investments often require significant time before demonstrating impact funding should flow to programs that demonstrate results. our programs can only produce results when they are developed with results in mind. i raise this point because a percentage of foreign assistance funding to some countries is moving away from traditional purposes. including education, food security and disease prevention toward climate change. i've expressed concerns about individual u.s. aid climate change projects and the growing share of these projects within our development budget. i voice these concerns as an ardent friend of u.s. aid and the state department and of someone who does not taempbt to diminish it be potential impact of climate change or the opinions of scientific research on the subject. my concern is simply the climate change projects are among the

least likely to offer measurable development results and the most likely to be politically motivated. and i don't doubt that some of these projects will produce results and some may be a top priority in the 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 will produce the most potent and demonstrable results for impoverished people, the standard of these dollars is extremely high. if $10 million is spent on climate change projects or a country suffering from mall mu trigs and uncontrolled disease, we must be able to demonstrate that those dollars are produce a better result than what could be produced through alternative initiatives relative to

agriculture development and disease prevention. my hope is that the u.s. aid and the state department will be examining proposed climate change projects under these kpamting parameters. i frequently have assert fd 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 technologies and benefits from the green revolution. and enormous increases in crop yield. i have seen these on my own farm in indiana. we have developed efficient systems for distribution of agriculture projects, for trade in humanitarian purposes. our agriculture researchers at our land grant universitys are the best in the world and they continually improve seed production through genetically modified organisms and address the impact of pests and diseases. with eknow 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 agriculture knowledge through the administration's feed the future initiative which i strongly support. further, agriculture 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 agriculture development and we should be leveraging to maximum effect. i appreciate very much administrator's deep expertise in this area. i anticipate even greater food security achievements by u.s. aid in the coming years. i applaud the commitment each of you have made to global development. many of you have been engaged in

work under difficult circumstances. i admire your courage, your compassion, your skill as you continue to find new ways to develop results. and as you come together to share that wisdom with each other. i look forward in every way to supporting your way during my future months in the senate and i say more power to all of you. thanks very much. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> the u.s. aid conference continued with a discussion on women's leadership in the developing world. the presidents of liberia, coast voe and malawi along with ireland's former president, all women took part in a round table

moderated by judy woodruff of pbs's "newshour." >> good morning. everyone. i'm judy woodruff. i am extraordinarily honored to be here this morning with such a distinguished panel of leaders. and to be participating in this important conference on the future of development as it intersects with democracy and with 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 fortune to have with us three current and two former heads of state all women who play are 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 a distinct vantage point based on her own experiences. it's nice to be able to say that. her own. and we expect to learn from each of them. so 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. many the center here. yes. [ applause ] to my immediate right you recognize her ellen johnson surlee the president of liberia. [ applause ] to my left my immediate left the president of kosovo. [ applause ] on the far right, my far right is the former president of ireland mary robinson. she is today the president of the mary robinson foundation for climate justice.

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. so it is an extraordinary group. i want to begin with the kind of 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 surly, i'm going to start with you. >> liberia is a country that

experienced two decades of civil conflict ruling 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, ensuring that the institutions function again. and we solved the debt problem. the country was full of despair, lack of confidence, lack of hope. but one today that now sees a future in which each one has a stake. a future in which they can participate. i might say one that has the ambition to become a post

conflict success story. >> wonderful. [ applause ] >> what about kosovo. >> kosovo for the ones that be don't have so much information is a country which had a war and conflict about 13 years ago. as we are sitting here we are celebrating 13 years of end of the conflict and of war and the entry of the foreign troops which have been maintaining peace and stability but also with international community playing a tremendous role of the process of state building for my country. this past 13 years has not been easy particularly in the beginning on trying to get over

from the consequences left out of the war. that had hundreds of thousands of houses destroyed and burned. people massacred and killed and other 20,000 women which have been raped. so for the first years has been a very difficult times of trying to cope with all of this, but tame 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 or come many the country is the 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 ranges from 26 up to 35 of age which is well educated well trained and with a vision forward. so it's an obligation for me and for all other leaders within my country to provide a better future for them. this young population will have a better future. >> thank you. the president of malawi, joyce banda. >> thank you. i come from malawi in a country of 13.5 million people. 85% of those are rural based. 60% live under the poverty line. but one thing about malawian people is that they're resilient and very, very clear about what

they want to achieve. they lived 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 that because they were very clear about what they wanted for themselves for eight hours where the 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. some parts of the world are still struggling to 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 better known for being peaceful, but we too have our history going back to the 19th century when after a treaty signed between the indigenous people of new zealand and the british, when the treaty wasn't respect in effect a civil war broke out. and the indigenous people who fought that war were the losers. it led to land confiscation. and a lot of discrimination over many years. but i guess the last 40 years new zealand has been quite preoccupied with truth and reconciliation, reparation, restoration of dignity in every respect. i think we offer some experiences of how to overcome a difficult past through very

clear policies of inclusion and reconciliation. >> thank you. [ applause ] finally the former president of ireland now as i mention the head of her own foundation addressing climate justice. mary robinson. >> judy, when i was growing money the west of ireland, we always thought of the next parish being busten. i think my country's reasonably well known. i do have a passion. you mentioned passion. i put it in terms the fact that i think women tend to be more intergenerational. we tend to think of children and grandchildren. my case now i have four grandchildren who will be in their 40s in 2050. i have an urgent sense that they will look back on this time and say how could they have been so neglectf neglectful. how could they have been so

shortsighted. why do they not understand the issues of development. issues of huge population increase. the impact of kriemt, the security issues. the kind of issues we're going to be talking about. there is an urgent need for leadership. in the 21st century a lot of it has to be woman's leadership. we do have more of a sense of purpose into the positions of leadership as we've heard. the issues that we're discussing and discussing them in a very innovative beyond frontiers way and our issues that need to be dell with and not leadership on and that's our challenge. >> thank you. >> we've heard from three heads of state about the stresses and tensions in their own country and region. president, i want to start with you. tell us a little bit about how

you see the main hurdles a country faces in moving from conflict to post conflict and to continue on a path to democracy. as you know our focus is development in the context of democracy and security. >> in managing a 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 skills, giving them hope, enabling them to know that they have a stake. making them productive citizens again. bringing back their confidence and their dignity.

if one can manage those, then i think you have the chance of being able to address all the many other shortcomings in the society. >> more than budgets, money, obviously money matters you're saying high expectations is that it's the 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've 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 to be able to ensure that all the things you've done to mobilize the resources that they begin to affect people's lives and begin to improve their welfare. that's the challenge. >> president, how about that? managing expectations and what would you add to this question of the main challenges facing you and other leaders post

conflict? >> i have to agree with the president. she's saying that actually there is notny unified formula of how to address the matters. but the community has to be a part of every process from the day one. they have to feel at that level of the confidence within the leadership. but they have also -- that accountability and responsibility. and the ownership that has to be developed is not only linked with the leaders. it is within the community. because none of the reforms, none of the restructuring process, it is not being possible if it's not accepted and if it's not received by the community. from many -- from my own country experience, we have a lot of the progress, kosovo has been viewed as the 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 w be much further today if we have done and if we have included the community and if we made the population a part of all of the poss. for example, in our country, all of the people from the high education and academics and other worlds has not been a process of the development of the country. they have been employed by international companies. that is a short-term solution and not a long-term solution. i think that the best solution is the combination between the community. between the local leadership and the international partners. if we really want to get the

best of the process of getting them and being accept and being received and transmitted in the right direction. >> president, what about you. how do you see the most challenging piece of this transition. from conflict to post. >> in malawi, the problem is that the whole economy was near collapse. >> near collapse? >> yeah. the people are living under very, very difficult conditions. so the hope when new leadership came was the expectation that things were going to change. sometimes they expect it to come immediately. >> it is what you do in that transition that matters. i think for me, what i have done to be all-inclusive to ensure that if it comes down to

intentions that existed, it's to choose the cabinet made up of more parties and to be able to talk to the people. because i believe that if the people are told the truth, they will stand with you. in my particular case, i have worked with the people for 30 years. i believe that leadership is a love affair. you must fall in love with the people and the people must fall in love with you. because of that -- >>y will remember that line. leadership is a love affair with your people. >> if they trust you and love you, they will stand with you, especially in difficult times. this is the time we are trying to recover our economy. i have said to the people we must very quickly move from aid

to trade. that's very difficult in a country where people have been dependent and a country as dependent on aid to the tune of 40% to tell the people to say we must change the way we do business and change the way we think and move from trade in order for that to happen. these are the steps i think we should take and we must take them together and to give the people what is critical. >> what about this government? tell about that? >> i think it is also important that at a time like this in my country where we have a hard time getting back on track and devalue, it means that most people will pay the price. particularly the people will feel the pinch. as they make the sacrifice and move with you into the future with hope. you must be the first to

demonstrate that you can make sacrifices. it's not likely to have a plane. for me to get to see my brother, it takes me one hour. if i don't have a plane, it will take me two days. i will have to go to south africa. zambia and tanzania are the same. you want to get down with them and pay the price together and suffer together and move into the future together with hope. >> administrator, you are dealing with many leaders and many parts of the world. what would you add to the conversation about moveing for conflict to post conflict and where the focus should be? >> i think our leaders have the important points and the first

is to build public confidence ahead as president johnson said in these situations. everything needs to be done at once and to get traction is hard. people need to be taken into the confidence and understand the path is being followed. the more inclusion, the better. the more engagement with the people the better. there is institutions to be built and democracy to be deepened. that doesn't put food on the table. that can take longer to build the economy. betting in a more responsive government through democratic institutions will be the key to everybody doing better in the longer term. i just couldn't stress enough the engagement with the people and think sometimes symbolic decisions has just made around selling the presidential plane and the feet of mercedes.

i got positive reaction about there is a woman in charge and it really is highly commentable. >> you had areas of confliblth. what one thing would you add. >> it is happening. even this conference has hosted and had a lot of universities and others listening in. you are working and linking out to society to the business community. i see that with michelle where she is setting is up women in different parts of the world to create the partnerships and that's, i think, very much part

of how we can try and show more willingness to address issues. a number of us are going to the rio conference shortly and it's very disappointing to see the preparation and the lack of real commitment given the urgency of the problems and that we have $7 billion. the six billionth child is about 13 years old. we never had this before in the same way and we had climate that preoccupies me more and more. there different views and different lobbies on the issue, but we have to understand in the countries in africa in particular that climate is affecting people. it is affecting development. everybody knows it. we have to do something about it urgently. >> that's a reminder that there so many balls in the air that you have to keep moving as the leader of any one of these countries. president, what about getting back to what the president said

a moment ago about everything is important. how do you prioritize when you want to maintain a strong democracy and you want to maintain security. however you define it and you are thinking about

ing to with the international and local intrusions, they have taken up the leadership in accordance with the effort made. they have tried to set out of the reconditions of the proper life of the people. which is getting back into the proper function, the 100,000 houses that have been destroyed. also setting up the proper references that 60% of the population has been fo o