captioning performed by vitac but only one year ago since one year ago there is almost a consensus in every matter which is state related.

what has been mentioned is that the womans are less to be corrupted. they are committed on what they are doing and they do it with the full passion and they have zero tolerance towards the negative matters. recently i have started two consuls within my presidency. one of them is setting up the council for the anti-corruption. my country has a lot of perception about the organized crime and the corruption and this is a continuous burning, which is also an obstacle for the progress forward for our country. but having a woman leading that process of fighting the organized crime and the corruption has been very well accepted by the community but at the same time community has more trust on the womans because the

only answer they say is they are less corrupt. they are not corrupt. they do it what theyment to do it and they do it with the full commitment. and so those are the values that can be found only within the womans. and they are more mobilized within their environment. and they maintain the network. the network of the womans is something that has to be more broader because the gender issue is becoming a global phenomenon. we need a global response and how we best do it if the proper network and particularly of the womans in the leadership role of how to bestly share the experience and expertise and

bestly address some of of the issues within the country and outside. >> you're saying especially gender issues. it's remarkable to get the perspective of the leaders dealing with this every single day. president mary robinson, you've had the chance to think about this a lot. you've certainly spoken about it a lot. with the benefit of hindsight, how do you see how being a woman changes one's ability to lead? >> i've thought about it a great deal because it's not that women are better than men, we need balance obviously but women lead in a different way. it's less hierk, a call, it's more nurturing. it was important when i was elected president against the odds and breaking the mold a bit and i thank the women of ireland

who were working the cradle for now rocking the system and it was very important for me to be a president who was sort of a woman president, proud to be a woman and that it was an advantage to be a woman and even though, you know, i'd broken a kind of mold there. and in 1996 i joined with a number of others in establishing something called a council of women world laelders, which we're all members of. you mentioned that there are eight women presidents at the moment and we have three of them here as you said. but nut council, and the only one i know of who declined to join this club was margaret thatcher, she wasn't interested in joining this club of women, but we now have over 40 women who are either in office or have been office as president or

prime minister. so what interests me is we have a critical mass of women, not just at the top level but as minister, women of trade unions and i think it has to make more of a difference and a number of us are involved in ways of linking women in the way that women naturally network. we have a troika plus network on lit at. women's leadership tends to be more intergenerational, tends to be more aware we have to address this and put people at the center of the issue. we've established a top down troika plus linking with grass roots women's organizations and those already working on gender and climate change. it's a kind of innovative platform of leadership. the the nobel women are a good example. when the nobel peace women, when

there are enough of them, four or five, they got together and it's now an institution. men had been nobel peace prize winners for a long time. it wasn't part of their thinking that they would actually get together and network for good as the noble women's initiative does. >> prime minister clark, you've also had the benefit to think about. what would you add to this conversation sp. >> firstly, we have all been first to be elected to the position by the people so we're acutely aware of what the barriers and hurdles were to getting there. when there's never been a woman

in the role, that's a glass ceiling that has to be broken. i think we have to be frank that not every woman leader has been a saint and not every one has been caring and sharing. >> as a matter of principle, women should be represented in positions of power. in the end i think women have a fundamental connection with society that is not shared to

the same, tent with pim. whatever our societies, women end up taking more responsibility for the care of children, older and frail relatives and being very connected with the needs of system, how does the health care system work, do my kids have a job? we see women much more attentive to these issues and services because of that personal connection. >> for the last question i want to bring it back to the subject of this conference, at least a big part of it and that of course is development. i want to ask each one of you what it is you see that whether it's the west, the usa i.d., the other agencies, both government and not government agencies, ngos, what do you want them to know? what do you most need, most want in terms of development? what do they need to know about your country and your people

that would make it just a much more efficient, effective process? start with you president johnson sirleaf. >> to recognize that our people, particularly those in rural areas are intelligent, if not educated. that we as government, those as partners, should listen to them and should construct our programs to meet their needs as they see it, as they identify it, that brings the best results.

>> has that not always been the case? >> that has not always been the case but it is changing. today i think the ownership factor is being recognized by all and harmonization, governments in consultation with their own people is the order of the day. we haven't reached a level where we've seen full compliance with this principal but as i see it's moving in that direction and we encourage everyone to move it at an even faster pace. >> before i come to the other two heads of state, i'm going to come back to prime minister clark, administrator clark. what is it that the west -- i mean, is that a message that the development communities, the development organizations hear? >> i think the important thing for development partners is to

invest for the long term. we see quite a lot of preoccupation of wanting results. the results that leaders in so many countries are going to be looking for are going to be seen not tomorrow, not next year but in a generation's time. so i think development resistance, it needs to focus on capacities, on institutions, on building resilience, building well founded national strategies and be prepared to explained that to the stake holders in the donor countries, have faith in

these leaders and invest in them and their capacity to change their country. >> from your perspective being in office a little over a year, what is it that the west, that the development community, what do they need to know about your country and what you need, what you want, where you want to go? >> i think that now we are coming to the stage >> think now we're coming to the stage that we need to invest on the frontiers for the future. we are the frontiers of the ron the future. we need to invest on the future. we continue building up the relation between the western of achieving the long-term goals of

the countries individually and that can be done. president robinson, are these kinds of messages the internatiinte international aid community, development community is hearing?

>> i'm not sure it's being heard enough but these are the messages, i have no doubt about that. i think if those messages are heard, the response to them also has to be beyond frontiers. innovative. european countries are cutting their aid budgets because of the eurozone crisis. i think as senator lugar was saying, the united states budget is going to increase dramatically over the next few years. so it's less money now than real partnering. let me give you an example. i officially happen to be designated an elder now. we wanted to tackle issues of discrimination against the girl child and women. it's a huge area. we talked a little bit about it, how could ten elders do something.

we talked about how the religion could have harmful practices and we move from that to tackling child marriage, and we realize the extent of it. 10 million girls a year are married way before they should be or are ready for it emotionally and physically. it affects their health and they die, et cetera, et cetera. in fact, every region where people are working locally on this issue they haven't come together and we were able to create an organization called girl it is, not brides and they're tackling these issue and we need more of these innovative

but in fact, what we did was we looked to see that in fact, in every region were people working locally on this issue, but they were never able to come together. we were able to create an umbrella organization called girls not brides. now there is a global partnership tackling this issue. i think we need more of these innovative global partnerships. they include philanthropists, ngo's, governments are extremely important. i remember president ellen here in washington and meeting with donors for the first year, a few years ago, where you told them i welcome you in my country, but i want to know what you're doing and it has to be my priority. then you met the ngo's. the nongovernmental organizations. that has been the problem in development. sometimes presidents don't know what ngo's are doing in their country. they come in with good will. it doesn't have to be government controlled, but there has to be leadership, bottom up and for the community that is represented by a good democratic government. but we can be more innovative the money is not going to come in the same amounts and therefore we need better partnering. >> president banda is our newest leader. i'm going to give you the last word on what it is that you want the west to know, the united states to know, the international aid community. what do they need to know about the needs of your country as you see them? >> i think first and foremost it's to say to call upon the international community. to recognize those countries on the continent of africa and in particular at this point in time malawi.

that have come out and can demonstrated that they're going to correct their government's record. their human rights' record. to recover the economy. we have taken states, i'm selling -- and to just request that the international community must move at the same pace and meet us halfway. i say this because just last week i toured the country of

malawai from one corner to another. and everywhere i went people came out to greet joyce banda. my husband said oh i'm overwhelmed by this kind of support that you have. i said, no honey, close your eyes and be looking at stones thrown at me 12 miles down the line. and so this is just an appeal to say as we make those strides as we make those world decisions the international community has to recognize them and come over and meet us halfway. so that we don't disappoint the people that are ready for change that are really to do something about the other situation by the way malawians are not just sitting back waiting for handouts but looking for that partnership and that support. finally i don't think i can leave this podium without thanking the usa. because i'm sating here because of the usa five years ago i walked into the usid office in malawi and said i want to do something about fellow women. i came from an abusive marriage. and i know that some are there because they don't have the courage to walk out. i know the only thing i can do for them is economic empowerment. the partnership we forged that day has lasted this long.

and they've given me support all along. and so i finish by saying it is imperative for not only malawi but whole africa to support women's participation in leadership. women must get into leadership positions. particularly go to parliament. when i was minister of gender in parliament, i championed the passing of the domestic violence bill. we were only 27 women. we worked throughout the night. and had to greet tracks and tracks of women from villages in to parliaments to make sure their parliament doesn't say no to this bill, they're there and watching. we finally passed that bill. it is very important to have women sitting where the laws are

made. for that to happen, those of us who are leaders shall need support. and thank you very much for the support that i have received this far. thank you. [ applause ] >> from my perspective it has been a remarkable discussion, a remarkable conversation with these extraordinary five extraordinary leaders. and i would ask as you go to a break, which is what i understand is next in the program, that you join me in thanking each one of them. the president of malawi, joyce banda, the president of liberia, ellen johnson sirleaf.

the president of kosovo atifete jahjaga, the former president of ireland, mary robinson, the former prime minister of new zealand now the administrator of the u.n. development program, helen clark. let's thank them all. [ applause ] >> that was very good. good afternoon, everybody. i'd like to remind everybody in your folders you have these crowd hall cards. and we welcome people goingline to browse the panels, submit the questions and voting for your favorites. so look for the cards in your folders.

great to see everybody here this morning and it is my great pleasure to introduce our next speaker. the first time that i met the admiral at a dinner, the first question he asked me was whether i had read "prust" or not. he has decades experience leading both direct combat missions in theaters across the globe, haiti, bosnia, some of the places we heard about in the earlier panel and also in guiding our military strategy at the highest levels. he now has what is probably the coolest title on the planet, which is the nato supreme allied commander of europe, as well as the commander of our european command. each has been a leading force in the government and military and a big thinker on a lot of the

topics that we're wrestling with over these three days. we could not think of a more fitting candidate to be here with us today to talk about the importance of collectively tackling these issues of development and security and doing so in a way that really moves us thoughtfully forward. so please join me in welcoming the admiral. welcome. [ applause ] >> good morning, everybody.

first of all, i want to thank the administrator for letting me come and take just a couple of minutes to set up what i think will be a terrific panel headed up by ray suarez and with some extraordinarily wide ranging views to share. i am going to use a couple of slides. i know generally speaking people look and see a military guy from the pentagon with a power point presentation. and that's created a fair amount of problems around the world. i assure you this is a very easy presentation to get through and i'll do this in about ten minutes. i do like a use a couple of images. as i was saying to my very good friend, there is no part of the government in which is images are more evocative than in the world of development. so what i'll do today is just show you some of the challenges of thinking about development in a conflict situation. then i'll try and talk a little about some of what i hope are relatively creative ways we're thinking about it at the department of defense. so if i could have the first image. this is libya. which many of the people in this room were involved in. i would offer this as an example of attempting to do humanitarian trending toward development in a zone of actual open well known

conflict. as many of you here know we saw about 1 million referees in camps in tunis, nyjer, and heading toward spain. we are in the midof a very active combat campaign. very difficult. this of course is afghanistan. which is very much a place where i am engaged today or we have the nato alliance 28 nations as well as 22 other nations with troops on the ground and a total of 70 nations who are engaged in one level or another with development. here we see not only the complexity of the desperate

needs of development, but we also see a very virulent insurgency compounded by this image which is poppy. this is narcotics. we add to this mix of challenges yet another dimension that we saw for example as well in colombia. so i offer these three images to sort of set the stage for what we all know, which is the extraordinary difficulty of doing the strategic mission of development that you are executing with the tactical work that we're trying to do to create some level of security so you can do your work. and your work is what in the end will determine success or failure in these places. we get that. we want to support you. and if there's a single message i have for you today, it's the importance of defense as trying to support development and diplomacy where we can. next, please.

so i also think a lot about these two images, upper left are young boys and girls who are receiving aid. bottom right is a child soldier. this is a supply chain that we cannot allow to connect both from a security perspective from a humanitarian perspective, from a sociological development perspective. our goal is to support your efforts to make sure those two images don't connect. and we heard a lot from the heads of state and government about the youth and the importance of youth. i would underline it with this particular image. so, next, please. what are we trying to do about it? let me give you some ideas that we're working on in the department of the defense. and the first one may or may not surprise you a bit. it's the idea of studying and

learning languages and understanding the culture of these places in which we to work. we take our example in this regard from aid. from the department of state, from our diplomats and our developers. we're not very good at this in the department of defense. only 8% of the department of defense speaks a second language, for example. i've chosen to put here the rosetta stone. we are working hard on this. we want to increase our ability to understand and to be able to communicate directly and also to understand the culture, the history, the literature, all the aspects of the culture. if we can do that, we can more effectively support you in your

work. next, please. we're also doing some fairly creative things as we work with local security forces. now these are afghan soldiers. and you should look at this photograph and you should say, well that's an odd photo because they're all holding books. and if you know anything about afghanistan you know that sadly the literacy rate in this demographic 20 to 30 is very low. it's only about 15% to 20% because the taliban withheld education throughout this demographic's opportunity to learn. so you should say, so why are afghan soldiers are holding books? the answer is because we are teaching them to read. we nato, we the nato training mission in afghanistan. we've taught 200,000 afghan soldiers and policemen to read. now they're not going to go write a novel like marcel