We're so lucky to have a fearless Ambassador – former U.S. Ambassador – to Armenia with us, Maria [Yovanovitch], who was such a leader and such an advocate.

USAID is supporting partners in more than 50 countries to conserve and restore 200 million acres of land and forest, an area almost twice the size of California. This isn't typically thought of as a health investment, but it is. By protecting the habitats that wild animals need, we are making disease transmission less likely, and we're doing it for only about $2 per football field of land protected, which is much cheaper, obviously, than it would be to wait and treat the fallout after a disease has begun to spread. Biodiversity is, of course, also key to food security and to economic prosperity. 

In my end of term speech last week at the Center for Global Development, I talked about how USAID is America’s foreign policy ground game. And I really believe that's true, and maybe we can discuss it in the questions. But what that really means is that you – all of you – are America’s ground game when it comes to advancing the interests of the American people. And you are showing the world, the best of America –  those of you who are Americans. For our Foreign Service Nationals tuning in, you are showing the best that America can do when we work hand in glove with the people in and from the communities that we are trying to reach. You are showing we are compassionate, that we are highly competent, and that we see that our fates here are connected to the fates of people everywhere. Being part of this team has been the honor of a lifetime. 

On December 11, 2024, Administrator Samantha Power delivered a speech entitled “America’s Ground Game: How USAID is Changing and Why It Matters” at the Center for Global Development. Her remarks were followed by a fireside chat focused on key geopolitical and development challenges with NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

Thank you to my USAID colleagues who have made this consultation possible, and thank you to all of our partners in the research community who have contributed to the growing body of evidence we are  exploring at this convening. Your work could not be more timely and important.

Although USAID’s budget represents less than half a percent of the federal budget, it represents enormous potential for impact, and it is our responsibility to steward it wisely. USAID’s work is a critical component of our larger U.S. National Security Strategy, and when we are more strategic and cost-effective with our investments, we more meaningfully contribute to reaching our nation’s broader goals. 

This year, in fact, USAID will be working closely to support DFC’s efforts to increase investments in fragile, difficult to reach, and conflict prone markets. And, hear this: this is a necessary approach when more than two billion people are now in fragile and conflict-affected regions. These regions, also – if you hear nothing else, hear this – are home to important resources, like critical minerals that are vital for national security. The PRC, of course, already has a head start in this space, as it produces 85 to 90 percent of the world's supply of rare earths, and multiple other critical minerals. So we can't afford to focus only on private sector-led growth in stable environments, and that is why this USAID-DFC partnership is so rich and so impactful and going places. 

On December 9, 2024, Administrator Samantha Power delivered remarks on USAID's approach to building economic resilience and advancing economic statecraft at the Council on Foreign Relations.

I'm very pleased that Peru is one of the first USAID missions around the world. After working here now for more than 63 years, we have brought onto our team, actually an Indigenous Communities Advisor, a senior advisor, who we turn to, not because there's any right answer to some of these very delicate questions, but because we know we have someone who can find a way to go out and to communicate and to listen and to enlist and so, again, I defer to people who are much more knowledgeable than me, a visitor, on that.