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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by J. Brady Anderson,
Regional Meeting of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
USAID Administrator
Little Rock, Arkansas
October 18, 2000
Good morning, it's a real pleasure to be here today.
I am very grateful to NRECA for giving me the opportunity to come home to speak on a subject that is a key element of our foreign policy in developing countries: electrification and the provision of energy services.
USAID's cooperation with NRECA has shown us how vital all of you are to introducing critical energy services to people around the world to fuel social and economic development.
Let me start by putting a face on what we are talking about.
It is the face of a woman who works hard every day, who loves her family, and who has a dream of escaping the impoverished life of her parents. Hers is a face lined by both worry and laughter, in which shines the hope of creating a brighter future for her children:
A future where education is a reality not a fantasy, a future free from disease and unemployment, a future where her children would wake up each day not to the tears of despair and desperation, but to the smiles and joyous laughter of hope and promise.
It is a face that breaks into a gigantic smile as the lights come on.
You and I know the story of how energy technology made dreams like these come true for millions of rural Americans. Together, we're helping to write the next chapters of that story around the world.
All of you in this room know that energy services are absolutely essential to improve the quality of life for the millions of men, women, and children who are trying to free themselves from the tyranny of poverty.
Some of you, and most of your parents and grandparents, remember the "powering up", and, in a very real sense, the empowerment, of the United States when utility power lines finally connected houses, farms and factories to the magical power of electricity.
In the United States, the arrival of electricity became a symbol for progress, telling us that economic prosperity and a better way of life were at our doorstep. Gone were the days of backbreaking wood chopping and the bone-chilling early mornings of firing up the cook stoves and living room fireplace.
While those pre-electrification days are only a distant memory for us in this country, for over two billion people around the globe, it is a stark and daily reality.
For they face the same sorts of challenges around the world today that we in the U.S. faced seventy years ago.
At the Agency for International Development, we know that working alongside others in the international community, we can help. We have to solve these challenges; if we don't, the health, educational, employment, and environmental needs of people around the world will not be met.
When we talk with villagers around the world about what they need and want from energy, this is what we hear: "we want energy :
To light our homes and the classrooms of our children, to pump water, to process food, to cure fish and dry crops and make bread, for small industry, such as metal workshops, carpentry, grain milling, and brick baking, for information, such as radio and music, to refrigerate medicines and vaccines in hospitals and clinics. And of course, for transportation.
USAID and NRECA have a long history of addressing these energy needs in innovative ways.
Our partnership includes activities such as the rural electrification program in Bangladesh where we have helped set up an extensive network of member-owned cooperatives serving over 17,000 villages.
The results have been impressive. Households with electricity save 40 percent more money every year than neighbors without electricity.
Furthermore, the cooperatives themselves are sources of employment, providing jobs directly to over 6,000 people, with an additional 22,000 jobs created by electrical manufacturers, suppliers and retailers.
These partnerships demonstrate how USAID approaches its development mission, by working side by side with U.S. and in country NGOs to make a real difference in people's lives.
Let me give you another example of some of these "real differences." Let's look at the face of Luis Moises de Cunha, a 16 year old living in one of the poorest and most drought-stricken areas of Brazil.
If you look at Luis, you'll see that it is lighted by a light from the screen of a personal computer powered by energy generated by a PV (photovoltaic/solar) panel at an Agricultural Family School.
Winrock and USAID are partnering with local leaders to provide the children of 100 small farmers an opportunity to learn and connect to the world that was only a dream two years ago.
American energy, technology, and good will can help bridge the digital divide and ensure that the global electronic information revolution doesn't leave the people of the developing world in its wake. If you look closely, you'll see that Luis' face is illuminated not only by light from the computer screen, but by hope for the future.
But what about other global human concerns, such as the enormous burden women bear throughout the developing world. We're working on that as well.
Let's look at a group of faces in an arid district of the Indian State of Gujarat, USAID is working with a grassroots, non-profit organization called "Kala Raksha" (meaning 'preservation of art').
The faces are intent with concentration and focus as traditional artisans, mostly women, work for the first time with motorized sewing machines under electric lighting provided by solar power.
Their wages are higher than they have ever been, and as a result their communities now have permanent houses and their children are in school. If we had looked at this group two years ago, we would have seen 25 faces. The group now numbers about 200, and the growth has been financed by their own savings as they invest in others like themselves, paying for their own health care and their own education.
But so what? Why should we in the U.S. care? Why does this make a difference to the United States?
The answer lies in reasons both moral and material.
First, because morally, it's the right thing to do. Americans care about the dignity and worth of every human life whether within our shores or in faraway lands. We have historically been driven by the moral imperative of helping others and the world has come to look to us for our moral, political and economic leadership. We cannot be true to our heritage as Americans if we refuse to provide that leadership.
Secondly, we know a growing international economy benefits American companies and creates jobs for our citizens.
Strong and stable markets in the developing world for U.S. goods and services helps everyone. If we truly believe in the democratic values that gave birth to our great country, then are we not compelled to help those around the world who also embrace those very same values of peace and prosperity?
We who work in international energy development daily witness the fact that we can do well and do good at the same time.
Thomas Edison is referred to as the godfather of electricity, for the historic transformation he gave birth to at the Pearl Street power station in 1882.
But his true contribution lies not in his inventive genius, which was monumental, but in his understanding that electricity has to be viewed as a system.
Edison, as a system-builder, grasped early on that the social, financial, administrative, and political dimensions of the system were just as important as the technical aspects.
Indeed, today, it is no longer a technical question of getting electricity and energy services to the people, but rather, an institutional and organizational question of getting the people to the electricity.
We are so successful that sometimes, as we measure the work that we do by its impact on millions of people, we can overlook the fact that every one of these millions of people has a face.
Every one of them lives in a real place, confronts real problems, and their hopes and dreams for their children are just as individual and real as yours and mine.
USAID and NRECA share this understanding that the social and cultural elements are the key to providing energy services. We realize that our future success depends on keeping the machines and technologies in the background, where they belong, and placing the men, women and children in the foreground, where they belong.
The development challenges of the 21st Century are enormous. They will require us to be courageous and innovative in devising the institutional and organizational structures that will ultimately deliver the energy. This is where your assistance is so important!
This means that in many ways, we'll have to go out on a limb, but, as Will Rogers said, "Why not? That's where all the fruit is."
Thank you again for having me here. At USAID we look forward to working with you at NRECA to harvest that development fruit.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
