Yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked World Water Day with a speech at the National Geographic Society here in DC. It was a great speech that touched on some of the key benefits of advocating for clean water and sanitation in developing countries.
Below is a video and key excerpt (full text here):
The United States is making major investments to combat preventable diseases and improve child survival through our Global Health Initiative. Increasing access to safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene will help save lives that are now being lost to preventable diseases.
Seventy percent of the world’s water use is devoted to agriculture, and the outcome of our work to promote global food security depends in part on having a successful water policy and sound water management. Floods and droughts can wipe out crops, and decimate economies that depend on agriculture.
We are also working to empower women around the world, because depending upon which continent we’re talking about, the average is 60 percent of the farmers are women. In addition to that, women who gain access to sanitation, who are freed from the burden of walking for hours each day just to locate and carry water, will find it easier to invest time and energy in their families and communities.
The stability of young governments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other nations depends in part on their ability to provide their people with access to water and sanitation. A lack of water, sanitation, and irrigation we know leads to economic decline, and even can lead to unrest and instability.
Part of being serious about dealing with and adapting to climate change is about being serious about water. As the earth warms, rainfall patterns can shift, bringing new patterns of drought and flooding. And we need to get out in front of that problem.
Successful engagement on water can also affect how our country is perceived in the world. We spend a lot of time working on issues such as terrorism and arms control and nuclear proliferation. These are obviously important topics that deserve our attention. But the reality is that they are not problems most people deal with on a day-to-day basis. Water is different. When we demonstrate our concern for the issue, it speaks to individuals on a whole different level. Everyone knows sensation of thirst firsthand. We all have daily personal experience that we can think about and relate to, even if the nature and magnitude of that experience varies widely. Our ability to satisfy our need for water depends on our location and our circumstances. But as a matter of biological necessity, access to safe, sustainable supplies of water is a priority for everyone on the planet.
In the United States, water represents one of the great diplomatic and development opportunities of our time. It’s not every day you find an issue where effective diplomacy and development will allow you to save millions of lives, feed the hungry, empower women, advance our national security interests, protect the environment, and demonstrate to billions of people that the United States cares, cares about you and your welfare. Water is that issue.
Andrea Mitchell sat down with Secretary Clinton to discuss the state of the world’s women today. In the interview, Secretary Clinton talks about the growing role of women in developing countries, and the setbacks they still face.
It’s an excellent insight into how the Obama Administration is approaching the promotion of women’s rights around the world:
“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just posted a video commemorating International Women’s Day. In it, she touches on increasing women’s access to education, healthcare, and jobs and builds the case that working towards these goals is both the right thing and the smart thing to do.
As we mentioned last week, we’re back with some analysis of Secretary Clinton’s days on the Hill. Clinton gave nearly identical opening testimonies in all four of her hearings. From there, each hearing diverged with different issues in the spotlight, but despite four different audiences, some issues came up repeatedly.
Each hearing brought up Haiti, generally focusing on the rapid initial humanitarian response and ways to strengthen that response moving forward. As always, national security is a focus of Congress—questions about the response to Iran were prevalent, as well as questions on the challenges of the “frontline states” of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. National security was also brought up in a more positive light, too. Representative Berman, during his opening statement of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lauded the President’s defining his national security budget as both the Defense and International Affairs Budget, calling investing in development the “ounce of prevention” for national security.
There were several other themes running across all four hearings. Senator Lugar brought up the strong commitment the US has made to address global hunger and food insecurity during his opening testimony of the Foreign Relations committee. His own Global Food Security Act, co-sponsored with Senator Casey, was also brought up by Representative McCollum during the House Foreign Operations Appropriation Subcommittee. Clinton lauded the legislation for its focus on the plans the State Department already has for food security efforts, namely focusing on the role of small-holder farmers and women, as well as harnessing new technology.
There were questions on proposed health initiatives, as well. Representative Lee, from the House Foreign Ops Appropriations Subcommittee, brought up PEPFAR, asking how PEPFAR and Global Fund money fit into the overall Global Health Initiative. Senator Lugar also pushed on PEPFAR, asking about reductions in funds for HIV/AIDS prevention in favor of treatment. Clinton said that PEPFAR is committed to maintaining and fulfilling treatment obligations, and hopes to design more aggressive prevention programs to use prevention money more efficiently, as well as forging new country partnerships for PEPFAR.
During the House Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, Clinton was also pressed on funding for basic education. The Chairwoman of the subcommittee, Representative Nita Lowey, pointed out in her statement that the education fund took a cut of nearly $100 million and that she believes education is the foundation for many other development goals. She urged Clinton to restore funds to the program.
For more on the FY 2011 international affairs budget, check out the State Department’s info page on it, or our own coverage on the ONE Blog.
As we noted yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss the FY11 International Affairs Budget. You can watch the video of her opening statement below:
Here’s a key excerpt:
The second major area is investing in development. And this budget makes targeted investments in fragile societies – which, in our interconnected world, bear heavily on our own security and prosperity. These investments are a key part of our effort to get ahead of crisis rather than just responding to it, positioning us to deal effectively with threats and challenges that lie ahead.
The first of these is in health. Building on our success in treating HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, our Global Health Initiative will invest $63 billion over six years, starting with $8.5 billion in FY11, to help our partners address specific diseases and, equally importantly, build strong, sustainable health systems as they do.
The Administration has also pledged to invest at least $3.5 billion in food security over three years, and this year’s request includes $1.6 billion, of which $1.2 billion is funded through the State Department. And I greatly appreciate the work that Senator Lugar and Senator Casey have done to help target the United States effort when it comes to global hunger and food security. So this funding will focus on countries that have developed effective, comprehensive strategies, where agriculture is central to prosperity and hunger remains widespread.
On climate change, we could not agree with the Chairman more. Therefore, we have requested $646 million to promote the United States as a leader in green technology and to leverage other leaders’ cooperation – including through the Copenhagen Accord, which for the first time, to underscore the Chairman’s point, brings developing and developed countries together. This is such an important initiative. We need leadership from the rest of the world. This is an opportunity for us to push this initiative and to ensure that we have support to give to core climate change activities and to spread the burden among other countries so that they share part of the responsibility in meeting this global challenge.
You can read the full text of the Secretary’s remarks here.
PS– Today Secretary Clinton is addressing members of the House. We’re following the remarks and will have some highlights/analysis shortly.
UPDATE: C-SPAN video doesn’t appear to be working, you can stream live here.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is about to testify in front of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. You can watch it live below:
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