Speeches

USAID 44th Anniversary

In Celebration of 44 Years of Cooperation between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the People of Malawi
 
October 20, 2004
Lilongwe, Malawi

Remarks
Roger Yochelson
Director
USAID/Malawi

[Opening]
Good Morning.  This is an extraordinary day.  It is the first time we have sat down together with colleagues and partners to take special note of the lasting relationship between USAID and our neighbors in Malawi.  I am especially pleased that the President has found time in his very burdened schedule to be with us, and that the First Lady is able to be with us as well. 
 
The support to Malawi actually began in 1960 under the old U.S. International Cooperation Administration.  But it was by an Executive Order signed on November 3, 1961, that President John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  USAID became the first U.S. foreign assistance organization whose primary emphasis was on long-range economic and social development.    
 
Since that time, together we have reached millions and millions and millions of Malawians.  Sometimes our work begins with individuals, as with the farmers of the National Association of Small Farmers of Malawi (NASFAM), and then grows.  At other times the work begins with groups.  This was the case with Malawi CARER, Vera Chirwa’s dream, which came to life with a handful of paralegals and volunteers, and which has grown to a network of community based educators and paralegals already reaching more than a third of the country. 
 
Similarly with the training of teacher educators, who then reach out to other teachers, and students, and the community, and bring changes to schools throughout the country.  
 
Sometimes the support goes immediately to many millions.  In the food crisis of 2001-2002 USAID delivered food and related aid to more than 3 million Malawians in need.  We worked with other donors and with the Government and succeeded in averting a famine.
 
We also see the steadily growing activity by individuals and small groups in micro-lending, at Opportunities International Bank of Malawi.  In natural resource management there are communities all across Malawi who are working to build economic growth through a careful approach to resource use, and through a partnership with national and local government.  This is all part of the Road to Prosperity which His Excellency described in his inauguration address.
 
And we see essential improvements over the years in health, where doctors and nurses and pharmacists, families and chiefs and traditional authorities, ministry officials and regional and district officers as well, have worked with USAID and succeeded in reducing infant and child mortality, in bringing affordable bednets to the entire country so that the great danger of malaria is reduced, and in bringing awareness to virtually the entire population, of the importance of condoms and other contraceptives.
 
We also work together to develop new national policies, such as the HIV/AIDS in Education policy recently signed by the Minister, and to strengthen institutions, as in the work we have done with committees in Parliament.
 
From our inception, USAID has seen over and over the validation of our guiding principles in Malawi, that education and economic growth are the key elements needed to build a great nation and to defeat the threats of radicalism and decay. 
 
We began in the 1960’s with the Lake Shore road, to bring commerce to the country, and with the development of the College of Education at Malawi University and of the Polytechnic.  We helped establish the Malawi Broadcasting Company. 
 
The push for education grew to include critical sectors, in agriculture and health and primary education.  Connected to all of this have been the principles of democracy and good governance.  This in turn has brought information of all kinds to Malawians.  Information about basic human rights.  Information about the workings of their government and how they can have a greater voice.  The importance of their participation in elections.  Where to find the answers to health questions.  Where to find support, so that you feel part of the larger effort to help Malawi grow.  The information is given to anyone who needs it.  The process multiplies itself. 
 
People living with aids talk to more and more neighbors and families, and discover that there is a rich life they can have if they are not afraid to educate and communicate.  Tens of thousands Malawians are getting tested for HIV/AIDS at MACRO and elsewhere each year, and the number is growing rapidly. 
 
The information which farmers now have has meant increasing amounts of export of a wider diversity of cash crops.  Increased income means better health care, additional business development, and a change in mentality about what is possible.
 
And that is what is especially notable about the people of Malawi.  This courage to take on new ideas and new tools, and the motivation to push themselves to grow.
 
There are several explanations offered for the origin of the word “Malawi”.  Some say it is Chichewa for flames, and came to be adopted by ancestral immigrants when they first looked down from high plateaus surrounding the great Lake.  One legend which I like is recorded among the Mang’anja of the Chikwawa District, who describe setting grass on fire as they moved through the country, so that groups on the hillsides could keep track of those following paths lower down.  The fire kept them focused, and kept them from getting lost. 
 
Fire is what we have, in the form of our great wish to see Malawi prosper, and all Malawians educated, healthy, and dancing and singing as only Malawians do, for generations to come.
 
Many people assume that USAID is an organization of foreigners.  It is not.  Approximately 90% of the USAID staff are Malawian.  They work in turn with our implementing partner organizations around the country with the real change-agents – the people of Malawi themselves.  The United States cannot change Malawi.  Only Malawi can do that.  In all of the projects and over all of the years, it is fundamentally the individual citizens of Malawi who are most important.  As recently as this past week, the First Lady launched a special effort to assist households and communities to raise themselves up.  The Ethel Mutharika Foundation is a perfect example of Malawians helping Malawians to address basic problems of life, including hunger and poverty. 
 
It takes courage to get up in the morning when life is hard, and try something new.  It shows a very special strength of character.   
 
There is a story which comes from the Kwakiutl Indians of North America, out on the west coast.  It speaks of a figure they called the Transformer.  The Transformer traveled the coast of the Northwest part of the continent to see that the job of creation was completed.  In one of the many Indian stories of the Transformer, he came upon a young man.  The young man was looking at himself in a pool of water, combing his hair.  When the Transformer asked him what he was doing, the young man said he wanted to look good when the Transformer came.  The Transformer said “I am the Transformer.  What do you want from me?”  The young man just kept grooming himself and said “I am just going to stand here and fix myself up for the Transformer.”  The Transformer said “then you will stand there forever”, and turned the young man to stone.  If we do nothing but wait for some outside force or person to solve our problems and make changes, we might as well be stone.  What we have seen over the decades is that Malawians do not sit and wait.
 
For over four decades the people of the United States have supported the work by Malawians to have a richer life.  With this support the U.S. Government and USAID have spent a billion dollars, 100 billion kwacha, in our partnership effort.  The funds we use come from your neighbors in the United States of America.  They come from Steve and Marilyn Pechonis, of Truro, Massachusetts; from Sarah Jane Williams, of Portland, Oregon; John Baylor of Butte, Montana; Emilia Tom, of Boca Raton, Florida; Mat Macy of New York City; Peter Bennett of Los Angeles, California; and Bonnie Thompson of Addis, Maine.  From all over the United States, people who hear of the hard work in Malawi and hear of the successes, and the frustrations, continue to support our work together. 
 
We have been through a lot of history together.  We have shared the birth of the Republic, the struggle to find the right path, the emergence of a true democracy.  We have seen difficult times and we have seen the signs of prosperity and health.   We have seen the great benefit of tolerance and understanding, which the President spoke of the other day in discussing what long-term relationships represent.
 
What do the people of the United States want us to do in Malawi?  All that is possible.  How long do they want us to stay in Malawi?  Until the job is done.  So it is on their behalf that I congratulate all sectors of Malawi, government and non-government, all of our implementing partners, all of the staff of USAID, The State Department, the Peace Corps, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Department of Defense, and all the citizens of Malawi who have worked with our activities going back to the 1960s, and who continue to benefit today.  Happy anniversary.  There are many years of work ahead of us.  There are many years of singing and dancing and the great pleasure of being your neighbor.
 
Zikomo.