expanding access to basic education and improvements in ma turn and infant mortality rates. new enterprises and all these success stories underscored when executed properly and in close alignment with the united states can make a huge difference in development. the challenge is to learn from these lessons and focus on what is necessary, achievable and sustainable given limited resources in the changing political and security environment in afghanistan. i have continuing concerns that achieving those standards is increasingly slipping out of our grasp. our civilians are operating in a challenging environment and assumed risk in support of the president's strategy for afghanistan. since 2003, 387 u.s. aid partners have been killed in action and 658 wounded in action. their safety must be our utmost concern. as we begin the challenge of

transition, unity of effort will be critical to getting it right. if the civilian program lacks goals and needs to be scaled back, no other actors should take over that effort. we must keep the governance and gender integration at the core of our work. u.s. spending has been a frequent target of lawmakers. if the united states is to remain a global power, it must sustain investments and foreign aid commensurate with the international interests. as secretary clinton put it before this committee, this is a down payment on america's leadership in a fast-changing world rather than slashing america's budget, we should work with the administration to focus on reforming the international affairs budget, especially to ensure that foreign aid is used efficiently to continue to have a great impact. i look forward to working with you and your team and look forward to your testimony. with that, let me turn to the

senator. >> thank you very much and i join you in your praise and memory of our colleague i know i had the privilege of being with them in other instances of his services in the foreign policy of our country and especially in africa. we will miss him. it's a special joy to welcome you. your willingness to undertake that awesome responsibility. you are before the committee here today. as i emphasized in your hearing before the committee last week, we received budget testimony amid continued challenges here at home with the unemployment rate for americans at 8.3%

nationally and 9% in my home state of indiana, our national debt has grown to more than $15 trillion. this scenario brings great pressure on our financial obligations and places our entire economy at risk. the dollars available for global developments will necessarily be limited. the task before us is asked whether our government is using the dollars as efficiently as possible to achieve the most benefits for u.s. foreign policy and development goals. they should be sustainable development and promote self sufficiency and produces demonstratable results and support the strengthening of democracies and promote the rule of law. as a path allows nations to become effective, trading

partners and on the world stage, it is important that we be of assistance. the administration has identified global food security, global health, and global climate change as the highest priorities for our development assistance this year. historically there has been broad support for participation to feed vulnerable population on combat infectious diseases. i will be interested to learn and agree to which our food programs have engaged our own farmers and are highly regarded agricultural research institutions to achieve greater productivity and higher yields in countries struggling with food insecurity. the administration's expansion of global health investments beyond those established raise several questions. is the priority of the global health initiative combatting and

preventing infectious diseases or is it building local health infrastructures and capacity? how is the agency setting priorities? what ways are policies moving to country ownership? what is our strategy and time table for turning those responsibilities over to recipient countries? as the administrator knows, i had misgivings about the new global climate change initiative. under this budget would receive $470 million. i raised questions about the rational behind the program and a number of projects proposed. especially in the subcategory of adaptation. my concern is being asked to devote resources to a politically determined objective rather than to maximizing development impact. in other words, if there were not a climate change initiative,

would all of these projects be worth y on their developmental merits. it is not going to yield significant global climatology benefits. their own literature does not seem that make that. the benefits of the projects are meant to be local. if that's the case, we should be applying rigorous standards on that basis to every development dollar spent. they are still fundamental to the human condition and so obstructive in the advancement of societies, their connection to basic development gels is apparent. in my observation, adaptation under the climate change initiative have a basic connection and their results will be more difficult to measure. my intent to be to ask the

office to examine the program and the standards being applied to it and whether projections will yield results that justify the expense, especially at a time of diminishing resources. in closing as i did with secretary clinton last week, i would like to express appreciation to the men and women of u.s. aid which under very difficult and sometimes threatening conditions to carry out our nation's programs abroad. they are dedicated public servants and we are deeply grateful for their willingness to serve. i will look forward to hearing the administrator and our further discussion. i thank you again. >> thank you. i would be grad to hear from you, dr. shaw. >> thank you chairman and ranking members of the committee. i am genuinely honored to have the opportunity to be here and look forward to your guidance and our discussion on the president's fy 13 budget request

for u.s. aid. i want to take a moment to recognize representative payne. he took time to offer specific council to me and to our staff on regular basis and visited nearly every african mission and we were proud to be able to support a modest fellowship to improve our efforts to build a diverse workforce in partnership with his efforts and ideas. two years ago, president obama and secretary clinton asked us to elevate development as a core part of our national security and foreign policy strategy. we recognize that this work is so important that it required us to do things differently. it required us to be more responsive to national security priorities and more effective in foreign policy priority context while being much more results oriented and efficient in achieving core development results in food, security,

health, water and sanitation, education, humanitarian assistance and resilience to climate change and governance and basic respect for human rights. in this budget request, we believe we have made tough choices. choices that are leading us to focus and concentrate our investments where we can generate the most value for every taxpayer dollar that is invested. in areas like food and health, we have taken extra efforts to cut programs and reallocate resources to those specific countries where we think we can get the most results for every dollar that we invest. our maternal health program has been reduced to 24 priority countries in order to support those places where the burden of disease is highest and we can get the most results. our feed the future program closed out efforts in kosovo,

serbia and ukraine to reinvest where we think we can generate the biggest impact. this approach is hall mark of our u.s. aid forward reforms. the president has issued a policy directive and the secretary and i launched and out of that came the u.s. aid reform package. those reforms involve investments in science and technology to lower the cost structure in our work and we are starting to see real results from that. new technologies that for example help babies breathe and save lives in the first 48 to 72 hours of birth and very difficult settings are already making a big difference. we focus more on monitoring an evaluation and the american evaluation association recognized our efforts and called them a gold standard for the federal government and suggested that other parts of the federal government may take a similar approach. we are proud of that and this year will be publishing more

than 200 independently peer reviewed evaluations publicly on our website so american taxpayers and everyone else can see what results we are getting for the resources we invest. fundamental to our reforeigns, we changed our model of partnership to work directly and effectively with faith-based institutions and private sector companies and universities that have technology and ideas to add and most importantly with a brought range of local institutions and civil society groups and local businesses and banks and more directly with governments. these efforts are designed to help us be more efficient and provide just one example in senegal by restructuring our education program to work with local institutions, we brought the cost down by 55% and allowed us to build twice as many schools for the same amount of money that results in more girls getting an education. this budget includes a focus on

the top priorities. the state aid budget request is say $770 million fund to support and provide the responsiveness necessary to respond to the situation in the arab spring. in front line states like iraq, afghanistan and pakistan, we implement reforms focussed on accountability and making sure we make our work and the footprint of our work sustainable and doing what we can to ensure that those societies and countries have a pathway to success without long-term u.s. assistance and engagement. we believe as you mentioned that there have been significant results and the challenge will be ensuring that they are sustained through a broad international partnership and investment and responsibility. our core priorities are also represented in the budget. global health budget request of

$7.9 billion is the largest single item in the budget and allows us to achieve the goals we laid out in specific terms. the president's program for aids relief will be able to treat more than 6 million patients and be on a path to put more than six million on treatment while maintaining commitments to make sure we reach every pregnant woman with that is hiv positive with drugs to prevent the transmission to children will be able to meet the program objectives in the malaria program in which we have already seen more than 30% reductions in child mortality related to one of the most efficient global health programs out there. we believe there are major new opportunities on the horizon. with the lowering of the cost in terms of saving children's lives and mother's lives and we are focused on achieving the opportunities in a

results-oriented manner. our food programs have represented a new way of doing business over the past two to years. the program that we call feed the future helped to work in nearly 20 countries to expand access and has done so by engaging local u.s. institutions that have technology to add, including u.s. universities and farmers groups. the program is now generating specific results. in haiti, we see de vries yields increase by 170%. in kenya, 90,000 house holes have experienced an income increase of more than $14 million on an annual basis. bangladesh for the first time in three decades has enough de vries to feed itself. overall since feed the future was launched, we have seen in the countries and agricultural productivity increase 5.8%, more than eight times the global

average of 0.7%. because of a more structured and results oriented focus on nutrition, we see the rate of child stunting go down. it's those types of results that we hope to speak more about and deliver more effectively in a more transparent manner through the overall efforts and through these initiatives. i would like to close by thanking our staff. we have asked our staff to do extraordinary things and very challenging and often dangerous environments. we appreciate your mentioning the issue of how many staff have lost lives or our partners have lost lives. perhaps the most telling moment was at the end of a conference that we held, the first since i have been administrator with our mission director and our leaders around the world. we talked through the reforms and initiatives and the more results-oriented approach. at the end of the conference, a number of them said they were committed to take these reforms

forward, even though it means more work and it's often meaning more uncertainty and changing the way we work because they saw value in it and by doing so we could genuinely be the world's premier agency in this country and they deserve to have an institution that perform at that level. thank you and i look forward to taking your questions and learning from you. >> thank you very much for that update on the budget. i join the senator in complimenting the dedicated people that you have working for you under extremely difficult circumstances. i had a chance to meet with your mission leaders and they are incredible people and i applaud you for the people working with you on this. i want to talk about the overall budget problems. you certainly put a good face on, but the truth is that the budget is tight. it's basically a no growth budget. you have to make very difficult decisions.

so far you indicated that you want to be more efficient and you want to be more efficient. your example is impressive. we also know that you are moving forward with new initiatives as you indicated. the mideast and the initiative there, there is additional resources being made available in several areas. last yore in a speech that you made to the senator for global development on the modern development enterprise, you mentioned by 2015, u.s. aid could graduate in at least seven countries and you can give us an update as to with this tough budget and i'm who would like to see you have a larger budget, what type of programs are likely to see or might have to be compromised in order to be able to meet the highest priorities that we have and knowing full well that efficiency can only

take you so far? >> well, thank you, senator. i think this budget represents our best effort to focus and concentrate. we cut or reduced more than 165 specific programs. we made real reductions in each area where we work to concentrate our resources. i mentioned maternal health where we shut down 20 or 25 country program and in order to reallocate where the burden of disease was higher and where we felt we could generate more lives saved with the investment of the same dollars. we are on path as i mentioned in that speech to close out a number of our missions to places like panama and montenegro to take on the costs of doing what we were doing. that transitioned to country ownership and responsibility as a major part of the strategy and we think of that as success when we are able to achieve that out come. there 11 more where we are

reducing our expenditures significantly and will go down to zero as the countries take on more responsibility. part of it is a geographic focus and reallocation. many of the results oriented initiative by focusing in places where the problems are acute and solvable are investing resources in africa and perhaps at the expense of other regions and geographies. these are trade offs we need to make. some are around different issues and topics. we have reduced in this budget commitments to certain parts of our environmental portfolio in order to focus on delivering human outcomes in a clear and specific way. when we are forced to do that, we try hard to make sure we work with our partners and explore weather others can take up the burdens of the costs and the programs so that the benefits don't go away. we had to make those tough sd g

decisions. >> they want to make aid more transparent and a goal that we both agree transparency is important so that we can trace how the funds are being used and part of that is to deal with the corruption in the countries that are around the world and protect whistle blowers who can make sure that our funds are being used for intended purpose. can you give us an update as to how you are advancing transparency and u.s. aid and the goal of where sustainable governments where the hundred dollars are being used for the people. >> well, thank you. i think this has been an area where we really tried to move from being seen as in transgent in the global community to being the world leader in the global community. we signed on to join the international aid transparency initiative which is the premier

entity that sets standards for investment transparency and we announce that in south korea recently. we launched the foreign assistance website that puts all of our expenditures and obligations for every country by sector so there is clarity of where the resources are going. we are testing different strategies to use our website and to use different programs in country to expand transparency and i would highlight the new pakistan country website that lists every program that we support in pakistan. it has a way to go and can get better and we will be relaunching completely this june and i think that will improve. people can click through and see every program we have everywhere. we will be launching a valuation database. all of the valuations are made public within three months and there will be no effort to edit the independently conducted

evaluations and they will be part of a public database and we will have 250 of those evaluations. it will be the largest and most significant repository of real evaluation data on development programs of any institution worldwide. we are proud of what we are trying to do and we have a long way to go. >> please keep us informed. there is a great deal of interest. i mentioned in my opening statement the initiative on gender equality for focus on women and girls. would you bring us up to date briefly as to how you are integrating that priority into all of the u.s. aid programs? >> sure. we launched a new policy as you mentioned just last week that is a combination of more than a year's worth of work to make sure we integrate gender programming and everything we do. the challenge has not been knowing that's the right thing to do and the challenge is for

this field operationalizi izizi. this was the first effort to achieve that goal. in agriculture and health and education and countering and trafficking in persons and all of these areas, we will measure with specificity the impact on women and girls. for example in agriculture we launched a women's empowerment index which is a sophisticated tool for generating data on how the programs help women and where they don't. those measurements and policy tools make a difference and that's part of activities by the gender office. they represent and it is making a very, very big difference. >> thank you. >> mr. chairman, are you going to stay hope to questions? >> yes, we will be open for the

record. >> doctor shaw, you mentioned the great advances in productivity worldwide. at least i recorded dramatic increases. let me ask the fundamental question. one of the great disputes in the past with the advance has been resistance of modified seed. this has come perhaps because of european influence on african countries. that influence was such that productivity increases were deminimus and the case of bad weather was disastrous. i'm curious how you have overcome that resistance which is still the case in many economies as i visit with german

farmers or even in ukraine. that this generally affects the soils and the waters and is a hazard i find apart from the boost in nutrition. can you describe your success or how you have moved in this case? >> thank you, senator. we have as we discussed previously been focused on making sure we use all available appropriate technology to help in particular vulnerable small scale farmers, most of hume, 70% of what do you mean of women improved production of food and that is correlated with improved human out comes and child nutrition. our strategy here has been one of engaming real partnerships with countries. today we are actually testing both hybrid conventional and

technologies on the ground with countries on their research stations at their leadership. once african scientists and scientific institutions develop their own products that have a broad range of technologies and ought to have the capacity and the regulatory awareness and the ability to make their own judgments about what technologies are appropriate as opposed to taking guidance from outside partners whether it's the european partners or anyone else. i think we have seen in places like tanzania where we have been engaging that way. a change in the mind set and eagerness to use the improved seeds. they are mostly conventional improved, but yielding real results and the tripling of maize in kenya. there seed varieties that are ready for introduction and it will be a slow and steady process. i don't think we have overcome it completely, but we are

focused on making sure that farmers have the tools and technologies that help them escape poverty. >> i appreciate that. i have an emotional bias and my own farm, we are getting 400% more production than my dad did 50 years ago. i have seen in my lifetime a change on the same acreage with the change in seed and fertilizer and cultural methods and that kind of change worldwide would make an enormous difference in human kind. you have an influence right now to be able to make it through those breakthroughs. they have good data and more power to you and moving ahead in a humane way. i am curious on the health front to what extent the changes occur there that the people is changing in terms of the recipients of u.s. aid support

with the health and the building of institutions that are going to continue that work after u.s. aid no longer has a flow of cash coming in. i know you are working on this, but what sort of markers can you give us of progress? >> this is a central part of our strategy and entire strategy with how we work. i would preface by saying before we invest in local institutions for the purpose of building up capacity and their experience and delivering services and using new vaccines or new improved insecticides, we do an assessment to make sure we can vouch for the accountability and the resources that they are not lost or stolen and they are generating results. that said, i think the big defining trend over the next to ten years will be countries taking more direct

responsibility for providing health services to their populations. we can play a critical role in starting the process and so we are focused on doing that. some countries are doing an effective job of that. one example of success is afghanistan. seven or years ago we made the determination to build up the ministry and today we now have data that shows over years, afghanistan is seeing the most rapid reduction of any country on the planet and a huge reduction in child mortality and has a ministry that is essentially in charge of their health system. they need a lot of help from outside partners and secures finance. that's the pathway to sustainability and people would not have thought eight or nine years ago when they had no capacity to do this that this would be one of the biggest success stories in the global arena.