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strong to the people of South Sudan as they have endured this totally unnecessary and manmade conflict which has inflicted so much pain and suffering and death on many of them, created a humanitarian crisis in the country. We have been the leading donor. We have contributed over $1.3 billion of humanitarian assistance. Weve also maintained some of our development activities in areas such as health, education, and agriculture, which directly benefit people.So the United States has stood with the people of South Sudan. We stood with them during their long fight to achieve self-determination and independence, and weve stood with them through this conflict and we will continue to stand with the people of South Sudan and with those of their leaders who will commit themselves to making this peace agreement work. Its absolutely essential that we have the leadership of South Sudan committed to this peace agreement. That really is going to be the peace dividend for the people of South Sudan. Its going to be the absence of fighting and being able to move forward once again to try to move on development of the country and to create that sense of nationhood so that, again, that diverse country can begin to move forward in peace and tranquility. MODERATOR: Thank you, Ambassador.AMBASSADOR BOOTH: My pleasure.MODERATOR: (Inaudible) YALI. Again, we have Deputy Assistant Secretary Todd Haskell here to announce the rollout of the Young African Leaders Initiative. Thank you. MR HASKELL: Thanks very much. I mean, this is a very important day for us and were very excited at the State Department about it. Today online is the for the third time is the application for the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which is the flagship program of President Obamas Young African Leadership Initiative. Some of you might recall that this program online has attracted literally tens of thousands of applicants over the last couple of years, and this year I think were going to do even better. Theres tremendous excitement about it. The President has declared at the African Leaders Summit last year that the number of people participating in the Mandela Washington Fellowship this year would double from 500 as it was the last two years to a thousand this year, so its a much larger group. And as President Obama has said, weve had many initiatives in Africa, many efforts, and some of them certainly cost a lot more than YALI. But the President has said that this is, he believes, his most important legacy in our relationship with Africa and to the outreach to young Africans. So what is it and where does it come from? I think we have to President Obama laid out his vision for this that there is a tremendous youth bulge in Africa and that we, the United States, needed to reach out to young people in Africa. So in order to do that, he has established a series of different initiatives within the Young African Leadership Initiative, but the flagship program is, again, the Mandela Washington Fellowship, which is going online today
and people are beginning to apply. Those selected to participate in the fellowship will be brought to the United States next summer for six weeks of academic study. Theyll be participating in Americas finest universities. These are people between the ages of 25 and 35. And at the end of their academic period, theyll come to Washington and theyll actually have a summit with, among others, President Obama, who will spend time with the leaders. Then when they get back to Africa and their home countries, theyll be eligible for numerous grants, professional development opportunities, possibilities of meeting with senior U.S. officials visiting the region, the ability to travel in the region and meet with other fellows. And Ive actually just come back from the region traveling through, and as I always do whenever I travel in the region and the same is frankly true of Secretary Kerry, its true of Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield, and its true of the President on his last trip we always make an effort to meet with the YALI fellows in the countries we visit to see how theyre doing. And its really an amazing and inspiring group. When I was just there I talked to folks who were starting businesses that were employing other young people, acting as mentors for other young people. Theyve formed NGOs to fight gender violence. I would note that in the Ebola-affected countries at the center of the U.S. (inaudible) efforts to battle Ebola, the YALI fellows stepped up in each of those three countries and played really important roles. So this is the beginning, I think, of an outreach by the U.S. Government to the young people of Africa, who, frankly, are the majority of Africans right now, and an effort to establish a channel of communication with which we can work to them and bring about positive change in the future in Africa. So I would urge young people across Africa. The website is YALI, Y-A-L-I.state.gov. Go there. Please start your application. The application closes November 11th. This is as so many of the fellows have told me, this is a life-changing opportunity, the opportunity to attend our finest university, meet with senior U.S. Government officials, have the opportunity to apply for different grants and professional development opportunities, a real opportunity to move forward and take your country and your continent with you in partnership with the United States.Thank you very much. I am happy to take any questions if you have them. Okay.QUESTION: Im Vasco de Jesus with Press Communications Brazil. It is great to hear and I commend the American Government for this initiative. And Im wondering, has the United States done anything such as big and revolutionary towards the youth anywhere else?MR HASKELL: In fact, there has been such a tremendous response to YALI which was the Young African Leadership Initiative the White House, in conjunction with the State Department and USAID, have actually looked at doing it in other places. So we actually have a program, and Im sorry if Im going to go all
acronym on you, but there is for Southeast Asia we have YSEALI now, which is starting out, but its the Young Southeast Asian Leadership Initiative. And then actually in Latin America as well we are looking at the somewhat unfortunate acronym, YLAI, which is, I believe, Y-L-A-I, Young Latin American Initiative, yes? Those YALI is definitely the leader because its been going for three years, and frankly, has the President has pushed a lot of resources. But were looking at youth outreach around the world. Its definitely I mean, its almost a cliche. But obviously the youth are our future, and its where our relationships have to be.Thank you.QUESTION: Thank you very much.MR HASKELL: Great.# # # THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2015, 1:00 P.M. EDTNEW YORK FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, 799 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA, 10TH FLOOR
the world. And thats what got us to this P3 Impact Award with both Darden and with Concordia. Weve created the award to recognize partnerships that are changing the world in most impactful ways. This collaboration helps to better understand the mechanisms and best practices of a modern P3. So this isnt just sort of saying wow, arent they creative, arent they the best. This is actually looking at the pieces that go into it, recognizing there are pieces that can be employed other places toward success. Judges from each of our organizations read over 50 applications this year and assessed them on each partners structure, impact, innovative features, and scalability. And I will tell you, they were I mean, I dont like to be you have these big competitions, everybodys a winner. MR KREHMEYER: Right. (Laughter.)MR OBRIEN: But everybody is a winner, because this is in a lot of ways, this is cutting edge of what governments doing, and were very fortunate that weve got some very willing and eager partners and enthusiastic partners in the private sector with Concordia and Darden. So I want to give my colleagues a chance to talk. I think well start with Dean, give a little UVA overview.MR KREHMEYER: Thank you. Thank you. Let me sort of add the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, delighted to once again partner with both the U.S. Department of State and Concordia in delivering the P3 Impact Award.Drew sort of mentioned the finalists, and to say they were impressive and all the applications were impressive is kind of an understatement. What were seeing and what we are seeing through last years applicants and this years applicants is that businesses absolutely and increasingly are joining in public-private partnerships to address global challenges. They are providing a far-reaching impact on the communities and societies in which they operate. What were also seeing at the Darden School is this is of interest to our students. This is of interest to students who are going to be the emerging leaders, tomorrows leaders, who are going to be engaging in these public-private partnerships. And its important that they see this as one of the mechanisms, whereby when they are leading organizations and when they are leading business organizations, that they are looking broadly at how do these organizations really provide value to all of the stakeholders they serve. One of the ways they do that is through the public-private partnerships, and theres no better examples than the finalists we received.One more note Ill make about the P3 Impact Award is certainly its an award, and we had great applicants. The team did a super job of selecting finalists. But one of the important things about the award is yes, recognizing the finalists and recognizing who was selected as the winner of that, but also important and maybe more important is capturing the insights and the leading practices that come from those applications, that come from those finalists and that come from the winner, and how can we, through the report that we
will issue tomorrow, share those insights and leading practices, so that other public-private partnerships or those that are thinking about engaging in public-private partnerships can utilize those learnings to be more effective in their own realm and sphere.So let me just wrap up before and Ill turn it over to Matt and Nick and sort of why is this important to the Darden School? The Darden School our mission is to improve the world by developing and inspiring responsible leaders and advancing knowledge. And I can think of very few examples that would better illustrate that than recognizing these public-private partnerships not just recognizing them, but also working with them to take the knowledge and sharing it broadly to have impact.And with that, Ill turn it over to Nick and Matt.MR SWIFT: Thank you very, very much, and first let me say on behalf of Concordia how honored we are by the partnership with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the U.S. Department of State. This is a partnership that has really grown organically, come together very well, and it is one of the things that myself and Nick are most proud of as far as what we do at Concordia.Concordia, as an institute, does three things. We offer programming, primarily most known for our annual summit held every year during the UN General Assembly, and Nick will talk a little further about our annual summit, which is coming up starting tomorrow. The second is our annual Partnership Index, and the third is our campaign series, which is really where were taking a lot of the public-private partnerships that are being built within the Concordia community, and we are helping make those have better social impact. But let me talk to the first part, because thats how it connects really to the award, the raising awareness piece. Concordia, we are proud to say, we strive to be one of the leading advocates for public-private partnerships in the world. And as part of that, our global platform and the community that we have built is a place to highlight some of the best practices and some of the best, frankly, public-private partnerships in the world, and theres no better way to do that than with the annual P3 Impact Award. I have to say I was very pleased and proud of the number of applicants that came in this year, but also the quality of the applicants that came in this year. The process to judge and determine who was the winner was a challenging one, because all of them were exceptional. And what we hope that this award can do is show leaders of both the public and private sectors the real value of building their own public-private partnerships together.So with that, Ill pass to Nick.MR LOGOTHETIS: Thanks, Matt, and Ill just my name is Nick Logothetis, co-chairman and co-founder of Concordia along with Matt. I just want to add my thanks to Dean and the University of Virginia and Drew and the team at the State Department. Ill
just talk a little bit about our fifth annual summit, which is coming up tomorrow and on Friday.So Concordia initially started as a yearly summit, which then grew to a multifaceted organization, but our summit has always been our flagship event. And this year well have about 1,000 people. Well have over 20 current and former heads of state. Well have some leading CEOs from companies Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, General Mills, Hersheys, amongst others. And were very particularly excited that this year well have remarks from Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States, at the end of the day tomorrow.So as we continue to expand Concordia, we also have developed partnerships with organizations that are real experts in what they do organizations like the Atlantic Council, like the Rockefeller Foundation, like others. And so we have individual sessions with those different organizations throughout the day.So we hope that youll be able to join us tomorrow and the next day, or one of the days. Will Hummel in the back there is working with us on our press outreach, and so wed welcome you to come and see and experience what Concordia is about. And I just wanted to say thank you again.MR OBRIEN: I think if I could add two more cents about both partners University of Virginia, the Darden School, where theres the colloquial expression is Talk the talk, walk the walk, and they do. As Dean said, you will see what were talking about today is infused in their students, its infused in their learning life. And that makes a big difference, because what I think were trying to do the State Department angle of this we are trying to help people around the world prepare for an economy thats 21st century and beyond. I different parts of where I go in the world, I use the metaphor that were trying a lot of places 100, 150 years ago had a shipyard or a big factory in their town, small town, big city. They had something that everybody went to every day and went to work. Thats how they paid their mortgage, fed their families. Those dont exist anymore; we all know that. There are large companies, but those dont exist. We are trying in a lot of ways I use the metaphor, were creating the shipyard of the future. And its at peoples kitchen tables, at their home offices. Its at a small business park in a non-urban area. Its everywhere. And thats what were trying to do. Were trying to help people think differently. Concordia. If you have not been to the Concordia summit, my opinion my opinion its the premier private sector public-private sector event in the world. I mean, I go to a lot of events. This is a room loaded with excitement, its a room loaded with people that are eager to talk about the issue. So we are very fortunate to have this great university partner and this forum that this team here at Concordias put together. It is if you get
a chance to go, go. You will be completely overwhelmed. So --MR SWIFT: Thank you. Thank you.MR OBRIEN: No, and its true. Its very accurate. Questions? I know that you joined a little bit late.QUESTION: Im sorry.MR OBRIEN: Thats quite all right.QUESTION: Sorry about that.MR OBRIEN: No, no worries. We can talk to you a little bit afterwards if youd like to. Questions?MODERATOR: The floor is open for questions. State your name and media affiliation.QUESTION: I dont even know where to start. Im really overwhelmed. This is really very powerful and insightful. So my name is Bukola Shonuga; Im with the African Views Framework. And I attended a few events this week with the president of Nigeria in town. And theyre looking for foreign partnership for foreign partnerships and foreign direct investment and so on, and also looking to see how they can harness (inaudible).So when you talk about best practices, Nigeria can be a case study of corruption and lack of adequate resources. Even when you look at a university education in the last 30 years, thats an issue that (inaudible) taking over the government right now. So there are no existing industries for graduates to directly work when they graduate and come out of the universities. So I think that finding a way to private partner with this group will be one thing that we would like to recommend to the Nigerian Government, like lets its a new day. So if youre talking about that much population and youre looking to have youth employment or reverse, you have to first talk about best practices. So its a long-winded, but my direct question is and Im really sorry that it was long-winded will you take Africa in this context? What are your views of what is happening in Africa towards best practices, and how they can better utilize their resources to be the 21st century climate that it should be? And what would you in terms of partnership with African countries, what would that look like to you?MR OBRIEN: Would you like me to its a very good question. And so President Obama in particular has placed a lot of emphasis on our outreach to Africa as a U.S. Government for what is now amounting to a good chunk of his both terms. And theres not only is it important in a geographical sort of way, but the reality is the worlds youth population is in Africa, and it will obviously continue to be that way. So its the world population will be very Africa-centric in the years ahead. Africa has the potential to be the worlds bread basket. Africa is a place where people are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and education, and I can talk a little bit about something our office does there. There are theres a lot of opportunity there. Its a matter of harnessing doing sort of what were doing; making sure that government is focused on bringing the private sector to the equation, working with universities, working with other we do a lot of work with hospitals
and health centers. We you have to be creative about this, so I think you have to be very open-minded about it, because government and Im talking about the United States Government but government at one time was seen as fixing everybodys issues here, right. If you look at sort of the post-war post-World War II economy, U.S. Government did a lot for people, particularly after the Depression; not even the World War, but after the Depression. And that sort of that influence has waned a little bit. You can see it in our political climate. And the direct foreign investment that we used to give away as a country has declined sort of steadily too. Whats the solution? The solution is public-private partnerships. Its bringing the private sector into the equation. Now, that could mean a Fortune 500 company; it could mean a Fortune 50 company. But I think for the work were doing, its getting people to think differently about how this equation works, and its finding young entrepreneurs, people who have great ideas, people who havent had the opportunity to have a formal education who may need that. And how do we make those links, and how do we show people who are everybodys going to not everybody, but a lot of people make their living around the world, like I said, at their kitchen table, in their home office, at a small business park. Nobody should be left behind because thats how the world economy is headed.MR LOGOTHETIS: And just to add, what Concordia tries to do is not be an advocate for business and not be an advocate for government. Were an entirely nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization. We try and bring the two groups together to help them better understand one another, to help them work more efficiently together, but also, as Matt said, I think, to learn from other experiences. Because there are unique ways to do business in different parts of the world, but there are many things that are similar. And so thats what we try to play a role in.Specifically as it relates to Africa, Ill be honest with you: Concordia has not been as strong in Africa as we would like. We hope thats changing. This year we have our first African CEO representative, a gentleman by the name of Jabulane Mabuza, whos the CEO of Telkom in South Africa. And were very excited about that and hope to build upon what he is on a panel to talk about youth unemployment and build upon what sort of comes from that panel.MR SWIFT: And I will also say we have a session entirely dedicated to public-private partnerships and health, focusing on Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, which is a very important initiative from the State Department as well. So we will be this will be the first year that were doing programming focused on the continent, and specifically in the area of health.MR OBRIEN: Theres so we do we have our office has a program called LIONS@FRICA, which makes linkages between entrepreneurship communities in