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Fact Sheet: Transforming International Development
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary October 21, 2008

Fact Sheet: Transforming International Development President Bush Has
Enhanced The Way We Deliver Aid By Partnering With Developing Nations And
Demonstrating Results

ÿÿWhite House News

ÿÿÿÿÿ President Bush Attends White House Summit on International
Development ÿÿÿÿÿ In Focus: White House Summit on International Development

Today, President Bush is hosting a White House Summit focused on advancing
his Administration's core principles for transforming international
development: country ownership, good governance, results-based programs and
accountability, and the importance of economic growth.ÿOver the past eight
years, President Bush has charted a new era in standards for development
aid, lifting people from poverty, fighting disease, and increasing
educational opportunities.
  þ The President recognizes that during times of economic crisis, some may
    be tempted to turn inward _ focusing on our problems here at home,
    while ignoring our interests around the world.ÿÿ This would be a
    serious mistake.ÿ America is and must stay committed to international
    development for reasons that remain true regardless of the ebb and flow
    of the markets.ÿ

A New Philosophy For Transforming Countries And Saving Lives

President Bush has made international development one of his highest
priorities. ÿNot only has his Administration provided more foreign
assistance than any other in the past half century, it has charted a new
era in development, predicating American aid on results and
accountability.ÿ Under the President's leadership, we are now:
  þ Insisting on accountability in return for our assistance.ÿ For too
    long, foreign aid was designed to make us feel good.ÿ Now, we are
    ensuring that our resources do good.ÿ
  þ Using this aid to foster sustainable economic growth and promote good
    governance.
  þ Advancing a model of true partnership. ÿThis gives poor nations a real
    stake in their own development.ÿ
  þ Encouraging volunteer organizations, local charities, and the faith
    community to take on an even greater role in development. ÿThese groups
    offer a compassion that no big-government program can match.ÿ

This new approach is embodied in the revolutionary Millennium Challenge
Account.ÿ Through this program, the United States invests in developing
nations that fight corruption, govern justly, support opening markets to
trade and investment, and invest in the health and education of their
people.ÿ By doing so, we encourage developing nations to make tough
economic, political, and social reforms, and we encourage leaders to
respect their citizens, uphold human dignity, and earn the trust of their
people.ÿ People in the developing world have the capacity to improve their
own lives _ and they will rise to meet high expectations.
  þ Millennium Challenge programs have invested $6.7 billion dollars in 35
    countries around the world.ÿFrom Albania and Moldova, to Indonesia and
    Mongolia, to Paraguay and Peru, these partnerships are helping
    developing nations take charge of their future and unleash the talents
    of their people.ÿ For example, this February, President Bush and
    President Kikwete of Tanzania signed a five-year compact worth nearly
    $700 million to improve the country's transportation, energy, and water
    supply.ÿ

Ushering In The New Era Of Development Is A Historic Commitment We Can Be
Proud Of

America and our partners are helping to meet basic human needs like food
and clean water.ÿ Since 2002, the United States has provided more than $16
billion in food assistance, helping ensure that tens of millions of people
around the world do not go hungry.ÿ Last year, we dedicated nearly $1
billion to improving sanitation and water supplies in developing nations.
ÿIn response to the current global food crisis, we have committed $5.5
billion to address global hunger over the next two years.ÿ We are also
working to help find long-term solutions to global hunger with efforts such
as distributing better seeds that will boost yields, investing in research
that will make crops like rice and wheat more resistant to drought and
pests, and calling on other nations to open their markets to crops grown
with biotechnology.ÿ

We are working with our partners to unleash the greatest engine of
prosperity the world has ever known: free trade.ÿ When President Bush took
office, we had free trade agreements with only three nations.ÿ Today, we
have agreements in force with 14 _ most of which are with developing
countries. ÿIn 2005, the President worked with Congress to approve the
Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement, and
trade between participating countries and the United States is up by 30
percent.

America and our partners recognize that education is the gateway to
prosperity _ and essential to any society's long-term success.ÿ America and
our partners are determined to extend the promise of a good education to
more people in the developing world.ÿ The U.S. Agency for International
Development has partnered with local officials to start kindergartens in
Jordan, taught hundreds of thousands of children about information
technology in Morocco, and built 70 schools for girls in Egypt.ÿ Through
our Africa Education Initiative, the United States has trained more than
700,000 teachers, distributed more than 10 million textbooks, and provided
hundreds of thousands of scholarships to help girls go to school.ÿ Last
year, President Bush announced a new initiative that will devote $425
million to improving education in Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Liberia, Mali,
and Yemen.ÿ Working in partnership with Latin American nations, we have
helped more than 400,000 poor and disadvantaged children learn to read.ÿ

America and our partners are helping to lift the burden of deadly disease.
ÿIn Africa, the treatable, preventable disease of malaria kills one child
every 30 seconds. ÿIn 2005, President Bush launched a five-year, $1.2
billion Malaria Initiative to help cut the number of malaria-related deaths
in 15 African nations by half.ÿ So far, this initiative has reached 25
million people, and the numbers of people sick or dying from malaria have
dropped dramatically in places like Zambia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and
Tanzania.ÿ
  þ The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is helping to
    turn the tide against global HIV/AIDS. In 2003, when President Bush
    launched this initiative, only 50,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa were
    receiving anti-retroviral treatment.ÿ Today, the United States supports
    treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in the region _ and tens of
    thousands more around the world, from Asia to the Caribbean to Eastern
    Europe.ÿ The largest international commitment ever by any nation to
    combat a single disease, PEPFAR has supported care for more than 6.6
    million people worldwide and allowed nearly 200,000 children in Africa
    to be born HIV-free through mother-to-child prevention interventions.ÿ

We Must Sustain Our Commitments To The Developing World Because Our Gains,
While Significant, Can Be Reversed

President Bush urges both parties in Congress to ensure that our
development efforts remain an enduring priority of the United States.ÿ He
also calls on other members of the G-8 and the United Nations _ as well as
our fellow contributors to the Global Fund _ to follow through on their
pledges.ÿ TheÿPresident also urges corporations and foundations that have
shared their resources and expertise to continue their generosity and asks
faith-based groups to carry on their missions of mercy.
  þ Development is in America's security interests.ÿ We know that our
    enemies recruit people to their dark ideology by exploiting despair _
    and that the best way to respond is by spreading hope.
  þ Development is in America's long-term economic interests.ÿ When America
    helps developing nations rise out of poverty, we create new markets for
    our goods and services and better-paying jobs for American workers.ÿ
  þ Development is in America's moral interests.ÿ We believe in the
    timeless truth: to whom much is given, much is required.ÿ The power to
    save lives comes with the obligation to use it.

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