Major International Development Forum Takes Place at Georgetown

Kay Warren, who co-founded Saddleback Church with husband Rick, is a longtime advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS. She says supporting causes isn’t just for those in the public eye. “Everybody has a platform ... there are people that you influence,” she says.

Actress Mandy Moore says she likes to share stories about working for global development. "[For me] it’s been about taking my time ... getting my hands dirty and really understanding the good work that’s being done," says Moore, an ambassador with global health organization PSI.

Former first daughter Barbara Bush says she sees young people motivated to work through her Global Health Corps. “... once [they] start working on huge issues like global health and you see that you actually can move the needle, it’s pretty hard to decide to work on another issue,” she says.

Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz) says international development is “a vital component to an overall national security policy. The money we can spend today to keep Sudan from flaming up into a wild civil war is something that can save us billions down the road."

"This is one of those issues I think everyone can connect to on some level," says Christy Turlington Burns, founder of Every Mother Counts, at the Power of Storytelling session. "…in the sense that we [all] have a mother."

Sheryl WuDunn, co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, says journalists in developing countries need to master the building blocks of storytelling to effectively tell stories.

Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the People, says stories need to be humanized. “I think you’ve got to get it down to the point where it is about real people and you’re telling the real story of ... the work that we all do,” she said.

Michael Elliott, President and CEO of ONE, says storytellers must tailor their stories. “It’s remembering that the most important person in [a] ... storytelling environment … is the person who is listening to it.”

Georgetown public policy professor James Habyarimana helped create a campaign to encourage public transportation passengers to “heckle and chide” their negligent bus drivers in Kenya. He says this has reduced accidents there by between one-half and two-thirds.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) says the U.S. must invest in more diplomatic and developmental programs to gain value from the country's investments in national security. "We need to figure out ways that we can supply our national security objectives in a cost-effective way," he says.

“Mobile phones and mobile money are revolutionizing Africa," said Georgetown economics professor William Jack, who is researching the role mobile technology can play in boosting small business in Kenya.

At a panel on major trends in climate change, food security and population, Oxford University economics professor Paul Collier says Africa must find a way to generate sustainable revenues for its natural resources as they decrease over the next decade.

Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, lamented that global leaders are not heeding warnings of global warming and climate change that have begun to impact the world. "We are at risk, the planet is at risk. Let’s get real and let’s get urgent about it."

Njack Kane, CEO of Novotel Commodities, believes Africa and its leaders "are sitting on time bombs" if they do not utilize Africa’s resources in a collaborative and accountable manner. "I believe that it is absolutely essential today to help Africa put the basics to go towards self-sufficiency."

USAID's Paul Weisenfeld says Africa’s food production problem is now a global issue as population growth booms worldwide. "Africa needs to contribute to global food production in order to deal with food security worldwide.”

Malawi President Joyce Banda said working with her country’s people taught her that leading implies a social contract. “You must fall in love with the people and they must fall in love with you. Once that happens, nothing can change it.”

USAID's Ariel Pablos-Mendez talks at a panel on equitable health services. "[For] the … poorest countries in the world – war-ravaged countries [and ones] with political instability, you need democracy or some form of steady government to pursue such reforms," he says.

Former Ghana President John Kufor says taxes and state revenue should be allocated and health care and education should get top priority. "Without good health and education, you don’t have good development," he says.

“Health is one of the most effective ways of empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty and promote economic growth that will lead to development," says Julio Frenk, Harvard School of Public Health dean.

Liberia Health Minister Walter Gwenigale says equitable health care is a human right. “Because [Liberia] is starting from scratch, it is something that we plan progressively [for] all the people," he says.

"Resilience [in communities] is critical for development, but building resilience is not and cannot be the task of a single actor or a single sector," says Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin.

"Democracy and development go hand in hand," says Atifete Jahjaga, president of the Republic of Kosovo, Europe's youngest country. "Development cannot occur without people having a voice on how their affairs are decided. And democracy cannot take root if people’s basic needs are not met."

Emilia Pires, finance minister of Timor-Leste, says one strategy that helped her fragile state was to “invest very fast” in “things to challenge the youth.” She even brought in Kung Fu actor Jackie Chan to teach young people in gangs to “do karate for good.”

"We've seen with the Arab Spring... that being exclusive of ... other groups is a recipe to not have long-term stability," says Nancy Lindborg, USAID assistant administrator.

The United Nations’ Sarah Cliffe is asked how one can tell if a fragile state is becoming prosperous. “[Finding that] the institutional strength has gotten to a level where the risk of reoccurrence is less,” she replies.

"You have to think about, at the end of this period, that group is going to see itself much more of part of the nation than it was before, and see some hope..." says International Crisis Group's Mark Schneider of aiding extremely fragile states.

Timor-Leste Finance Minister Emilia Pires, USAID's Nancy Lindborg; moderator Kaj Larsen of CNN, United Nations special advisor Sarah Cliffe and International Crisis Group Vice President Mark Schneider talk about making fragile states prosperous.

President Johnson Sirleaf answers a question from PBS NewsHour's Ray Suarez about recent war crimes and convicted Liberian president Charles Taylor. “Liberians want to put the past behind them. … They want to embrace the future,” she says.

Georgetown's School of Foreign Service Dean Carol Lancaster introduces luncheon speaker Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

"I think the idea is not hard power or just soft power, its finding that dial and setting it right so we can support the development community," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, said about a military's role in complementing development in conflict-affected areas.

At the Development in Conflict-Affected Environments panel, from left, Johanna Mandelson Forman of CSIS, Adm. James Stavridis, NATO commander in Europe, moderator Ray Suarez, Gayle Smith, senior director at the National Security Council, and Nadwa Al-Dawsari, partners for Democratic Change in Yemen.

"My lesson learned [in development in Yemen] is you have to spend time to get to know the local contacts, to know the people [and] to know the actors to circumnavigate your way around," says Nadwa Al-Dawsari.

"These crises don’t exist in the dark anymore," says Gayle Smith, special assistant to the president, about conflict-created humanitarian disasters in the age of internet and social media. "I think the trajectory is one over time that it will be more and more difficult to perpetrate the kind of abuse that we’ve seen."

Johanna Mendelson Forman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the U.S. needs to increase its capability in terms of listening to U.S. workers on the ground as well as sharing the burden with other private and non-humanitarian actors during relief situations.

PBS NewsHour's Judy Woodruff, fourth from left, moderates a panel on strategic development with former President Mary Robinson of Ireland, President Joyce Banda of Malawi, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Atifete Jahjaga of Kosovo and former Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand.

President Banda, who has led Malwali for only six weeks, put her presidential plane and fleet of government luxury cars up for sell to help her country's economy. "Leadership is a love affair," she says. "If [the people] grow to love and trust you, they will stand with you.”

President Jahjaga says Kosovo has been viewed as a success story when it comes to democracy, but wonders if the country would be moving more quickly if the government had involved more people. "People have to be a part of the process," she says. "It doesn’t just rest with the leaders."

A country that has experienced two decades of civil conflict, Liberia is getting back on track, says President Johnson Sirleaf. "We’ve gotten the children back in school. [We're] repairing the infrastructure. ... [Youth] can now see a future in which they can participate."

"We have to address the unemployment of young people, and it has to be done in innovative ways," says Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland. She says low-income workers in developing nations are starting to band together for support.

Speaking on a USAID panel with five current or previous female heads of state, former Prime Minister Clark says there are some major differences in female leadership. "Women have a fundamental connection with society. [Female leaders are] very connected to the needs of people," she says.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the keynote speaker at the USAID conference on Monday, said despite economic woes “… development assistance, when properly administered, remains a bargain for United States national security, and for our own economic and moral standing in the world.”

Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator, tells forum participants that in order to elevate development in foreign policy, different approaches must be taken, including new partnership models, engaging American students and entrepreneurs in development, and promoting new innovations in technology.

Georgetown President John J. DeGioia welcomes participants at the inaugural USAID Frontiers In Development forum June 11 in historic Gaston Hall and offers the university’s support to “the critical work that will be accomplished here over the next few days.”