Administrator Samantha Power at a Press Conference in Tanzania

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you so much. Thanks to all of you for joining. And thanks to Tanzania for providing a spectacular backdrop with its great natural beauty.

I've had a productive and very inspiring visit to Tanzania. I have enjoyed getting to both celebrate, and to try to strengthen, the U.S.-Tanzanian relationship and partnership. A partnership that, as you all know, dates back to the earliest days of both an independent Tanzania, and you may not know, to the origins of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, itself. We both were born right around the same time. 

Sixty years ago, almost to the week, President John F. Kennedy hosted President Julius Nyerere at the White House. As he welcomed President Nyerere, President Kennedy expressed his awe at the independence movements of Africa. “History will record,” President Kennedy said, “this past decade in Africa as one of the most astonishing bursts of human energy, human initiative, and responsibility that I think the world has ever known.” And President Kennedy acknowledged that now, at that moment, leaders like Nyerere faced “the great test.” Which was not the decisive, clear cut fight to achieve independence but what President Kennedy described as the slower, messier, more difficult work to “build a cohesive, open society – a free society.” President Kennedy wanted to support that essential mission any way he could. And so he created USAID to help the United States be the best possible partner in this essential, difficult set of tasks ahead. 

For over sixty years, the United States and Tanzania have collaborated to achieve much of this mission – whether by working together to expand infrastructure and build the Tanzania-Zambia Highway; bringing education to rural areas, building schools like Sokoine University of Agriculture, and the teacher training colleges in Iringa and Dar es Salaam; or helping reduce child deaths from malaria by 45 percent in less than a decade. 

For 60 years, Tanzania and the United States have been solving challenges together. Today, Tanzania is again at a moment of opportunity – with leaders taking meaningful steps toward a more open democracy, greater civic space, and these go together: an attractive investment climate.

I've had many conversations with Tanzanians over the past few days about how they view their country's future. I've talked to farmers, government officials, members of civil society, women businesses, and conservation leaders, young people, and more. And I've heard considerable energy and optimism. That said, people are, of course, clear eyed about the challenges ahead, including the challenge posed by climate change – something all our countries share the very difficult task of having to deal with. But where Tanzania, of course, itself contributed very little to creating the problem in the first place. 

Just as we have for 60 years, the United States is committed to supporting efforts here. Yesterday, I had the chance to meet with Vice President Mpango. We celebrated the recently sealed $1.1 billion development objectives agreements. And that is a framework under which we will continue to do what I hope is essential programming in the areas of democracy and governance, agriculture, health, education, climate adaptation, food security – I could go on and on. But also what includes very significant important catalytic programming in the area of economic growth – inclusive economic growth.

We think that President Samia’s commitment to democratic reforms and open engagement has made it possible to expand development cooperation. And certainly it has made my task, and Ambassador Battle, and Secretary Blinken, Vice President Harris, and President Biden's task of encouraging the private sector to look hard at Tanzania as it considers where to make investments. That task has been made easier, and will be made easier, by additional governance reforms. This DOAG, so called, this development agreement, represents a chance to double down on some of the successes that we have achieved together in recent years – particularly in the realms of health, food security, and clean energy.

What I'd like to stress here with you before we open it up for questions, is that I think USAID’s relationship with Tanzania has evolved a lot since those early days, and even, you could say, since just a few years ago. And there are three features of today's relationship between USAID and the Tanzanian people that I would like to stress. And that will, I think, be embodied in the programming that occurs under this new $1.1 billion development agreement. 

First, we at USAID, are very, very cognizant of our ambition, which is for Tanzania to move from aid to trade. I have traveled all around the world, it is extremely rare that I meet anybody who likes the idea of assistance. Assistance has a point. And assistance is often needed when people are vulnerable, or where conditions don't yet exist for the human capital of a community, or a country, to be unlocked. But here, the human capacity, the dedication, the creativity, the entrepreneurship, it is already making a profound difference in fueling economic growth and development here in Tanzania. And we really believe that assistance is catalytic, and is about empowering local change agents who want to work themselves out of assistance relationships. We're not going anywhere, we are here for this partnership. But we recognize that that ambition is more dignity, more economic opportunity, more prosperity, and a trade relationship that will bring inclusive benefits to many citizens. 

Second, to be very, very clear, we know that young people are not the future here in Tanzania, young people are the present. And too often, we talk about a future where young people are going to do this or that. I met, today, with young female farmers who had been involved in some fashion with USAID agricultural programs, maybe they've received a training, or some seed financing. Maybe some of the regulatory reforms that USAID has worked with the government on had benefited them – allowed them to get access to land. Those young women are, as one of them said to me, “I don't want to be an employee, I want to be an employer.” 

And that is what is happening with just the most modest of investments. As I said to these young women, you know, maybe USAID played some role in opening the door a crack, just a little crack. And these young women just went and knocked down the door and now there's no more door – they’re on the other side of the door. So USAID programming in Tanzania has to have young people at the heart of it, and I think that is what we are doing more and more.

The third feature of this relationship that makes it a modern, trailblazing relationship for USAID is we are already looking beyond public sector financing, to public private-partnership. To using our resources as leverage to crowd in other investors, other actors, whether that's a foundation, another donor government, or better yet, local agribusinesses, or local banks who might be encouraged to provide low interest loans to young female farmers like those that I met with. 

So again, I want to stress, moving from aid to trade, investing in young people in the here and now who are going to build that inclusive economy. And looking, always, to see how we can turn our investments into something much more substantial by bringing in the private sector and other investors. 

I will close with just a few examples of this way of partnering, that I think are so exciting. First, some of you might have seen yesterday that I traveled with Vice President Mpango to a hospital in Arusha that, just in the last few months, has set up m-mama – the ride-sharing dispatch service that allows pregnant mothers who are experiencing complications to call trained nurses who are equipped either to connect that mother with ambulance transportation, or – in places where we know ambulances are not likely to be available – taxi rides, community volunteers who've never driven a taxi or an ambulance who want to contribute to saving lives. This program is a flagship public-private partnership. It's not only USAID and the Tanzanian government on the public sector side, but it's also Vodacom Foundation, which has been so, so critical in actually bringing the technology to bear and making a substantial financial investment. 

President Samia is scaling this program, which has reduced maternal mortality in its pilot phase by 38 percent. These are mothers – we will never know which of the mothers are alive today, or which among their newborns are healthy today, because a mother was able to get to a health facility, or get healthcare in time. But we know, again, compared to the baseline, that maternal mortality dropped 38 percent. We are scaling that in partnership with the Tanzanian government, with President Samia’s personal hands-on involvement, to every part of the country, and Zanzibar. 

We are also actually taking it to other countries, because what Tanzania has done here with m-mama is create a template for a life-saving low cost public-private partnership. And I just met, several days ago, with President Ruto, who has embraced this program wholeheartedly, and now we announced, several days ago, that we are taking this program – bringing it to Kenya. So this can be something that Tanzanians, I think, can be very proud of. And again, all of those mothers and newborns saved come from an innovation that was pioneered here in this country. 

I also want to just highlight something else that we are doing that I think combines some of the features of what I've just described, this modern partnership captured in our $1.1 billion DOAG, which is our intention to bring electricity to parts of the country that remain, as we say, suffering energy poverty. And here, very specifically, what we are doing is bringing electricity and telecommunications to 100 rural health facilities. 100 rural health facilities. That's on top of what we do through Power Africa to electrify so many households in this country, using solar and other renewable, cheap, safe, green, clean energy. But I do want to emphasize, again, this particular focus on health facilities and electrification.

So those are just a couple examples along, again, with the Feed the Future program that I mentioned. Those small catalytic investments we make here on behalf of the American people, on behalf, fundamentally, and in partnership with the Tanzanian people. I'm happy to take your questions. I'm happy to touch on any aspect of the relationship between the United States and Tanzania that you're interested in. But in fact, in closing, let me only say, again, that the democratic governance reforms and the economic development agenda go hand in hand. And we are very hopeful about a future that operates on all cylinders in both domains. Thank you.

QUESTION: Well, my name is Rehema Sebabili from TBC1. Tanzania we have a problem with the market [inaudible] agricultural products. You said you want to see Tanzania go from aid to trade. Do you have any plans to become a market for Tanzania’s agricultural products? And the second question, yesterday, you’ve just announced the $5 million funding for food security. Will that include people with a disability in the value chain of agriculture? Thank you.

QUESTION: My name is Leonard Mubali from BBC. Good to hear that Washington has been supporting [inaudible] especially in developing countries. So one thing I wanted to know, for example, today [in June], at the G7 Summit, the President of U.S has announced another $2.76 billion in order to respond to the immediate needs as well as the impact or outcome of ongoing war – Russia and Ukraine. I understand that U.S has been in the front line on this – to intervene, the current situation. So what is the hand to hand efforts to stop the war? And then to cover the gap? Like now we'll have read about these [inaudible] again, to come to cover the gap, which it is outcome of this war. So what is the plan of Washington in stopping the war?

QUESTION: Thank you, Administrator. My name is Nuzulack Dausen, from Reuters in North Africa – I have two questions. First, you mentioned about rural electrification. Most of the young men and women who are investing in clean energy are facing serious shortage of funding for this, meaning grades and other innovation solutions such as sending [inaudible] offered areas. Does USAID have any fund support kind of an investments to this startups? 

Second, we understand that USAID suspended food aid in Ethiopia two days ago pending investigation on diversion of food. Do you have an internal timeframe, like how long would it take? Because there are millions of people suffering there. Thank you.

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Okay, thank you so much for that range of questions. I think we were taking three, but we might have ended up with 33, which is fine. So first, with regard to market access. That's something that I had the chance to speak with farmers about yesterday and today, and clearly is an issue of great concern. What USAID does as part of the partnership mentorship training is we offer support in helping particularly small farmers market their goods. We link them to agro businesses that themselves may already have established export connections. And we often do small things, but that can make a big difference. Like actually transporting those farmers to expos or market fairs that are happening in other countries, so as to alert other countries to all of the fruits of Tanzania's agricultural sector here. 

Those are just a few examples, I think, of the kind of support that these women farmers describe themselves as needing and also as receiving. I think the challenge is scaling that and working with the government, which under President Samia, is tripling its investment in the agricultural sector to expand the number of people that benefit from that kind of trade facilitation or market access facilitation. And so that is the conversation that we are having with the government, is how can we take programming that has been happening here in Tanzania for some time and marry it with the extension services. 

The $5 million I announced yesterday will go in part, as well, to something that could have potentially great regional export potential, which is the creation of a fertilizer hub here. We see one effect of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is increased fertilizer prices. I think Tanzania had long had the ambition to develop some indigenous fertilizer manufacturing capacity. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has only accelerated and deepened interest in that. And so USAID is funding some of the assessments as to how that kind of manufacturing, whether and how that kind of manufacturing capacity can be obtained. 

I’ll just close on that question with one great example I think you now see – well I should say – some years ago, USAID actually brought avocado seeds to Tanzania and I was a personal beneficiary of that program because I have had the chance to sample Tanzania’s incredible avocado here over the last few days. But those avocados that started through some small seed initiative now are being exported to the European Union, to India, to the People's Republic of China and beyond. And so that is an example of, you know, something where you start with the seed, there might be some training and some market access facilitation. And then once those connections are made, again, the quality of the produce that is being made here comes to speak for itself. But we know that it doesn't speak for itself at the beginning. And that's where our support has been helpful in the past. And we think, again, scaling in partnership with the government is very important. 

With regard to people with disabilities – if I understood the second part of your question – in the value chain – I really thank you for the question, it’s not a question we get often – but USAID really believes not only in development, not only in sustainable development, but we believe in sustainable inclusive development. And we recognize that it is not a level playing field for people with disabilities in terms of social stigma, in terms of all of the deterrence, that are experienced by people with disabilities at every stage of their personhood at every stage of their education, of their efforts at employment. So we work with governments like that here on disability rights and regulations as part of our governance and our rule of law agenda. But we also, through our program, really try to go out of our way to make sure that the programs are representative of the broadest spectrum of communities. And that includes vulnerable communities and marginalized communities and certainly people with disabilities are among them. You know – with regard to specifics – I would ask maybe if you want to follow up with the embassy or with our press team. 

If I understood my BBC colleague’s question, when you describe the gap of funding, you were describing the gap in Africa, is that is that what you meant? The gap that was generated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and then what are we doing to help soften the blow in a sense or redress that circumstance? Well, let me start just by saying that there is one very straightforward way that the war can come to an end, which is that the Russian Federation, which invaded its neighbor, could leave the country that it invaded. I know that's kind of simple, and may sound naïve,, but it is very important to underscore, even now as we move deeper into the second year of this full scale invasion how it all began. It all began because a massive number of armed columns, backed by ferocious airpower and missile strikes invaded its neighbor. And I know that the people of Tanzania can imagine what something like that would feel like and how horrific something like that is. You go to bed one night and your country is at peace – or the vast majority of your country is at peace – and then suddenly, you know, in the capital of your country, or here in Dar es Salam – the former capital of your country – just getting pulverized by heavy weaponry by a neighbor. I mean, it is unfathomable and devastating. And compounding the devastation to the people of Ukraine who have had to endure that war of aggression is what you describe, which is the knock on effects of the collateral damage caused by Putin's invasion of Ukraine – Ukraine being one of the breadbaskets of the world – on food security, for example, on fertilizer prices, on supply chains. 

You asked a straightforward question about what are we doing? Well, the United States has long been the largest humanitarian donor in the world – and that's in terms of emergency relief assistance. Last year, we shattered all records in terms of how much we contributed to humanitarian assistance. The figure is a staggering $12 billion, is how much we provided. And that dwarfs the humanitarian assistance that we are providing inside Ukraine, the vast majority of that $12 billion in humanitarian assistance has flowed to Africa – specifically to sub-Saharan Africa – so that's one example. But more than that, we recognize that just as I was saying earlier, emergency assistance is not what people are really looking for – they might need it to be able to get through a month or to be able to feed their severely acute, malnourished child – they absolutely need it, we want to provide it. 

But what they are looking for are drought resistant seeds, drip irrigation, solar panels –  to be able to pump water in an enduring way. Reskilling, you know, if you're a pastoralist, and you've lost all of your livestock, because of climate change, or because of five straight failed rainy seasons – which is what the Horn of Africa has endured – you got to look at your kids and say, ‘how are they going to get a different kind of livelihood?’ You know, if I'm a pastoralist, I may not get my camels, my goats, my cows, they may not be coming back, what is the means of preparing those communities to adapt to these very extreme weather patterns that are more and more intense. And that's not just, you know, in the Horn of Africa, I've talked to farmers here who are describing these incredible market opportunities for their produce, but also the unpredictability of weather patterns that are making it very hard to plan. So one of the things that USAID has done alongside the emergency humanitarian assistance is make available more than $2 billion dollars in food security assistance.

Some of that is through our pre-existing Feed the Future program, but a lot of it is new resources. Here in Tanzania, I announced yesterday, an additional $5 million for food security, you know, climate adaptation, agricultural investment, investment in the fertilizer hub, as well as that unfolds. That's on top of the $14 million that we had already invested in the last nine months in the agricultural sector. So those are examples of ways in which we’re seeing, again, the pre-existing condition – which is climate change – compounded by Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and the spike in fertilizer, and food prices, which has really expanded hunger in sub-Saharan Africa. We have tried to do both things at once, which is surge our food security, our resilience resourcing for these longer term programs, and we make sure that when someone is starving or mothers are not able to feed her child that we have resources to help them get through the crisis phase, so as to be able to benefit ultimately from these these other programs. 

Finally, in terms of the funding to support startups, this is a very, very important piece of what we at USAID are trying to do more of. We have created a new public-private fund called the EDGE fund, which is an example of a mechanism for us to go to private sector actors and provide, you know, modest resources ourselves, to encourage private sector actors to come to a place like Tanzania and to look at what young people are creating and offering.

I actually think m-mama – which is, of course, you know, fundamentally a government program and a health program – but it's a really interesting part now of Tanzania's brand, and it's something that when I am next in Silicon Valley, I look forward to describing you know, just how entrepreneurial Tanzania has been, and President Samia and her team have been in harnessing the power of technology to solve, you know, a really challenging health issue. So we will take the examples – including those, again, in the agricultural sector – take those on the road, try to draw additional venture capital, and other forms of investment here to Tanzania. 

And then lastly, on the suspension of food assistance in Ethiopia, let me make a few comments. First, all of our non-food assistance is flowing in Ethiopia, and indeed, USAID investments in Ethiopia last year in the development sector – whether health, clean energy, agriculture, support for SMEs education – we actually made our most substantial investments over the last year than we have in the entire history of the U.S.-Ethiopian relationship. And because there is no evidence of corruption or diversion in our programming, we are, of course, continuing it. 

The challenge, when it comes to what we have learned about our food assistance, is that you are absolutely right about the food needs in Ethiopia. It has been a really difficult – devastating, really – two years in Ethiopia first because of the war in Tigray, and then again, five straight failed rainy seasons. But what we have uncovered, unfortunately, through a very comprehensive investigation, is that the food that we were providing, much of it was not actually going to those hungry people. And, you know, until and unless we can fix the system to make sure that the people who are hungry – the very people that you're talking about are getting the food – you know, it is very hard right now to have confidence that the food is reaching those very, very vulnerable beneficiaries. 

My hope is that we, together with our Ethiopian partners, undertake the most rapid reform effort possible. We want to restart food assistance as soon as we have confidence that will reach Ethiopia's hungry people, and not those who actually outrageously at a time of acute need, took the food and used it for their own personal profit. The fact that there – and I want to be very clear – that is where the pressure and the attention should be. Because, you know, again the details on this are still being investigated and I know the government is doing its own investigation. But the fact that when the Ethiopian people were suffering such acute food needs, the fact that individuals could exploit that vulnerability for their own personal profit is devastating. And we know how many people there are who are horrified by this and who want to fix the system so that food can reach beneficiaries with the urgency and the reliability that the food crisis demands.

MODERATOR: Thank you Administrator. We’ll take some more questions. We can start with this side then move to that side. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello, thank you so much. My name is Krants Mwantapele and also I'm the chairman for Young CEOs for Tanzania. My question is, so how does USAID ensure the sustainability impacts of this digital transformation, because we now have to transform to the digital transformation. So, there is in it specific strategies or initiative that's align with this digital transformation? Especially because most of the countries are now shifting to digital transformation? How does USAID align with digital transformation?

QUESTION: My name is Maureen Odunga. I write for the Daily News. Very much pleased to hear that the m-mama program has helped the country reduce maternal mortality by 38 percent. And very pleased to hear that you saying that young people in Tanzania [inaudible]. Now have young people include girls here in Tanzania who face a lot of challenges, especially the teenage parents, whereby we encounter these 22 percent of girls, I mean, the statistics show that those two percent, those teenage pregnancies. Now, my question is that I'd like to know whether USAID have any specific programs or interventions that need to help these girls to find issues of teenage pregnancies in order to reach these goals of being there? I mean, the contributors of the economy of the country. Thank you.

QUESTION: My name is Ezekiel Mwambopo with Channel 10 Television. My question is it was supposed to [inaudible] because it depends on technologies because I’ve been asking people in Tanzania. Now technology advances a lot, needs a lot of advancements. So now what I know is that this partnership between Tanzania, USA or USAID, in particular, will help to make this development sustainable through the new technologies.

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much. So I think I'm not sure that I think the first and the third questions were similar. And next to me, here is Kate, our USAID mission director, who has done such tremendous work and gives me a chance to thank her publicly because after several years she is moving on, but has made a tremendous difference.

First, sustainability stems in part by, you know, moving to a model where our developing system goes to local partners and local organizations. So we are traditionally an organization and agency that has invested largely through international partners who then work with the communities. We are shifting resources more and more to local organizations, local business leaders. That's a slow process, because working with USAID requires filling out a lot of paperwork and meeting certain compliance standards and for small organizations in particular, that can be challenging. But our mission here in Tanzania has made very, very substantial progress in overcoming those challenges. 

With regard to tech, specifically, you know, I think Vice President Harris announced the creation of a new fund as it relates to women and tech. So I think there will be new resources brought to bear – the details on that are still being worked through. You know, we look for opportunities, as well, you know, I mentioned the electrification of health facilities, but also that part of the objective around that initiative is to bring telecommunications as well. M-mama right now, is an example of a program that takes advantage of an app. You could go on your phone right now and we could see how many women in distress have called m-mama and where they are in their transportation journey. But I think for most health professionals who use m-mama, they say to themselves, “oh gosh, I wish I had this level of digital sophistication and interface for the full records of the patient, you know, to take the paper record and turn it into digitized health records.” And so that is something you know, through our PEPFAR program, and our investments which we are surging in healthcare worker training, we are working to do more and more. 

And then, you know, the digital space is, of course, a perfect candidate for venture investment. And so part of what our Mission does – just as we connect avocado farmers to markets abroad – to try to bring venture delegations to use a program we have called Prosper Africa, to take advantage of diaspora connections as well, to draw investment, not only again, to state-based digitization, or government programming, that makes the digital a feature of all government activity. But also, you know, ensuring that those young people principally who are bringing new ideas to bear new startups – new digital startups – taking advantage of these tools to enhance welfare of citizens that they have some support at the various stages of the development and bringing to market process. 

With regard to teenage pregnancy, I just asked Kate, just wanted to make sure we have the name of the program, I think our first – I can’t read her handwriting – Mwnamke Imara. So that is a program to support women and girls who are suffering specifically gender based violence. And then we have the program that I got to have a taste of today, which is a youth initiative as part of our Feed the Future program, where we go specifically to try to recruit young girls who are out of school. In some cases, we met one girl who really had been almost disowned by her family because she had become pregnant. And we actually seek out those kinds of individuals to become part of our farmer training program. 

And so today, of the small group of six or seven young women that we met, two in fact were those who had suffered teenage pregnancies, or I should say, suffer the consequences of becoming pregnant, while teenagers and now they are successful farmers. In one case, I think employing dozens of fellow Tanzanians and another, growing her business steadily and getting to more than a dozen employees. So those are two examples. 

Obviously through PEPFAR, as well, there is a lot of engagement with community health workers and you know, I know this is also something very important for the Tanzanian government and so working in support of that as well is something that we do.

MODERATOR: Alright well thank you so much, everyone.

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you.