worm welcome to the honorable first spouses, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Im so pleased you are here with us for this first panel of the afternoon. My name is isha sesay. Im a cnn anchor and con spo correspondent by day. By night, im the founder of a nonprofit, called we can lead, to educate and empower girls across africa. This is close to the heart for me. I am a proud african woman. I will be a moderator for this panel. Public private partnership, fosters women and promoting through training. Before i bring it into focus and tell you some of what i want to get out of this conversation, let me first thank our host, mrs. Obama, mrs. Bush, the white house, the Bush Institute and the state department for hosting this important event, this wonderful event. Our thanks to them and that thanks is on behalf of everyone here on the stage. So thank you. Now, most of you have heard or read the headline africa rising. Its true, it is. When you look at the trend lines, when you look at the stats, most of you know that from 2000 to 2010, six of the ten Fastest Growing economies in the world were in africa. There have been immense strides made to get more children into school. Those are health indicators. The needle is being moved in the right direction when it comes to child mortality. Dont get me wlonrong, theres lot to do. We need to get more school gir school. So theres a lot to do. But africa is moving in the right direction, its moving upwards. Key to keeping that movement, keeping that momentum, africas women. Thats key to doing that. We know you have heard it said today, if you empower women, if you invest in women, then what you are doing is not just improving their lives, their families, commune kities,t what you are doing is laying the groundwork for greater Economic Growth in the country and also really strengthening social stability. And key to that, if you want to turbo charge that change, Public Private partnerships, they go a long, long way to being able to scale up that kind of large scale success. So really, what i want us to do as we have this panel, these are people from different sectors, but they are key stake holders when it comes to this partnership model. What they are going to do is give us a look at Public Private partnerships. And basically show us what works. What does that look like . What are best practice snz what are some of the challenges that kros crop up which can impede large scale success . Let me introduce the panelists now. To my right is noa gimella. Shes with exxon mobile. They have done a lot of work in this area, researching the effective programs to improve womens economic status. Neha misra is with solar sister. She mentors across africa to bring womendriven solutions to energy poverty. Kay kuenker is Global Leader Public Affairs and Government Affairs dowing agrow sciences. Its the chemical companys ago culture business. Agriculture business. Damaris odini from the International Crops Research Institute for the semi arid tropics. One of 180 African Women scientists who won an award. Debra elam served as president of the g foundation and chief diversity officer for ge. One of the most senior woman at the company. Shes won too many awards to list today. Finally, we have a man on the panel. Make him feel at home. [ applause ] this brave man sitting up here is dr. Bernard lyo, founder and executive director from the center for Public Health and development. He has more than ten years of experience in Public Health and development. What i hope when you have heard all these people speak and what i hope you will take away from this is first of all you will get that critical perspective on Publicprivate Partnerships. Secondly, you will be inspired to come up with uh new ideas to employ this model and seek out further ways to lift up women in your country. Thats what i hope we get out of this. Lets start the conversation now. First of all, i will turn to you. As you heard me say in the introduction, exxon mobile has done a lot of work in this space with the u. N. Foundation. Last year you released an evidencebased report. Looking at womens Economic Empowerment and participation. Lets talk about the report. What are the key lessons that emerged and how can governments and private Companies Use the findings to better improve how they support womens programs. Let me start by thanking you for the introduction. Before i talk about the report, i would take a moment to talk about the origins of the study. About a decade ago the Exxon Mobile Foundation expandeded the focus of our giving. We were looking for an investment that would be applicable in every country where we have operations and have an impact. Like we approach every aspect of our business, the first thing we looked at was data. It was clear for the reasons you mentioned and mrs. Blair mentioned that when you invest in women, they reinvestment in their children and families. That has not only a Multiplier Effect but a multi generational impact. So we launched our initiative providing women with Economic Opportunities. What we found was there was a crucial knowledge gap in knowing which interventions could move the needle the farthest. We teamed up with the United Nations foundation. We looked at all of the empirical evidence and developed a road map for promoting womens Economic Empowerment. This road map identifies nine proven, nine on the scene and potential proven interventions. I could spend all afternoon talking about the research and the road map. That wouldnt be fair to my fellow panelists or you. A few findings would be particularly interesting to this group today and applicable. The first is there are no silver bullets. Those of you in this area understand that intuitively. Thats to say you have to tailor a Program Based on the womans economic status and the country where shes living. A program that works in rural chad may not work in urban lagos for a woman who owns a small business. Secondly, its along the same lines. You have to tailor programs based on the limitations that women have. Whether those are cultural or related to time, poverty or infrastructure. One of the things the study points out is that solar excuse me, not solar technology. Cell phone technology is a way to over come some of the barriers. Its a Cost Effective way to distribute critical Market Information or provide services. Thirdly, we found that for very poor women you need a more comprehensive set of interventions. The work that solar sister is doing is a great example of that. They identify female tech agents. They provide them with an asset which is solar technology. They give business skills training and they further those women by providing mentorship. What we found is through those three the combination of interventions you start to see an impact of oh women being able to earn more income. You talked about solar sister. People are waking up to what it means to invest in women. Talk to me about the work that solar sister is doing. Sure. Thanks. It is addressing with women following the technologies. Let me step back and say why poverty is a womans issue. Im sure you will relate to that. A mother cooking in a smokefilled kitchen, inhaling smoke equivalent to two packs of cigarettes every day because of the inefficient cook stove. Energy poverty is a young girl in africa who cannot catch up with her studies at night. There is no light. Energy poverty is a midwife trying to assist with a difficult birth in utter darkness. I have met midwives in uganda who assisted with difficult births, oldfashioned phones in their mouth, pressing the phone trying to bring a new life into this world. The good news is energy, prosperity is a womans slougs. The good news is we have the Technology Today as i speak to make the change happen. Thats precisely what solar sister is doing by recruiting, training and mentoring women across africa as solar sister. We are bringing light, hope and opportunity to communities. Nora mentioned the critical findings of the road map, the role electrification can play on advancing agriculture and enterprise. We see this in nigeria. We have a retired maternal nurse now delivering babies in bright solarlit rooms using Energy Efficient stoves to boil water in her clinic, saving time and money. We have a basket weaver able to work longer hours now. Shes a user and a seller. We have solar sister from uganda who runs an orphanage. Children with study with bright solar life and Better School results instead of in the dark with dangerous kerosene lanterns, a sample of which you can see. Every solar sister entrepreneur, we see the women of technology and business thats so transformative. We can do it. We can do it now. Transforming has that effect. Lets dig deeper into oh exxon mobiles work in the space. You are investing in supporting programs that provide skills training and utilizing technology to empower and support women in agriculture and business. Help me understand why exxon mobile is doing this. Give me a sense of how the partnerships are effective. We have had a presence for a long time. We go there to develop natural resources. To be successful. We have to bring benefits oh of our business to the local communities. One of the ways is through the Community Investment programs. Its not enough to just write a check. It has to be a partnership with the local organization. Its a multi prong approach to what it means to be a partner. The first is finding the right organization and the right program. The second is to develop the association. Then robust measurement and evaluation. The fourth is to facilitate or help sponsor this where they can show case work and find other partners. Let me give you examples of what im talking about when i say help develop the capacity of an organization. Next month we bring together 26 women from Nine Countries all over africa. To be part of a monthlong global women in management training. We do it this in partnership with plan. They will leave that month of training with a plan on how to strengthen a local organization to benefit the women in the community. They will leave with a network of 25 peers. It has an enormous impact to call on people who have a similar experience as you. We have been working with thunder bird. Sending out to provided a visery services. To help them better identify or develop for expanding or scaling up projects. By providing the capacity. We can see how they are able to better serve their women. Just before they finish. I want to make one quick plug. If you are investing in women you will find this a very easy to use tool. Thats a worthwhile plug. Talk to me about the kinds of Publicprivate Partnerships that are instrumental in solar sisters growth. Sure. We are a startup social enterprise. We started with ten entrepreneurs in 2009. Our goal is to have 5,000 solar sister entrepreneurs in africa in the next ten years. We can clearly not do this alone. If you want to go far, we have to all go together and find out where the synergies lie. Whether its a manufacturer who has come up with a great affordable product. They are trying to figure out how to reach a woman in rural uganda or tanzania be partners. We partner with a womans grassroots organization. The mothers union. Conservation organizations like african Wild Life Foundation in tanzania. They are trying to figure out how we bring livelihood opportunities to the communities. We also work with donors and governments trying to figure out and they share our belief that womens empowerment was not just a gender issue. Its a human rights issue. Whether its livelihood, we need to empower women. Thats where exxon mobile comes in. They were one of the first who believed in our idea and supported us when we were a tiny seed and a brain wave. From that we have become a tiny plant. Our goal is to be a banyan tree. We have a long way to go. Exxon provided vital financial support. While thats crucial, opening the purse itself is not enough. Partnership goes beyond that. To what i say is six degrees of impact. All of you in the room, im sure you know many people through whom we can multiply the combined impact of solar sister. Through the Clinton Global Initiative we work with the Global Alliance for clean cook stoves on improved cooking initiatives. Really that ripple effect, that chain creates massive impact. More than individual parts. Third, capacity building. The Leadership Program nora mentioned. Im happy to say going to the leadership training in cape town. Very soon. Really investing in people. Investing in people in africa. We need this to be driven locally and create the pipeline of talent locally. Through exxon mobile we have partnered with the International Research for women to create a Live Feedback loop to improve our operations. Finally with the thunder bird school of business they came and build the first blueprint of our Training Program with that woman in uganda. We got our first solar brother who is the director of operations and is doing a phenomenal job in our expansion. I just want to urge all of you here. There are many roads the to roam. Many roads to partnerships. In whatever capacity you feel your interest align, maybe you know a womans organization in your country who could benefit with the opportunity. Maybe you know a manufacturer. Maybe you can guide us how to connect Government Programs as health programs, education programs, womens or gender programs. How can we bring them together. I think this is just a small beginning and this dialogue is useful. Inspiring words there. To take your idea of solar sister being a small plant, lets go to agriculture. Thats a terrible segue. We do things like that and we are not that slick. Let me bring in Dow Agrisciences. I saw the statistic i want to share with the audience here. Nearly 1 billion people are food insecure. Our population continues to grow which we all know. In the next decade we need to grow more food. About 70 more. We need more food where there is less land and less water. What is dow doing about the issue of Food Insecurity . Give our audience and those watching via the live web cast a sense of why it is important to have Dow Agrisciences at the table for the conversation. Thank you. As was mentioned Dow Agriscience is owned by the dow company. We are the aggies. The strategy is based on those fundamentals you mentioned. By 2050 the World Population is estimated to exceed 9 billion people. Thats on an increasely constrained plantable. What all of that drives to is on the acres that we have today, we have to get more yield and more production per acre, period. We believe the way to do that is through technology and innovation. Innovation and technology can take on many forms. Its known as improved practices, Higher Quality seed, state of the art biotechnology traits. We have an expert sitting here. It can be Crop Protection products. Innovation is required to get more per acre. Innovation in all four of the areas is what Dow Agriscience does. Its our life blood. Why is that important . The second part of the question. I think it is best summed up in our brand promise. Our brand promise is solutions for the growing world. We believe that. I think it was said earlier by the first ladies that not only can we, but we have a role and a responsibility to help solve the worlds complex problems. We have a role in that. The challenges of the world today are so complex and this is another theme we heard throughout the morning. These problems are so complex none of us no single entity can do it alone. We have to Work Together. Together means with ngos or Research Entities or other governments or the combination of those. At Dow Agrisciences one of the brand values is collaboration. It makes it a natural link to want to be engaged in the Publicprivate Partnerships. And further the progress on complex issues such as food and security together. Another quick examples of those would be things like the Award Program mentioned. Agriculture, r d. Programs like empath in kenya starting with the health focus but where dow is involved is bringing good farming practices to thor farmer or patient farmer as part of em path to help growing conditions to get more yield per acre sustainable. Those are examples. Let me bring you in. You said interesting things. I want your perspective on what you heard there. I was bringing my perspective as an african woman scientist working in africa and as an african farmer. I grew up on a farm. I have been fortunate to be exposed to different sectors, different disciplines. I was fortunate to spend time at Dow Agrisciences for six months. Throughout the experience i have been able to see how powerful the integration of different disciplines and sectors is in creating the relevant innovations which African Agriculture needs to achieve Food Security and modernize the agriculture. Modernizing doesnt necessarily mean bringing African Agriculture to the level where western agriculture is. It means learning from the successes of the western agriculture and utilizing the unique challenges africa has in terms of the culture, environment. The demographics, the talent pool existing there. To create whats relevant for africa. Thats what they need to achieve Food Security they need. Let me also ask you. What you think is key to a Successful Partnership in this particular space involving agriculture. Kay, you can weigh in after shes given her sense of oh things. One of the important issues in creating Effective Partnership partnerships revolves around pharma which is often ignored. The woman farmer knows what she wants to achieve. Knows what her challenges r. Often times things are developed for her. Often shes not able to use them. Its important to center around the woman far that. From the beginning to continue to engage her and incorporate her ideas. Provide the right infrastructure. Just needses to provide an environment where the woman farmer can complement the activities of the male farmer who is there. There ises no reason for them to compete with each other. Its more effective if they complement each other. The private sector has refined their processes. They know how to get things done in a more refined way. They can come in and provide the relevant technologies that the woman farmer needs to provide the right seed to get a harvest even without rain. It ises within africa and surrounds the woman farmer to come up with relevant innovations the woman farmer needs. Giving an example standing for research and development, a word is funded by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation and the United States agency for international development. Its been able to partner with private sectors in different continents. What they do is expose women who are already leaders in the areas. They are already working with Women Farmers to expose them to different disciplines, private sector experiences which enables them to carry research to the next level. They are able to do their work more efficiently and come up with the relevant innovations that the woman farmer needs. I have been fortunate to be part of the team. Kay, do you want to add to that . The benefits, the local benefits. Benefits to the private sector and the company and the partnerships is worth mentioning. We talked about innovation earlier. Innovation for a woman farmer with one acre could be different from a 10,000 hectare brazilian farmer or u. S. Farming operation. Whats powerful to the private sector, also about the partnerships is it gives us the voice of the customer. Damaris knows what the local conditions are, the local needs and knows how to adapt and innovate together whats applicable and relevant to africa. Likewise we have a play with em path and he found its not just farming practices. Its about logistics. There is a benefit on both sides for this. Before i end with both of you, considering the audience i have here which is for spouses. What can they do . What can they do to contribute to lifting up africas agriculture sector. Talk about specific actions they can take . What role do you see them playing in the space . I might mention a couple of things. Damaris is probably more equipped to answer that. Investing in agriculture in africa means sustain abdominal agriculture. Its not about feeding. Its about helping them feed themselves. Wherever that is. Partnering together to learn the best farming practices and what technologies are relevant from africa for africa is where we need your help. Its through these partnerships that allows us to do this. The young population of today that we have at Dow Agrisciences, they care so much so does the old population, by the way cares so much about sustainable agriculture. Its a pillar of our Corporate Social Responsibility along with Stem Education and community success. We know we can have an impact on Food Insecurity, both domestically and globally. What can the first ladies of africa help with . Continued support, awareness, voice. Its support of the partnerships. I will turn it to damaris so she can answer that as well. There is already an existing talent pool of Women Leaders in agriculture. That Team Continues to grow. I feel honored to be part of the team. At the same time there are existing technologies from different sectors. Giving an example of my organization. The institute for the semiarid tropics continuing to work with the native plant Genetic Resources that are available within africa to come up with crops that are resilient, that are able to give a harvest at the end of the day. We have improved varieties. My plea today to the first spotterers who are here, join hands with the existing talent pool so we create a continued movement where Women Farmers are seen as the center and they are promoted. Aspiring young women scientists are mentored and encouraged. They exist in this environment where they believe there is a future in agriculture. They go into creating new innovations. Even by using the existing technologies or creating others through partnership. Doing the work on the ground. You have heard her take that on ground. Think about it. I want to talk about health now and bringing bernard and debra. If i could start with you, you are one of the partners on the ground in kenya. You have a variety of experiences you see. You are in the trenches, so to speak. Talk to me about the challenges for Womens Health care now. Womens health. What they are dealing with and the interest interventions that are working. Thank you. Even though im a man, my work is about women and Childrens Health day to day. Looking at washington this week, there is a positive story about progress being made in africa. Its true for health as well. If you look at the health of everyone we are seeing a lot of progress. By a small subset of people who are not enduring that progress. Thats the woman whos come to deliver in a normal health. Now the mortality rate is for some countries. And how many children die within 24 hours. Its also very sbub born. I dont want us to talk about numbers today. Because its a human thing. When you are in this hospital. When you are in these places and the woman walks away from the hospital after nine months of pregnancy without her baby its really tough. Whats tough is for the family to take the body of the mother and the newborn child to the back of the hospital. So these things are tough. We are not. When it comes to delivery. You need to score 100 . You cant score 90 . Its like a plane on the runway. It either takes off successfully or it crashes. Why is that so . If a woman presented one of those facilities, the doctors are there. The government worked with the partners and the nurses are there. These people become useless suddenly. We introduce, delay and we have to take her to another hospital. Along the way we lose her and we lose the baby. Thats why in our program, we did an analysis. We realize in most of rural africa, you will see people with a huge problem in africa. When you break it down you realize worse off. For every 13 doctors that can perform surgery in rural africa there is only one that can administer anesthesia. So we developed a program supported by the ge foundation. In collaboration with the university of vanderer built in tennessee to train nurses to add minster anesthesia. We hope this program can easily increase the number of Health Workers that can administer anesthesia to solve that problem in most of the rural places. Just this week, they are just going back to the republic of south sudan. Having completed their training in kenya. You might wonder what is 13 or 14 . It sounds like a small number. Believe it or not the country had only three for 10 Million People before this program started. So its a huge increase based on what they had before. But then there is another big problem we face in these hospitals whether its from the government, products or technologies i introduce there or whether they are coming in. More than two years. They break down so frequently the Power Systems dont work. The Health Workers dont know how to use them. They are not well designed for those places. We are also supporting bio medical Training Program that looks at the local people who can be empowered to learn how to use and maintain most of the medical equipment within their local areas. So we gain more from it. Just to see the variation. Typically the medical equipment, new ones coming into a public facility. We worked for two years trouble free. In a private facility they do seven years. Its fascinating and to the point you make about understanding the environment you are working in. Let me bring you in at this critical juncture. We know the impact the partnerships can have for women. And their advancement, health and livelihood. What is ge doing in the space of health and agriculture . Talk to me about that. Sure. I think bernard laid out the problem. Let me talk to you and to the first ladies and first spouses in particular about how we think of the solution. That may frame as you are thinking about platforms. The problem is lack of anesthesia or someone to administer it. The problem is lack of someone to maintain the equipment. From a ge standpoint we have been on the continent of africa for years. The more recent push has been diversity and inclusion. It was the africanamerican employee group. Our own employees who focused on the promise of africa. Focused on the prosperity and the issues. The question asked around the company is what can we do that will have impact. We journeyed to africa and it was threefold. How can we have a capacity building. Its big. How can we have localized impact and Sustainable Health for sustainable outcomes. The programs bernard talks about, we have funded. We think basically allowing people on the continent to learn how to operate machines. How to repair machines really helps to develop skills. It helps keep the machines running more frequently without breakanyone. The anesthesia issue is huge. We found funded a program. We just granule waited the first class of panafrican students who will go out to their home countries and administer anesthesia. We can have a great surgery. If the anderson is wrong youre going to lose the child, the mom. Its huge. Thats what we call not a huge, huge dollar commitment. Its something you can do. My final question is what can these first spouses do to promote maternal health, child health in their respective countries . My previous question to you, i talked about effectiveness. Talk about sustainability. If youre talking about how the first spouses can promote this issue but also be part of sustainable programs. Thank you. I think the story about the mother and the child tends to be hidden. They tease out the problem that we have identified and bring them to the policy level. To areas we are not making progress and putting together the local partner, international partnersings foundations to develop similar initiatives like the ones we have described then i see progress. It can be progress that we can achieve in a very short time. So advocacy for the initiatives, i think, would be a big help for the agenda that we have. I agree with that. It doesnt have to be perfect. You can pilot somewhere. Try it. See how it works. Learn from it. Tweak it. Expand it. Try it again. Dont be afraid. Use your voice. Its got to be about capacity, sustainability. Ge has committed over the last ten years over 120 million on the continent of africa. Largely focused on Womens Health, maternal health. We committed an additional 20 million this week. Just this week. We think this is important, makes sense and its something that can scale. I guess if i were to close to make it simple, most of us since bernard is the man on the panel, most of us have heard the saying if you give a man a fish he can feed his family. If you teach him to fish, et cetera. I will change it today for our purposes. Go ahead. If you give a woman a fish, she can feed her family. If you teach a woman to fish she can feed her village. If you inspire her, empower her, equip her, expand her capacity to fish, she will feed the world. [ applause ] wonderfully said. First of all, thank you to all of you for such great insights and being so specific about whats working and what isnt working. Just really speaking directly to the first spouses about how they can play a role. It doesnt have to be perfect. You can tweak it. You have to get involved and the solutions are there to pick up on what bernard said. The solutions are there. What i took away is its about using the local talent. Using people on the ground. We have talent on the continent, people on the ground. Its about giving them that capacity. Its about them. I was struck by that. Another thing i want to leave with you is the point you made. A good Publicprivate Partnership is not about the purse. It goes down to true engagement and comes down to truly understanding the space you are operating in so you make wise decisions and you do engage the people you are trying to help. Its mutually beneficial for everyone. It works for both sides. There is a lot for you to take away and think about. I think hopefully we have inspired you to get involved. No matter how small. It doesnt have to be perfect. You have to get involved. You have a role to play. You have a special platform. Engages with the private sector and other groups, organizations can really make a huge difference on the ground. You have been fantastic. My thanks to you. That brings it to a close. I want to say thank you for sharing this important conversation with us. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please now welcome ms. Maggie sands, Vice President of international Corporate Affairs at walmart. Hello. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Its an honor to be among so many leaders making a difference across the african continent. I will start with the statistic thats familiar to you. Its been mentioned today already. It bears repeating batzs so important to the context of todays event. More than a billion people live in poverty worldwide, of which 70 are women. I know all of us are working to change this fact. In 2011 walmart and its charitable arm, the Walmart Foundation pledged 100 million to further develop our womens Economic Empowerment initiative which aims to improve the lives of women around the world through work in three key areas sourcing, training, and diversity and inclusion. For walmart, empowering women isnt just about being the right thing to do. Its also smart business. The majority of our 200 million customers are women. Women control 20 trillion worth of annual Consumer Spending globally. Add the this fact that women in emerging markets invest 90 of their income back to family and community. Its clear why empowering women economically builds stronger communities and helps us better understand and serve our customers. One area of walmarts Economic Empowerment initiative thats relevant for many of you in this room today is our focus on Women Farmers in africa. Last year we accelerated the pace of training for farmers by partnering with leading ngos and organizations like usaid. In uganda we funded a project to reach 33,000 women Vegetable Growers through a partnership with mercy corps. By leveraging a dwaets Foundation Project with the World Cocoa Foundation we are reaching 50,000 Women Farmers in cameroon, ghana, ivory coast and nigeria. Outside of farming we are helping African Women survive in a work place that demands new Digital Skills. Our ecommerce business linked up with samisource to train women in uganda on Digital Skills to increase their ability to compete in a global economy. None of this would be possible absent collaboration with ngos on the ground. We know that doing this together is the best way. Today i would like to share a further commitment to workers in africa. Im pleased to announce that walmart and the Walmart Foundation will Fund Training for 135,000 farmers. 80,000 of which are women in africa by 2016. Thank you. [ applause ] well work in partnership with the u. S. Aid and leading ngos to deliver three projects. First, the walmart funding will help support the expansion of u. S. Aid. A program in rwanda to train 50,000 farmers on agriculture techniques. Training will emphasize production of corn, beans, dairy and horticultural crops. In zambia, funding will support the expansion of womens improved marketing and asset control to reach 45,000 farmers. It will empower Women Farmers by building skills and leadership in agriculture. Through training and improved production and post harvest practices, by helping link them to suppliers, buyers and service providers. And through training and business fundamentals. Finally, Walmart Foundation will support the expansion of the one acre fund. Program in kenya to up scale 40,000 farmers. Funds will enable these farmers to improve agriculture practices and increase market access. It is expected to double farm incomes in one planting season. The farmers will receive high quality inputs such as seed and fertilizer and credit and post harvest support allowing them to fully and fairly compete in the value chain. Nel receive appropriate prices for produce to stabilize their economic standing. Through these grants, we continue to express walmarts commitment to africa and empowering africas women. To our partners, thank you for your collaboration, guidance and support. Walmart is excited and hopeful about the difference we can make. Thank you. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome ms. Michelle sullivan, president of Caterpillar Foundation and global director of corporate, social innovation. Thank you, everyone. I would like to thank the first ladies, michelle obama, laura bush, president obama and president bush. Its an honor to be here. I represent the Caterpillar Foundation and our employees around the world. Our mission is to alleviate poverty by investing in those that yield the best results. Thats girls and women. We have learned a lot about them the last few days. We believe that the Perfect Partnership is when you can mix and collaborate with private, the government and ngos to bring the holistic approach to an issue like poverty. We know we cant alleviate poverty ourselves. We are happy to announce our partnership with the state department for 1 million to open the first ever African Center for womens entrepreneurship through the implementing partner of startup. With the entrepreneurial center, it will give women the entrepreneurial tools and resources, leadership and mentor ship they need to create and grow businesses. As the businesses grow the economies grow. Of course that will impact the country and the continent. We truly believe in the women. We believe in the collaboration as the way to go. We are thrilled with the partnership. When you think about lifting up the continent together we can do it for her. We believe to get her stronger. So we believe in the continent. We will be there to support them. We are excited with the partnership with the state department the. Thank you. Flauz [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome heather higen gs botham from management and resources and jamie cooper hone, the Childrens Investment Fund foundation. Good afternoon. [ applause ] today i am pleased to announce a bold new partnership that will save hundreds of thousands of children living with hiv aids. Last year 3. 2 million children under the age of 15 were living with hiv aids globally. 91 of whom were in subsaharan africa. Only 24 of these children were receiving lifesaving antiretro viral therapy. This must change. Without treatment, half of all children living with hiv will die before their second birthday. 80 will die before their fifth birthday. Thats why the u. S. President s emergency plan for aids relief begun by president george w. Bush and in partnership with the Childrens Investment Fund foundation is launching the accelerating childrens hiv aids Treatment Initiative or act. Through act we will double the number of children receiving life saving antiretro viral therapy in ten priority african countries over the next two years. Together, we will invest 2 million in act. This investment will enable 300,000 more children living with hiv to receive a. R. T. Over the next two years. A. C. T. Is the right thing to do. It will save childrens lives. It is the smart thing to do because healthy children who could pursue their dreams are africas future. They will help grow economies, create jobs and contribute to their families and communities for decades to come. Act will contribute to realizing president obama and secretary kerrys vision for achieving an aidsfree generation. We are proud to take this bold step together. We hope other partners including many of you will join us in the fight to make pediatric aids history and invest in the next generation. [ applause ] i am truly honored to be here with you today. Its been almost a decade since the Childrens Investment Fund foundation began its campaign to make antiretro viral treatment available fwloeblly to hivpositive children. At that time there were fewer than 10,000 children on treatment outside the u. S. , europe and brazil. The cost of treatment could be as much as 1500 per child per year. We had little knowledge of what treatment would mean in terms of Life Expectancy and life quality. Today over half a million children are in treatment in africa. The drugs, now cost as little as 100 to keep a child alive for a year. We now know that once on treatment children can lead full and vital lives. We also believe we are within reach of eliminating transmission of hiv aids from mother to child. We have come a long, long way. While this is great progress we still have more to do. Because we are only reaching a quarter of children who need treatment. Adolescent children are the only demographic where the prevalence of aids deaths are increasing. We are proud to be partnering with the u. S. Government and african governments today in this initiative. We are committing to double or close to double within two years. The number of children treated with life saving treatment. I implore of you not only in your role as first ladies but as a mother to mothers to join in us because we dont only need to reach children in ten countries. We can reach children across the continent if we Work Together. Lets help our babies thrive. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. Followed by a special musical performance. What a terrific day. We are about to have a fabulous closing act as well. Thank you for being here. I think it is appropriate before we close to pause and reflect on the amazing work of partners today just with todays announcements. They foster improvements in education, health, Economic Opportunity for more than 1 million African Citizens across the continent as well as new partnerships with pink ribbon, red ribbon and ethiopia and nmibia. We have made so much progress since the first ladieses convened together. Somebody asked if this was an annual event. We are not making news with that. Anyway what is an annual event is the work well do together. Thank you very much. To the ford foundation. Ge. Convoy of hope. Dow agriscience and intel. Thank you for being here. We are thrilled to be partnering with you. We look forward to working with you. Thank you. I want to thank our wonderful african first ladies. You are the reason we put this all together. This was a great opportunity for us all to come together across public and private sectors, governments, foundations experts to consider issues of great importance that we share. One of the things mrs. Obama talks about is how stories here resonate across continue nets, oceans across borders and boundaries. I think we saw that today. Im noting the young people we saw in the videos and our two wonderful Young African leader fellows from the Mandela Fellowship who told their stories and experiences. It only redoubled my personal commitment to making sure we follow through on the tremendous possibilities and promises in front of us. The progress thats demonstrated by commitments that margaret laid out. What we have as the president has been talking about throughout the summit is an opportunity in africa as africa rises. A moment in time where if we all redouble our effortses together we can really see a tremendous growth, tremendous opportunity for all children. Tremendous growth in particular. In addition to my chief of staff to the first lady role i am particularly personally passionate about what we can do and what the world will see when we unleash the True Potential and true talent of women and girls around the globe. I want to thank the Bush Institute. To margaret, charity, mrs. Bushs team. This is not possible without this partnership between the two of us. We are ever so grateful for their leadership in africa. For their great work with us on this. I want to give a final shout out to the kennedy center, such an incredible building. It was perfect for the venue tonight. We are just about ready. As you can tell i have been talking. You are all in for a treat for staying here. After all the great energy we had about lionel richie. Its a great musical week as well. Mrs. Bush wanted to close out the session with the same kind of energy. Just about ready . Yeah, we are, all right. Its my great pleasure. I can introduce singer and song writer anthony hamilton. Thank you. [ applause ] tonight an interview with university of wisconsin president ray cross. Part of the series on universities in the big ten conference. And then her win and Prescription Drug abuse. And an event on alternatives to jail time for drug abusers. Finally a discussion on the Surgeon Generals report on tobacco use in the United States. These programs tonight starting at 8 00 eastern on cspan 3. Campaign 2014 coverage continues tonight with new Jersey Senate debate between cory booker and jeff bell. Its the first and possibly only debate between the candidates after recent poll ping listed the race as solid democrat. See it at 8 00 eastern on cspan. On cspan 2 a georgia tenth congressional house debate between john barrow and rick allen. The rothenburg political report. You can see it at 8 00 eastern. Tonight a South Carolina Senate Debate between gop incumbent tim scott, democrat Joyce Dickerson and independent jill bossy. The first debate between the candidates. Both senate seats are on the ballot. Former senator jim demint resigned to run the Heritage Foundation and senator scoot was selected to fill the remaining two years of the term. See it starting at 9 00 eastern on cspan. Be part of campaign 2014 coverage. Follow us on twitter. Like us on facebook to get debate schedules, clips of key moments, debate previews from the politics team. Cspan is bringing you over a hundred senate, house and governor debates. Share your reactions to what candidates are saying. The battle for control of congress. Stay in touch and engage bile following us on twitter, cspan and like us on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Earlier this week an illinois Senate Debate was held between dick durbin and republican challenger jim oberweiss. It was the first debate between the candidates. Before that, here are recent campaign ads running in the race. I was actually watching the news that day. I heard a report about the taliban claiming responsibility for the helicopter getting shot down in afghanistan. My husband and his gunner were the only survivors. There is really not much about our that is the same. Senator durbin passed a law that provided me with the resources and the training so that i am able to take care of tony at home. For dick durbin, its not about politics. He cares for veterans and their families. I believe its a blessing that i am able to take care of tone in our home with our children where he feels loved. That meant the world to us. Im dick durbin and i am proud to approve this message. Jim oberweis. He believes that lower tax rates and a simpler tax code create more jobs and spur the economy. Many americans are homeless or confused about how to fill out their taxes. He believes this problem can be solved and will do anything he can to solve it. This is why jim will be perfect for the u. S. Senate. 6,000. 100,000. The high cost of college is weighing down the little class. College loans can be refinanced. They can raise thousands of dollars on millions of american faiths. You can refinance a home loan, why not a student loan . I approved this message because illinois deserves a break. Dick durbin has been in washington putting millions in his own pocket. They used the irs to bully opponents and is the father of gridlock and the master of deficit spending. No matter what nice facts he runs, dick durbin broke washington and its time to vote him out. Im jim ober werks ies and i approved this message. You can see the entire debate and over 100 others any time online and on our website. Earlier this month a number of legal scholars gathered with advocates for a discussion on government transparency. Held by the american association, this is about an hour and 35 minutes. The presenters will be giving their perspective on the information law. I have been in the field since 1972 when the field was so obscured and so few people cared about it, when i proposed a book in 1976, the four largest publishers said nobody is ever going to care about privacy and nobody is ever going to care about freedom of information. The book is going strong and its still a very significant item. What occurred in the last year and the background for todays pop cal discussion about developments, whether or not it is happened could be boiled down to two words. Ed snowden. This morning at 4 15 as i was driving to the airport in cincinnati with his presentation, i was listening to the bbc broadcasting and they had on a discussion about privacy. And more specifically, they said whats changed now is the development of big data for a spooky use. Big data in the ed snowden era. Rather than trying to create our own topic, thats about it. We have been talking about big data who is listening to it and generating it and monetizing that big data and what the significance is for individual privacy. Way back when nobody cared and the freedom of information act was the legislation that was never going to go anywhere. The world changed to a dramatic extent to now the International Awareness of u. S. National Security Administration agency and the consequences of that privacy issue is being felt around the world. I am pleased to join with you with the administration and the conference of Administrative Law and i am pleased to introduce the first presenter who has the privacy, the professor from new jersey. Bernie . Thank you and good afternoon. I wont be talking so much about big data for spooky uses, but data for use for you and me. I will be talking about Public Information and access to public documents focusing on a few other ancillary matters and harry will be splitting the possibilities for dealing with the Public Information side of this. So a number of cases i decided this year are too many to summarize and rather extensive summary of many of the cases where they decided to share in the area. I will concentrate in a few cases. Only the records are subject to the issue that have been the course of action versus National Archives and records administration. They start on page 10 of the colors. That involved records and a local sheriff generated as a board member of the First Responders network authority. The u. S. District court in iowa held that the records were federal records and joined county officials from releasing them under the state public records act. An independent authority within the department of commerce is responsible for the aspects of the nationwide Public Safety broadband network. Now the board consists of three cabinet level officials and the 12 members a pointed by the secretary of commerce. The story county sheriff was one of the 12 appointees. Now add to this, the first organic statute exempts it. So fitzgerald received emails from the county email account. The court found that the federal officials were there and the messages regarding first net and the federal records didnt matter if fitzgerald had been appointed to the board due to the status as a local elected official. The court rejected the countys argument that the receipt of emails from first net officials and the email address constituted release to a third party and thus voluntary waiver for the exclusion of exemption. The second case involving Agency Records deals with the National Archives. This is cause of action for the National Archives and roars administration. Here is the d. C. Circuit and held that records of legislative commissions are not records for the purposes. The commission here was the financial prices inquiry commission. Rather than rely on the standard for the factor and tax analyst control test, the journal had the Agency Records and cases and the panel held that the transfer the records to does not have record exempt states. They do not use the documents in any operational mode. In any way comparable to the agency and any control over such documents consists can solely in cataloging and preserving them, not unlike the warehouse. This makes a tax analyst case and after all that test from the first literature and employees of the possession. In the text, we said that the tax analyst cases are divorced from the key objective which is revealing to the believe and now federal