 So you've heard a little bit about me, but I want to share a little bit about myself from another perspective. And I want to start with a confession. I know nothing about livestock. However, I have come to understand that as a child of Africa, you are never separated from livestock. My story started about 20 years ago. And what happened was I was a young girl and I met a young man. And after some time together, he decided that, hmm, let's make this permanent. So being a man from central Kenya, he did what his culture demanded when he wanted to look for a bride. In our community, an engagement takes place when two animals arrive at a young girl's homestead. They are called moate and harika. One is a female sheep and the other a female goat. So this is what happened at my engagement or intent, the asking of my hand actually. These two animals arrived and as you can see, they're very healthy animals. I think, where's Raphael? Our sheep was not a bad sheep, right? It's a Jopa sheep. And the health of these animals indicated the level of intent and respect that his family had for mine. So if it had a strong and healthy and shiny coat, if it had a strong bleat, if it was walking without any limbs, then it meant that we're a serious family and we're coming to you with everything that we have. So, fast forward a couple of months, my uncles and my parents figured that, you know what? We think that these are good animals and are worthy of an ask. Fast forward and a couple of months later, this is my marriage ceremony. It is called a guradio. And that is when I came to understand the centrality of livestock in my culture. Now, as I said, I'm a city girl, born and bred in Nairobi. I'm honestly speaking, every time I would be sent to my grandmother's place, it was like torture for me, right? I didn't understand why I had to chase chickens and I wasn't really chasing them. All I had to do was remove the egg from under them. And when I'd be told to milk a cow, it was something like this, you know? Because I was a city girl. However, on that day, my now husband underwent a ceremony where he cut the front shoulder, the front right shoulder of a young goat after it had been cooked. And he separated it in one clean sweep. And what that symbolized was, he's now separated from his home and his family, and he's starting a new family with me. After that, he put some choice pieces of meat, which normally are reserved only for men, into a basket and presented it to me, showing that he is offering the very best that he could ever offer to me as his new bride. In that moment, surrounded by hundreds of families, we are an African family after all, hundreds of people, I came to understand that I have an identity. I have a culture. I come from something, even as a Nairobi city girl. I and the animals that live off our land are intricately connected. And so I want to thank you as the scientists, as the researchers, as the people who spend time in labs trying to figure out how to make a hadia sheep and goat. I thank you for your service, because without you, perhaps, if he had brought the wrong goats and the unworthy sheep, I might not be the Mrs. Moraguri who I am today. But I want to thank you on behalf of others. I want to thank you on behalf of Zenebech Abdu from Kalu in Ethiopia. She's a mother of five and she's a chicken farmer. And she benefited from the African chicken genetic gains and agriculture to nutrition initiatives. And so through your work, she's not only able to feed her family, but unlock better nutritional value from her livestock. And so if any of you here were part of that project, whether it was in terms of developing new nutritional standards, whether it was making sure that the right people were hired onto that project, I want you to raise your hand. Does this sound like a project that is familiar to you? Yes? Thank you for your service. I want to thank you on behalf of Musa, Musa Akila from the Fakara region in Niger, whose family benefited from decades of research in West Africa into integrated farming and livestock management systems, saving them from the indignity and horror of the never-ending drought cycles that are reality for anybody who lives on the edge of the Sahel. If you are part of a team in Ilri that has anything to do with work in West Africa, please raise your hand. I want to thank you. I want to thank you on behalf of Boa Lee from Bandung Village in Laos, whose farm is on the front lines of an area that is prone to zoonotic threats and has benefited from the idea that actually vets and medics can work together in partnership under Dan Vella that is One Health. If you are any part of this project, or if you believe in the One Health agenda, please raise your hand. Thank you. I want to thank you on behalf of Shamsa Khosa from Wajir in Northern Kenya, who comes from a pastoralist community and depends on camels and goats and livestock as an asset holder and a bank for her family. And because of a livestock insurance program developed by agricultural economists, developed by people who are interested in finances, developed by people who are dedicated to the idea of technology being a new frontier for agriculture, you have saved her and her family and thousands of others from falling into the idea of poverty. So if you were responsible for any part of that project, whether it was making sure that the team could get to Marsabit or to Wajir because they had the right vehicles, whether it was signing a requisition as part of the finance team or being part of the ag economists who dreamt this up. Please put up your hand. That's you. Thank you very much. You see, your work preserves not just our livelihoods but also our culture. By seeing us as Africans, as Asians who are intricately connected to the livestock that is part of us, your work just not only provides us a livelihood but also gives us dignity. And by using a language that speaks to our hearts, you are able then to connect with us. And I urge you to take pride in that whether your station is Addis or Delhi, Hanoi or Nairobi or even beyond asante sana. Now that I've had a chance to see in you a reminder of the people who you serve, allow me to tell you a different story, a story about people who are committed to an idea. And this story starts in 1988, about just over 30 years ago. So for those who are too old to count, this might sound familiar. A group of scientists in Ilri started unraveling a question, as researchers I wanted to do. And they saw that there was a problem amongst smallholder dairy farmers who were located in Kenya's coast. And they started thinking about how can we get these guys to produce more milk? And so inevitably, as scientists do, they thought about what are the inputs that are needed in order to get better outputs. And the story started. It took seven years for that story thread to unravel and for true answers to be found. And as they continued to work, they started to realize that the inputs and the outputs is only one factor. The people who are in the dairy system are just as important. They worked together to bring different actors around an idea that maybe if we trained dairy farmers engaged with milk traders introduced the idea of food safety and handling two hawkers who were used to running away from public health officials, maybe the system could actually be different. And by 1995, they had come together and held a workshop that started unlocking this. And a few years later brought together funders, policymakers, enthusiasts who are actually ready to make a change to the regulatory environment. Their work meant that women like Virginia Wamaida from Kachito Milk Traders could now be a champion for safe handling of milk as she went from farm to farm negotiating with farmers about what she would like to buy. It meant that hawkers like Gabriel Karanja would no longer have to play a cat and mouse game with people from the dairy board because now he was not just a registered member but he was an accepted member of the trade. But most importantly, it meant for 800,000 small-holder farmers who worked with dairies that now they could move up the ladder in terms of their livelihoods. Their children could go to schools, there would be roofs over their heads. When sickness came, they had the money to pay the doctors and their lives were forever changed. Today, in Kenya, the small-holder dairy industry is a $34 million a year endeavor. And it links everybody from small-holder farmers who have a handful of cows to medium and large-scale agro-processors and new market entrants every year. And if you're a Kenyan, you know that apparently now yoga is part of our daily diet, right? So we see the change that was brought in our lives every single day. And I can't help but think but for the tenacity of that small group of researchers who 31 years ago decided that they want to be to investigate a problem, perhaps this story couldn't be told. But for the fact that they were willing to work with partners and other people in other institutions who they could inspire with what they wanted to do, that change might not have happened. I understand that, sorry, and this is one of my favorite quotes and I want to hope that you will hold it as well because that indeed is how change happens. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. For indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Now I understand that out of the group of researchers who sat around a desk over 30 years ago dreaming possibilities, a few have just recently left this organization. But even though many have exited, their ideas and their hope for what transformation could be and the harvest of their tenacity is still with us. It changed millions of lives and that's the power that I want to remind you of today, that those small ideas cultivated around tables, in labs, in greenhouses can change us all. And so to actors and researchers like Bill Thorpe, like Emma Somore, Isabel Baltiwick and Stephen Sall and all your colleagues from this smallholder dairy program, we thank you for a commitment to an idea and showing what showing up can do for millions of people who very likely will never know the role that you had in their lives. One thing about being in an institution of change makers, we all come in and out at different times and we all see our institution from different perspectives. Some spend all their days in the lab, as we heard before, others have to go into the community. Some are looking for the millions of dollars that it takes to keep the ill-re-machine running, whether it's by raising money or saving money. Some are dealing with government technocrats on a daily basis and some are tasked with keeping our lovely work environments as I've seen here in pristine care. Often I think it feels like the story of the six blind men from Hindustan. Anyone know that story? That little poem? Yeah. You see they were all touching an elephant and they were asked to describe what they felt. And so one who was standing by the side of the elephant said but this is a wall. And another blind one said as he held the task, no, I think that this is a spear. And yet another one who was holding on to the knee said, this thing is a tree. Now, while none were wrong, none were completely right. Because they all had a very different perspective. Much like working in an institution as large and as complex as this one. Some have known this institution in the days of donor security. Others have come when they know that the only thing that's constant is change. Some are excited about standing on the threshold of a new business system and are eager to get their hands into it. Now, none are completely right. But none are completely wrong in their estimation of what this institution is. We all know there are individual perspectives. But we need to leave a little room to understand and appreciate those who see the trunk or those who see and feel the task. And you have the opportunity over the next couple of days to join with others and step back and gain that clarity of full sight of this elephant. But it can only happen if you listen and if you leave room to understand what people see. And maybe if that happens you will begin to see the mighty and majestic creature in front of you. One whose weight and wisdom can be a beacon for others and one that stands taller than anything else in its field. For that is who this institute is. The wonderful thing about our work for those of us who get excited about our work is that when our work gives us relevance or context we actually begin to feel part of a bigger deal and that's when we're able to do our best work. As we spent time this morning moving from poster to poster I am struck by the sense of alignment to mission that is felt here and I want you to urge you to not take it lightly for to be able to work in an institution that allows you to feel part of something bigger than yourself is a true gift. Those of us who are in the work of changing lives do so because we are sold out on mission on the idea of having the hours of our days matter and we're the lucky ones. We're the ones who can go beyond the idea of what success is and into significance and I urge you to leap into that opportunity each and every day. As your self moves forward and across into the work of mission into changing the lives of farmers and consumers of traders and hawkers and even a bride or two my hope and prayer for you all is that as you take on big ideas that you don't give up when you're almost there that you keep powering through and get to the point where yes, you can get excited because you have made a change for African governments who can now sit at the table and talk about their contribution to climate change. As you reframe and retell the story of what it means to be a livestock owner in Asia and Africa because you live in the spaces that you do your work as you are cognizant of the role of informality that we deal with in our systems because let's face it it's not going to change anytime soon and as you keep in mind the hope that we all have for our children my hope is that in the long night of transformation that research is it will not be too daunting and you won't give up in the pursuit of change for the breakaway for the breakthrough is just another step away and so as I conclude I want to share with you a little story or a poem from one of my favorite writers his name is Dr. Seuss and he wrote this book in 1990 called All The Places You Will Go Today is your day you're off to great places you're off and away but you have feet in your shoes you can steer yourself in any direction you choose you know what you know and you are the one who will decide where to go on and on you will hike and I know you'll hike far and conquer the world's problems whatever they are you'll get mixed up of course as you already know you'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go so be sure when you step step with prayer and great tact and remember that life is nothing but a great balancing act just never forget to be dexterous and deft and never mix up your right foot with your left and will you succeed? yes you will indeed 98 and 3 quarters percent guaranteed so be your name and net or Michael or Emily Susan, Tion, Bragia or Jimmy you are off to great places today is your day your mountain awaits you on your way