Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a major speech in support of a strengthened U.S. international development mission just one day before the new U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator, Rajiv Shah, is scheduled to be sworn in. In the speech, which directly mentions InterAction and a number of its member organizations, Clinton said she wants to integrate development with defense and diplomacy without diluting its effectiveness or independence.
"Non-profits like the Gates Foundation, CARE, the Clinton Foundation, Oxfam International, networks of NGOs like InterAction, as well as smaller organizations like ACCION and Transparency International bring their own resources, deep knowledge, and commitment to humanitarian missions that complement our work in critical ways. And some foundations are combining philanthropy and capitalism in a very innovative approach, like the Acumen Fund. Universities are engaging in critical research, both to solve urgent problems like hunger and disease, and to improve the work of development, like the work of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT."
