Jacqueline Novogratz:提供援助的第三种方法

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http://dotsub.com/view/62af8242-e5ed-48ba-9049-1790d2ee6b97
Jacqueline Novogratz:提供援助的第三种方法
显然我们处在一个满是危机的时刻。 现时的金融市场可以说是使我们失望的， 同时这个援助体系也使我们失望。 但是我坚决地站在乐观者的一边 因为乐观者们都坚信这可能是我们生命中最令人兴奋的时刻。 由于我们现正谈论的科技。 由于现有的资源，以及技艺， 当然还有世界各地涌现的各种各样的人才们， 以及他们具有的进行变革的决心。 而且我们还拥有一位视己为世界一份子的总统， 并且认识到全球不再仅有一个超级大国， 但是我们需要用一种全新的方式与世界进行衔接。
从字面义上讲，在这屋子里面的所有人 一定要把自己当做全球的一份子， 当做全球公民。 你们都是一线工作者。你们也看见过人性中 最美好与最悲戚的画面。 不管你是在那个国家工作或居住， 你们都应该见过人所能承受的极限， 即使是在最普通的人的身上。
今时正有一场辩论在迅速蔓延 是关于怎样最好的将人们从贫困中拯救出来， 怎样帮助他们最好地发挥他们的潜能。 一方面，有人认为 援助体系已濒崩溃，所以我们应将之抛弃。 另一方面，则认为 问题的根结是需要更多的援助。 而我想谈论的是一个同时对双方进行赞美的事物。 我称它为耐心资本。
批评者们指出自从1970年来 （美国政府）在非洲已经花费了五千亿美元 但是现有的状况只是环境的恶化 以及令人难以置信的贫困水平。这是由于猖獗的腐败现象么？ 他们用蒙博托来谕指造成现状的原因。 他们对于现在的政策所用的药方是 增强政府的责任心， 把重点放在资本市场， 投资，但不进行任何援助。
另一面，正如我所说，有些人在宣讲 问题的根结是需要更多的金钱。 他们希望富人们能帮助穷困人口脱离困境， 并且给予大量金钱援助。 但谈到我们贫穷的同胞的时候， 他们只希望给予零星的援助。 他们指出了假如援助成功的结果： 天花的根除， 以及数以百万的预防疟疾的蚊帐 和抗逆转录的病毒药物的分配。 双方的观点都是对的。 但问题的根结在于双方都各执己见。 而更为严重的问题是，他们根本没有倾听 穷苦人们的心声。
经过25年工作在有关 贫穷和创新的问题上， 我知道了，在这个星球上，没有任何个体 所受的市场导向的影响， 会比低收入人群更强。 他们每天必须为市场导航， 并且做出一打又一打的细小的决定， 来使他们在社会中存活下来。 但是假如一次灾难性的健康问题 降临到他们的家庭上， 他们就会重新回到贫困线上，有时甚至会是几代的影响。 所以我们同时需要市场 和援助。
而耐心资本则在两者中间活动， 并且尽己所能来使双方达到最好的成效。 是熟知当地的企业家们投入的资金 在建立解决医疗保健、净水资源 住房问题，和能源替代的方法， 以及不能把低收入人群看作是慈善的被动接受者， 而得当作是个体的客户、消费者、顾客， 和想把握自己的命运的人们。
使用这笔耐心资本需要我们拥有 会冒风险的无畏心态， 允许当地的企业家们有足够的时间 来进行试验， 使市场成为我们最好的倾听民声的设施， 以及预料到低于市场的回报， 但造成巨大的社会影响。 它意识到市场有其局限性。 所以耐心资本也同时着力于 有力的补贴来增加全球经济的利润， 以包括所有人员。
现在，有三个原因使企业家们 需要这笔耐心资本。 第一，他们倾向于在市场中运作 哪里人们每天会挣得一块、两块或三块 而且他们所作的决定都是有关那个薪金阶层的人们。 第二，企业家们所在的地方的 基础建设都极差。 没有道路可言，缺少电力， 并存在严重的腐败现象。 第三，他们经常创造市场。
即使你是第一次将净水 带入乡村，这就是新的东西。 而且很多低收入的人们 已经经历过多次承诺的破灭， 并且体验过众多的庸医们治疗和目视过稀少的药品援助， 所以要得到他们的信任需要很长时间， 和许多的耐心。 这一般也需要依靠诸多的管理援助。 假如我们希冀能达到预想的规模，那么我们 不仅仅是要建立一个可以使我们持续与 低收入人群接触的行业模式体系， 也要与其他的行业， 其他的市场、政府、公司有联系， 来建立真诚的伙伴关系。
我想在此分享一则 有关一个创新成果-滴灌的小故事。 在2002年，我与一位来自印度的 神奇的企业家艾米挞巴·萨丹吉会面， 他已经有20年与世界上最贫穷的一群农民们的经验。 他向我表达了他关于市场援助 直接绕过了这些低收入的农民们的沮丧， 尽管在印度，有两亿的农民 每天最多只能挣到一美元。 他们的企业创立的津贴 是给大农场使用， 或者直接投入给农民们 因为他们认为农民需要这笔津贴， 而不是农民们想要用这笔津贴。
同时艾米挞巴 正痴迷于在以色列发明的 滴灌技术。 滴灌是一种将少量的水 直接灌溉在植物的根茎的技术。 并且可以将延绵的沙漠 转变成满目的翠绿。 不过市场再次绕过了这群低收入的农民们。 不仅因为滴灌系统的建设费用太高 也是因为这个系统是为大面积的土地而设的。 而小村庄里，农民所有的 土地的面积平均只有两英亩或更少。
因此艾米挞巴决定他将要承接这个创新发明 并且要为贫困的农民们 重新设计一个适合他们的滴灌系统。 因为他多年来都在倾听农民们的心声 而不是他设想农民需要什么。 他选用了三种基础的原则来改进这个发明。
第一点，是小型化。 新的滴灌系统 需要足够小使农民们 只需要用¼英亩的田地来冒险， 即使他有两英亩， 因为一次性将身家都赌上的风险太高了。 第二点，它的价格需要极其低廉。 就是说，冒的风险 需要在一个年成里偿还。 要不，他们不会冒这个风险。 第三点，艾米挞巴称之为 无限拓展性。 意即农民们可以用从第一个¼英亩土地收获的利润， 来买第二个¼英亩的土地， 以及第三个，第四个...
截至今日，艾米挞巴所有的机构 IDE India， 已经向超过三十万农民们贩售这个系统 并且目睹了他们比平均水平高的 两倍的或三倍的增产和增收。 不过，罗马非一日建成。 事实上，当你回望起点， 没有私人投资者 愿意为这个世界上 最讨厌冒风险的市场阶级 就是日收入低于一元的人群来冒这个风险， 并且是在风险最大的农业方面涉险。
所以他需要捐款。他用这笔重大的资助 进行探索，实验，创新， 历验失败并且再接再厉。 当他做出模型 并且更加懂得如何将这件物品推销给农民的时候， 这就是耐心资本的流入时机。 而我们则助他建立起一依靠IDE的知识的 利润型公司， 和开始关注销售和出口， 以及使用其他的资金。
其次，我们设想是否可以 将新的滴灌系统出口至其它国家。 所以我们与巴基斯坦的索诺·汉赫拉尼博士会面。 将新型技术引入给 印度的穷苦人家们是需要时间的， 同样的，引入巴基斯坦也需要时间， 就只是为了获得准许， 一段时间后，我们得以和已在巴基斯坦 最偏僻贫穷的塔尔沙漠里 设有社区发展组织的索诺博士 共同建立一个公司。 虽然这间公司刚刚开张， 但我们臆测这间公司 能影响千万的穷苦民众们。
不过滴灌系统不是仅有的创新发明。 我们开始可以在世界范围里见到这些事情的发生。 在坦桑尼亚的阿鲁沙市，A to Z纺织厂 着手和联合国基金会、全球基金 以及我的组织， 共同建设一个可雇用7000工人，大部分是女性的工厂。 他们已为全球的非洲人 生产了两千万套救生蚊帐。
源泉医院 是安康盟基金和印度政府合资创办的 一间为低收入女性们带来低廉而高质量的 产妇保健医院。 由于极其成功，它创造了每35天 就会新建一所医院的奇迹。
而“1298救护车”则决定要 重建一个完全破落的行业， 即在孟买建立起运用谷歌地球技术 和可调控的价格体系 的救护车服务， 从而使所有人都可以使用 一个只考虑群众意见， 而不得有任何形式的贪污的服务。 因此，他们在去年11月孟买发生的恐怖袭击事件中 是最先到达现场急救人员， 而且由于合作，也渐成规模。 他们刚刚同政府签订四份合同来使他们建造100辆新的救护车， 并且成为印度最大也是最有效率的 救护车公司之一。
这种思想方式是极为关键的。 因为我们开始看见这些公司 有成千上百的人员。而我所讨论这些公司的人员总数 至少有二十五万人。 但是这显然不够。 而合作的构思 在此变得非常重要。 不管是寻找那些可以与 资本市场进行联系的创新成果， 还是政府本身，抑或是和大公司合作， 都会有很大机会进行再创新。
奥巴马总统明白这个道理。 他近来授权建立一个社会创新基金 来关注适合这个美国的东西， 并且思考如何拓展这个东西。 我建议现正是建立一个 可以找到这些发明了 不仅仅局限于他们的国家， 而可以为世界的发展做出贡献的创新成果的企业家的 全球创新基金的时机。 这个基金创立不仅需要投资的资金援助，也需管理援助。 然后再从财务角度， 和社会影响力的角度， 来计算回报。
当我们想到关于新的援助办法时， 则不得不讲到巴基斯坦。 我国和那个国家关系不太稳定， 从公平的角度来讲 美国不一定次次都是个可信赖的伙伴。 不过我需要再次声明 现今是一个奇迹频发的时刻。 假如我们采取“全球创新基金”这一观点， 我们则可以用这个时机去投资， 不应直接投资政府，即使我们有可能会得到政府的赞美， 也不向国际的专家们投资， 而是很多为他们国家的人民们 创建了美好的创新成果的 企业家们 和民间的社会领袖们。
例如拉珊尼·扎法尔。 她在她的祖国里创立了最大的一间小额信贷银行， 而且她是妇女们的真正的榜样，不管是她所在的国家或者是这国家之外。 还有塔斯尼姆·西迪基， 他建立一种叫“住房渐增”的方法， 这种方法让他使四万贫民窟居民 搬进了低廉、安全的社区住房。 还有教育方面的倡导者，如DIL和公民基金会 已经在（巴基斯坦）全国性建设学校。 并不夸张的说 这些民间机构 和这些社会企业家们 在为塔利班建设真正的未来。
我已经向巴基斯坦连续投资七年， 而你们当中有在巴基斯坦工作过的人 都可以证明巴基斯坦人都是非常刻苦工作的。 而且在他们都有力争上游的天性。
肯尼迪总统曾说过 阻止和平变革的人 必将导致暴力革命的发生。 而我想说这句话反过来说也是对的。 这些为日收入低于两美元的 70%的巴基斯坦人发明创新 和扩展（就业）机会的 社会领袖们， 的确是在铺设希望的道路。 当我们思考如何为巴基斯坦建设援助款项时， 我们同时需要司法机构的强化， 以来建立更为稳固的体系， 我们同时需要思考来提高那些 可以成为世界的榜样的领袖们的影响力。
在我最后一次访问巴基斯坦的时候 我向索诺博士提出能否带我去看 一些已经在塔尔沙漠建立的滴灌系统。 我们在一天早晨的拂晓之前离开了卡拉奇市。 当时大概是115华氏度。 而我们大概沿着这个荒凉的景观 开了八个小时车 途中所见到的颜色千遍一律，而且非常炎热， 路途上我们很少说话，因为我们都精疲力竭了。
终于，到达旅程的重点的时候 （远远望去）我可以从地平面上看到一条孤直的明黄线。 当我们走进的时候，景象更为清晰了。 在沙漠的中间 有一方长着七英尺高的向日葵群的绿土。 原因是在地球上最穷的一位农民 获取到他所需的一项技术 从而使他可以改变自己的命运。 他的名字叫拉贾。 他有一双慈祥、明亮的淡褐色眼睛， 和一双温暖的大手 从而使我想起我的父亲。
他说这是他生命中第一个旱季， 可以不用带上他的 十二位子女和五十位孙子、孙女 用两天时间横穿沙漠 去为一个每天大概只挣五十分的商业农场 做苦工。 这全是因为他种植的这些庄稼。 以及他以往挣得的钱，从而使他今年不用迁移。 也是从祖上三代以来，子女们 首次有机会去学校学习。
我们问他他会不会把女儿和儿子一视同仁。 他回答说：“当然，我当然会。 因为我不想她们再被歧视了。” 当我们为贫困思索解决之道时 我们不能否定个体的存在， 他们仍拥有人类最基本的尊严。 因为在那天的最后时刻， （我认知到）尊严对于人类精神的作用比财富更为重要。 看见如此多的各领域的企业家们 在创设许多创新成果并且意识到 人们需要的是自由，选择和机遇 是振奋人心的。 因为那些是尊严的始源。
马丁·路德·金曾说过 乏力之爱乃无爱之爱。 同时乏爱之力 乃无智之力。 我们这一代人已目睹过两种方法的尝试， 但经常失败。 不过我认为这一代人，或许是第一次 有勇气来拥抱爱与力量。 这就是我们迈向我们梦想中 想要建立的全球经济体系， 也同时包括我们，所必须有的。 并且终于使“人人生而平等”这一命题 拓展到这地球上的所有的人类。
这是一个让我们开始创新 探索新的解决方法的时刻，跨领域合作的时机现正到来。 我只能从我自己的经历谈。 但是经过八年运行安康盟基金的经验， 我已见识过耐心资本的力量。 （耐心资本）不仅仅鼓励创新和冒险， 而且真正地建立起一个 提供了两万五千个岗位 和提供了数以百万计的产品和服务 给这个星球上最穷的一群人的体系。 我知道它是有效的。 但我同时通晓很多其他的革新也同样是有效的。
所以我请求你们，不管你是在那个领域工作， 也不管你做什么工作， 来开始思索我们如何由 我们希望帮助的人的观点 来得到解决的方法。 而不是我们设想他们需要什么。 我会用双臂拥抱这个世界。 从而让我们生活在慷慨和负责 以及正直和坚毅的精神下吧。 但如今，这些品质 是我们人类代代相传的 可授予的荣耀。 但是世界上还有很多美好的事物等着我们去勘探发掘。 让我们回想下那些在沙漠中靓丽、坚挺的向日葵群吧。 谢谢。
(鼓掌)

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Jacqueline Novogratz: A third way to think about aid
Clearly we're living in a moment of crisis. Arguably the financial markets have failed us and the aid system is failing us. And yet I stand firmly with the optimists who believe that there has probably never been a more exciting moment to be alive. Because of some of technologies we've been talking about. Because of the resources, the skills, and certainly the surge of talent we're seeing all around the world, with the mindset to create change. And we've got a president who sees himself as a global citizen, who recognizes that no longer is there a single superpower, but that we've got to engage in a different way with the world.

And by definition, every one of you who is in this room must consider yourself a global soul, a global citizen. You work on the front lines. And you've seen the best and the worst that human beings can do for one another and to one another. And no matter what country you live or work in, you've also seen the extraordinary things that individuals are capable of, even in their most ordinariness.

Today there is a raging debate as to how best we lift people out of poverty, how best we release their energies. On the one hand, we have people that say the aid system is so broken we need to throw it out. And on the other we have people who say the problem is that we need more aid. And what I want to talk about is something that compliments both systems. We call it patient capital.

The critics point to the 500 billion dollars spent in Africa since 1970 and say, and what do we have but environmental degradation and incredible levels of poverty, rampant corruption? They use Mobutu as metaphor. And their policy prescription is to make government more accountable, focus on the capital markets, invest, don't give anything away.

On the other side, as I said, there are those who say the problem is that we need more money. That when it comes to the rich, we'll bail out and we'll hand a lot of aid. But when it comes to our poor brethren, we want little to do with it. They point to the successes of aid: the eradication of smallpox, and the distribution of tens of millions of malaria bed nets and antiretrovirals. Both sides are right. And the problem is that neither side is listening to the other. Even more problematic, they're not listening to poor people themselves.

After 25 years of working on issues of poverty and innovation, it's true that there are probably no more market-oriented individuals on the planet, than low income people. They must navigate markets daily, making micro-decisions, dozens and dozens, to move their way through society. And yet if a single catastrophic health problem impacts their family, they could be put back into poverty, sometimes for generations. And so we need both the market and we need aid.

Patient capital works between, and tries to take the best of both. It's money that's invested in entrepreneurs who know their communities and are building solutions to healthcare, water, housing, alternative energy, thinking of low income people not as passive recipients of charity, but as individual customers, consumers, clients, people who want to make decisions in their own lives.

Patient capital requires that we have incredible tolerance for risk, a long time horizon in terms of allowing those entrepreneurs time to experiment, to use the market as the best listening device that we have, and the expectation of below-market returns, but outsized social impact. It recognizes that the market has its limitation. And so patient capital also works with smart subsidy to extend the benefits of a global economy, to include all people.

Now entrepreneurs need patient capital for three reasons. First, they tend to work in markets where people make one, two, three dollars a day and they are making all of their decisions within that income level. Second, the geographies in which they work have terrible infrastructure. No roads to speak of, sporadic electricity, and high levels of corruption. Third, they are often creating markets.

Even if you're bringing clean water for the first time into rural villages, it is something new. And so many low income people have seen so many failed promises, broken, and seen so many quacks and sporadic medicines offered to them, that building trust takes a lot of time, takes a lot of patience. It also requires being connected to a lot of management assistance. Not only to build the systems, the business models that allow us to reach low income people in a sustainable way, but to connect those business, to other markets, to governments, to corporations -- real partnerships if we want to get to scale.

I want to share one story about an innovation called drip irrigation. In 2002 I met this incredible entrepreneur named Amitabha Sadangi from India, who'd been working for 20 years with some of the poorest farmers on the planet. And he was expressing his frustration that the aid market had bypassed low-income farmers altogether, despite the fact that 200 million farmers alone in India make under a dollar a day. They were creating subsidies either for large farms, or they were giving inputs to the farmers that they thought they should use, rather than that the farmers wanted to use.

At the same time Amitabha was obsessed with this drip irrigation technology that had been invented in Israel. It was a way of bringing small amounts of water directly to the stalk of the plant. And it could transform swaths of desert land into fields of emerald green. But the market also had bypassed low income farmers. Because these systems were both too expensive, and they were constructed for fields that were too large. The average small village farmer works on two acres or less.

And so Amitabha decided that he would take that innovation and he would redesign it from the perspective of the poor farmers themselves. Because he spent so many years listening to what they needed not what he though that they should have. And he used three fundamental principles.

The first one was miniaturization. The drip irrigation system had to be small enough that a farmer only had to risk a quarter acre, even if he had two, because it was too frightening, given all that he had at stake. Second, it had to be extremely affordable. In other words, that risk on the quarter acre needed to be repaid in a single harvest. Or else they wouldn't take the risk. And third, it had to be what Amitabha calls infinitely expandable. What I mean is with the profits from the first quarter acre, the farmers could buy a second, and a third, and a fourth.

As of today, IDE India, Amitabha's organization has sold over 300 thousand farmers these systems and has seen their yields and incomes double or triple, on average. But this didn't happen overnight. In fact, when you go back to the beginning, there were no private investors who would be willing to take a risk on building a new technology for a market class that made under a dollar a day, that were known to be some of the most risk-averse people on the planet, and that were working in one of the riskiest sectors, agriculture.

And so we needed grants. And he used significant grants to research, to experiment, to fail, to innovate and try again. And when he had a prototype and had a better understanding of how to market to farmers, that's when patient capital could come in. And we helped him build a company, for profit, that would build on IDE's knowledge, and start looking at sales and exports, and be able to tap into other kinds of capital.

Secondarily, we wanted to see if we could export this drip irrigation and bring it into other countries. And so we met Dr. Sono Khangharani in Pakistan. And while, again, you needed patience to move a technology for the poor in India, into Pakistan, just to get the permits, over time we were able to start a company with with Dr. Sono who runs a large community development organization in the Thar Desert, which is one of the remote and poorest areas of the country. And though that company has just started, our assumption is that there too we'll see the impact on millions.

But drip irrigation isn't the only innovation. We're starting to see these happening all around the world. In Arusha, Tanzania A to Z Textile Manufacturing has worked in partnership with us, with UNICEF, with the Global Fund, to create a factory that now employs 7,000 people, mostly women. And they produce 20 million lifesaving bednets for Africans around the world.

Lifespring Hospital is a joint venture between Acumen and the government of India to bring quality, affordable maternal health care to low income women. And it's been so successful that it's currently building a new hospital every 35 days.

And 1298 Ambulances decided that it was going to reinvent a completely broken industry, building an ambulance service in Bombay that would use the technology of Google Earth, a sliding scale pricing system so that all people could have access, and a severe and public decision not to engage in any form of corruption. So that in the terrorist attacks of November they were the first responder, and are now beginning to scale, because of partnership. They've just won four government contracts to build off their 100 ambulances, and are one of the largest and most effective ambulance companies in India.

This idea of scale is critical. Because we're starting to see these enterprises reach hundreds of thousands of people. All of the ones I discussed have reached at least a quarter million people. But that's obviously not enough. And it's where the idea of partnership becomes so important. Whether it's by finding those innovations that can access the capital markets, government itself, or partner with major corporations, there is unbelievable opportunity for innovation.

President Obama understands that. He recently authorized the creation of a Social Innovation Fund to focus on what works in this country, and look at how we can scale it. And I would submit that it's time to consider a global innovation fund that would find these entrepreneurs around the world who really have innovations, not only for their country, but ones that we can use in the developed world as well. Invest financial assistance, but also management assistance. And then measure the returns, both from a financial perspective, and from a social impact perspective.

When we think about new approaches to aid, it's impossible not to talk about Pakistan. We've had a rocky relationship with that country and in all fairness the United States has not always been a very reliable partner. But again I would say that this is our moment for extraordinary things to happen. And if we take that notion of a global innovation fund, we could use this time to invest not directly in government, though we would have government's blessing, nor in international experts, but in the many existing entrepreneurs and civil society leaders who already are building wonderful innovations that are reaching people all across the country.

People like Rashani Zafar. Who created one of the largest microfinance banks in the country, and is a real role model for women inside and outside the country. And Tasneem Siddiqui who developed a way called incremental housing, where he has moved 40 thousand slum dwellers into safe, affordable community housing. Educational initiatives like DIL and The Citizen Foundation that are building schools across the country. It's not hyperbole to say that these civil society institutions and these social entrepreneurs are building real alternatives to the Taliban.

I've invested in Pakistan for over seven years now and those of you who've also worked there can attest that Pakistanis are an incredibly hard working population. And there is a fierce upward mobility in their very nature.

President Kennedy said that those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. I would say that the converse is true. That these social leaders who really are looking at innovation and extending opportunity to the 70 percent of Pakistanis who make less than two dollars a day, provide real pathways to hope. And as we think about how we construct aid for Pakistan, while we need to strengthen the judiciary, build greater stability, we also need to think about lifting those leaders who can be role models for the rest of the world.

On one of my last visits to Pakistan I asked Dr Sono if he would take me to see some of the drip irrigation in the Thar Desert. And we left Karachi one morning before dawn. It was about 115 degrees. And we drove for eight hours along this moonscape-like landscape with very little color, lots of heat, very little discussion, because we were exhausted.

And finally at the end of the journey I could see this thin little yellow line across the horizon. And as we got closer its significance became apparent. That there in the desert was a field of sunflowers growing seven feet tall. Because one of the poorest farmers on Earth had gotten access to a technology that had allowed him to change his own life. His name was Raja. And he had kind, twinkly hazel eyes, and warm expressive hands that reminded me of my father.

And he said it was the first dry season in his entire life that he hadn't taken his 12 children and 50 grandchildren on a two day journey across the desert to work as day laborers at a commercial farm for about 50 cents a day. Because he was building these crops. And with the money he earned he could stay this year. And for the first time ever in three generations, his children would go to school.

We asked him if he would send his daughters as well as his sons. And he said, "Of course I will. Because I don't want them discriminated against anymore." When we think about solutions to poverty we can not deny individuals their fundamental dignity. Because at the end of the day dignity is more important to the human spirit than wealth. And what's exciting is to see so many entrepreneurs across sectors who are building innovations that recognize that what people want is freedom and choice and opportunity. Because that is where dignity really starts.

Martin Luther King said that love without power is anemic and sentimental. And that power without love is reckless and abusive. Our generation has seen both approaches tried, and often fail. But I think our generation also might be the first to have the courage to embrace both love and power. For that is what we'll need as we move forward to dream and imagine what it will really take to build a global economy that includes all of us. And to finally extend that fundamental proposition that all men are created equal, to every human being on the planet.

The time for us to begin innovating and looking for new solutions, a cross sector is now. I can only talk from my own experience. But in eight years of running Acumen fund, I've seen the power of patient capital. Not only to inspire innovation and risk taking, but to truly build systems that have created more than 25 thousand jobs and delivered tens of millions of services and products to some of the poorest people on the planet. I know it works. But I know that many other kinds of innovation also work.

And so I urge you, in whatever sector you work, in whatever job you do, to start thinking about how we might build solutions that start from the perspective of those we're trying to help. Rather than what we think that they might need. I will take embracing the world with both arms. And it will take living with the spirit of generosity and accountability, with a sense of integrity and perseverance. And yet these are the very qualities for which men and women have been honored throughout the generations. And there is so much good that we can do. Just think of all those sunflowers in the desert. Thank you. (Applause)