i voice these concerns as a friend of usaid and the state department and as someone who does not attempt to diminish the potential impact of climate change or the opinions of scientific research on the subject. my concern is simply that climate change projects are among the least likely to offer measurable development results and the most likely to be politically motivated. i don't doubt that some of these projects will produce results and some may be a top priority in recipient countries or region. i also understand that some climate change projects are focused heavily on food production or disease prevention. but if we accept the development dollars should be going to projects that were produced the most potent and most demonstratable approach, the standards are high.

if $10 million is spent on malnutrition, we must be able to democrats straight that those dollars will produce a better result than what could be produced through alternative initiatives relative to agriculture development and disease prevention. my hope is simply that usaid and state department will examine proposed climate change projects under these exacting perimeters. i frequently have asserted that the united states should maintain a unique leadership role in global food security. throughout our history as a nation, we have developed fertile crop land, improved efficiency through technology and benefits from the green revolution and enormous increases in crop yield. i've seen these on my own farm in indiana. we have developed efficient systems for trade and

humanitarian purposes. our agriculture resources at land grant universities are the best in the world and they continually improve seed production. they address the impacts of pests and diseases. we know this sector and we can perform extremely well in it. we continue to lead the world in our shipments of humanitarian food assistance. and have now begun to focus extending our agricultural knowledge through the administration's feed the future initiative, which i strongly support. further agricultural results are subject to close measurement and food can be the basis on which other development sectors are built. i believe all of these factors translate into an american comparative advantage in global agricultural development and we should leverage to maximum effect. i appreciate very much

administrator shah's deep expertise in this area. i anticipate even greater food security achievements by usaid in the coming years. i applaud the commitment that each of you has made global development and many of you have been engaged in development work for decades under difficult circumstances. i admire your courage, your compassion, your skill as you continue to find new ways to development results. as you come together to share that wisdom with each other. i look forward in every way to supporting your work during my remaining months in the senate and in the coming years and i say simply more power to all of you. thank you very much. [ applause ]

>> and now the presidents of liberia, malawi and kosovo discuss what it is like to lead their developmenti ining counti and why they think women make better leaders. this is about an hour and 20 minutes. [ applause ] good morning, everyone. i'm judy woodruff of pbs. i'm honored to be here this morning with such a distingui distinguished panel of leaders and to be participating in this important conference on the future of development as it inter60s with democracy and with the issues of security in the 21st century. at a time when the world is growing not only more complex

but more and more interconnected, we know that it is more critical than ever to pay attention to the needs of every country for as we have learned as one nation and its people are in distress, there are repercussions for the entire region, surrounding and ultimately for the entire world. this morning we are so fortunate to have with us three current and two former heads of state all women who play or have played instrumental roles in leading their own countries through historic transitions and over key hurdles in development. of the 197 countries in the world, only eight of them today are led by women. so to have three of them together at one time is unusual and it is a great opportunity for all of us here this morning. each one of them as you can imagine has an important and

distinct vantage point based on her experiences. nice to say that. her own. we expect to learn from each of them. i will briefly introduce them beginning on my immediate -- in the center -- i will start. on my right with the president of malawi joyce banda. in the center here. [ applause ] >> to my immediate right, you recognize her ellen johnson, the president of liberia. [ applause ] and to my left, my immediate left, the president of kosovo. [ applause

[ applause ] >> on my far right is the former president of ireland, mary robinson. she's today the president of the mary robinson foundation for climate justice. [ applause ] and on my far left and on your far right, the administrator of the united nations development program, administrator helen clark, the former prime minister of new zealand. [ applause ] so it is an extraordinary group. i want to begin with an unconventional question before we get into the very important topic that we're discussing this morning. i want to ask each one of these leaders to just give us the heads of state to give us a fact or two about your country, the

people of your country, that maybe many of us don't know because we haven't been there. president ellen johnson surleaf, i'm going start with you. >> liberia is a country that experienced two decades of civil conflict resulting in dysfunctional institutions, destroyed infrastructure, young people bypassed by education and training, a lot of despair. six years we've tried to fix it. we've brought back hope. we've got the young people back in school repairing the infrastructure and ensuring that institutions function again and so the country was full of despair and lack of confidence

and lack of hope but one today that now sees a future in which everyone has a stake. a future in which they can participate and i might say one that has the ambition to become a post-conflict success story. >> wonderful. [ applause ] >> what about kosovo? what do you love about your country? tell us something about kosovo. >> kosovo for the ones that don't have so much information is a country which had a war in conflict involved 13 years ago and as we sit here today, we celebrate in my country 13 years of the end of the conflict and war and entry of the nato troops, which has been supporting not only maintaining but peace and stability but also

with international community playing a tremendous role of the process of the state of building for my country. this past 13 years has not been easy particularly in the beginning on the trying to get over from the consequences that were left out of the war that had hundreds of thousands of houses burned and thousands of people massacred and killed and over 20,000 women which have been raped. the first years have been a difficult time of trying to cope with all of this but at the same time paralleling trying to build the country in order to overcome this consequence much quicker and to have stabilized process in place. and today 13 years after being the first woman president is something that i am so proud of every time i go out of the

country and come in the country and it is youth of my country. kosovo is not only the youngest country in the world but has one of the youngest population, which has about 60% of the population which raises from 26 to 35 of age which is well educated and well trained and with innovation forward so it's onab obligation for me and leads within my country to provide a better future for them. i will not find peace for myself before i set the proper foundation so this young population will have a better future. >> thank you. thank you. >> the president of malawi, joyce banda. >> thank you, judy. i come from malawi in a country

of 13.5 million people. 60% live under the poverty line. but one thing about malawian people is they are resilient and clear about what they want to achieve. they live in a country for three years that had lost direction where leadership was corrupt, where leadership was abusing human rights. what i love most about malawian people is because they knew what they wanted for themselves, there were eight hours where constitution could have been abused and denied the opportunity to lead just because i'm a woman, they stood firm and respected their constitution and we had a peaceful transition and

they elected a woman and some parts of the world still struggling get a woman into leadership but here i am. [ applause ] >> the head of the united nations development program helen clark. >> i come from a small country that's probably best known for being peaceful but we too have a history going back to the 19th century when after a treaty signed between the indigenous people of new zealand and the british and when the treaty wasn't respected and in effect a civil war broke out. the indigenous people who fought that war with losers led to land confiscatation and over the last

30 years, new zealand has been preoccupied with truth and reconciliation and restoration of dignity in every respect and i think we offer some experiences of how to overcome a difficult past through very clear policies of inclusion and reconciliation. >> thank you. [ applause [ applause ] and finally the former president of ireland, now as i mentioned the head of her own foundation addressing climate justice. mary robinson. >> judy, when i was growing up in west of ireland, we always thought of the next parish being bust but we are well known. you mention passion. i put it in terms of fact that i think women tend to be more inter generational and think of children and grandchildren.

in my case i have four grandchildren who will be in their 40s in 2050 and i have an urgent sense that they will look back on this time and say how could they have been so neglectful and been so shortsided and why do they not understand the urgency of dealing with issues of development and issues of huge population increase over the next few years, impact of climate, security issues and kind of issues that we're going to talk about. there is an urgent need for leadership and i think in the 21st century a lot has to be women's leadership because we have more of a sense of purpose when we get into positions of leadership as we've heard and that's what is needed. the issues we're discussing and we discuss in an innovative beyond frontier way and our issues need to be dealt with and are not given leadership on and that's our challenge. >> thank you.

thank you. [ applause ] >> we heard from each of the three heads of state about some of the stresses and tensions in their own country and own region. tell us a little bit about how you see the main hurdles that a country faces in moving from conflict to post-conflict and to continue on a post of democracy. as you know, our focus is development in the context of democracy and security. >> in managing the post-conflict country, almost everything is a priority. you've got to tackle so many things at the same time. perhaps the greatest hurdle is managing the expectations of a young population that has been

bypassed by education and skills, giving them hope and enabling them to know that they have a stake and making them productive citizens again and bringing back their confidence and their dignity. if one can manage those, then i think you have a chance of being able to address all of the many other shortcomings in this society. >> more than budgets, money, obviously money matters, you're saying that high expectations is that it is job of a leader to think about that and address that. >> absolutely. and that's very difficult in a post-conflict environment when patience runs out and when you have taken time to put the fundamentals in place and to stabilize things but you need to go beyond that to be able to transform people and to be able to ensure that all of the things

you've done to mobilize the resources that they begin to affect people's lives and improve their welfare. that's a challenge. >> what about that? managing expectations and what would you add to this question of main challenges facing you and other leaders post-conflict? >> i have to agree with president sirleaf saying that there is not any unified formula of how to address the matters. the community has to be a part of every process from the day one. they have to feel that a level of the confidence within the leadership but they have also to develop that soul of the accountability and responsibility and the ownership that has to be developed. it's not only with the leaders. it is within the community because no other forms, no

restructuring process, it's not been possible if it's not accepted and if it's not received by the community. for many in my own country experience, we have a lot of the progress, kosovo has been viewed as success story between the local institutions and the international community. but still if i go back and see 13 years ago how far we have gone, we could be much further today if we have included the community and if we make the population a part of all of the process. for example, in our country, all of the people from the highly education, from other wars have not been a part of the process of the development of the country. they have been employed by

international companies. but that is a short-term solution. it's not a long-term solution. i think that the best solution is the combination between. i think the best solution is the com benation between the community and between the local leadership and the international partners if we really want to get the best of the process of getting it and being accepted and received and being transmitted in the right direction. >> president bander, what about you? how do you see the most challenging piece of this transition from conflict to post? i think the whole government was near collapse. >> near collapse? >> yea. so the people are living under very, very different conditions, so the hope when new leadership came was their expectation that things were going to change, but

sometimes they expect that change to come immediately. so it is what you do in that transition that matters. i think for me what i have done is to be all-inclusive to ensure that even to come down what existed was to choose a cabinet for more practice. secondly, it was to be able to talk to the people. if the people are told the truth they will stand with you. in my particular place i have waited for people for 50 years, and i believe that leadership is a love affair. we must fall in love with the people and the people must fall in love with you and because of that -- >> we're going to remember that line. >> leadership is a love affair. >> so if they grow to trust you and to love you they'll stand

with you especially during difficult times. in malawi this is the time. the time we are trying to recover our economy. i have said to the people very quickly, that's very difficult in a country where people have been dependent, in a country that that hto begin to tell the people we must change the way we do business and we must move in order for that to happen these are the steps that i think we should take and we must take them together and to get people aboard is what is critical during a conflict. >> what about filling the government? >> yes, i think it is also important that at a time like

this in my country and it means that most people will pay the price. the people who feel the pinch, therefore, as they make that sacrifice, as they move with you into the future, they must be the first to demonstrate that you can make sacrifices. it's not in malawi to have a plane and for me to see my brother, it takes me one hour. if i don't have a plane it will take me two days and it was in order to get to mozambique, and so when you tell them we are going to sell the plane they know exactly what you're talking about, that you want to get down with them and pay the price together and suffer together and move into the future together.

[ applause ] . >> as head of the program you are dealing with many leaders in many parts of the world. what would you add in this part of the world, moving, and where the focus should be. >> think my leaders have very important points and to build public confidence in the way ahead. in these situations, everything needs to be taught at once and understand the path that is being followed. the more inclusion, the better. because there are institutions to be built and democracy to be deepened and livelihoods and democracy doesn't put food on the table and that could take longer to build a confidence in the economy, but then being in a more responsive government through democratic institutions will be the key to everybody

doing better in the longer term. so i just couldn't stret stress enough this engagement with the people. sometimes symbolic decisions such as president bander has made around the presidential fleet of mercedes. i got incredibly positive reaction about there's a woman in charge and it really is -- is highly commendable what you did. president robinson, you've clearly had experience in the area of conflict. what one thing would you add to this? >> i would say we need this confidence and closeness to the community and we also know in the 21st century need innovative partnerships for change and it is happening, and even this conference has engaged partners to usaid and to have universities and others listening in and helen, you're

working in undp, but you're increasing in to the society and business community and she's setting up leagues of women in other parts of the regional and at the local level to create these partnerships and that's, i think, very much a part of how we can try and show more willingness to address issues, but a number of us are going to the real plus 20 very shortly and it is very disappointing to see the preparation, the lack of real commitment and given the urgency of the problems and we're in the 6 billionth child, and then we have the climate which preoccupies me more and more. i know there are countries where there are different views and the lobbies on the issue and the countries in africa? particular and climate is affecting people and it's

affecting development. everybody knows it and we have to do something about it urgently. that's a reminder that there are so many issues and so many balls in the air that we have to keep moving as a leader of any one of these countries and president yaga, what about what president johnson said a moment ago about everything is important. how do you prioritize about when you want to maintain a strong democrat see and you want to maintain security however you define it. you're thinking about development and you don't want to be department end on the rest of the world forever. how would you decide what's most important. how do you make those decisions? >> there is not an easy answer to this question because everything in the beginning and after the war of the conflict, everything is a priority. everything has to take time at

the same time, but i'm a strong believer that the short-term challenges will lead you to the most sustainable countries that are open and a few examples as my country has been taken the lead, but before i go through this example i will go back to the community, and the community needs to see that the country is their own country. it is on their service, and the best combination is the joint responsibility for the proper success or to make it as adjoining success and together with international community, the local institutions has taken up the leadership in accordance to the effort that has been made back in 13 years ago to have tried to set up the

preconditions of the proper life of the people which is getting back into the proper function, the hundred thousand functions which has been destroyed and having the proper conditions for the refugees which were 60% of the population which has been forced out of the country to set up the proper condition or the elementary conditions for the people to return and to have the food and supply necessary for day to day living. immediately and parallel to that and what's also made our country become as one of the post conflict of the success story and it is also trying to solve the security dilemma and rebuilding a structure and reforming the security element from the security force and also from the security from the police organization where both of those has beenus