 In these conversations about gender, race, poverty and so many others, the scale is too big for any one sector to tackle on their own. Obviously governments around the world have been on the front lines of addressing global challenges for centuries, but I've been so pleased to see the participation of government agencies at SOCAP increasing year over year. And I think this participation is really reflective of increased collaboration in a variety of ways between government and the private sector. So I'm so excited to welcome today Sarah Glass, who is the director for the Center for Transformational Partnerships at the U.S. Global Development Lab. That's USAID's agency that really champions the involvement of the private sector in advancing development outcomes. And Sarah has a range of exciting updates out of this department, so please welcome Sarah Glass. Good morning. And thank you all for being here today, not just for being here, but also for the great work that you're doing around the world. Thank you especially to SOCAP for bringing together this really inspiring group. Yesterday was a fun day, wasn't it? I just really know that the energy from this week is going to carry into new deals and partnerships that will have a positive impact in local and global communities around the world for years to come. As Lindsay said, the U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID, works in more than 80 countries to lead the U.S. government's international development and disaster assistance. Through partnerships and investments, USAID helps save lives, advance U.S. national security and economic prosperity, demonstrate American generosity, and promote a path to community self-reliance and resilience. Over the last two decades, we at USAID have been committed to seeking new ways to collaborate with investors, entrepreneurs, and innovators to make a difference around the world. And we've made really good progress together. In fact, under the leadership of a number of talented people who are here this week, including Ann May Chang and Chris Juergens, who will join the main stage shortly. As we look forward this year, I really believe we've reached a watershed moment. A moment where business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs now believe that understanding and focusing on the social and environmental impact of their businesses will make them better business leaders. And a moment where civil society and public sector leaders now believe that understanding business and the business case for social impact will make them better leaders in the social sector. So the question is no longer if we should work together, but how? And even the question of how is no longer as much of a question. Nearly everyone here has worked through pitch competitions, rounds of debt and equity financing, lengthy term sheet negotiations, prizes, challenges, and yes, even bureaucratic government grant processes to find creative pathways to partnerships that work. With that in mind, I would like to use this moment to issue two calls of action as we all continue to look for the hows that work for our organizations. Number one, if your business case doesn't work on your own and it has strong potential for positive social impact, don't shelve it. Open it to new kinds of partners. And number two, invest in women. In businesses owned by women, in businesses led by women, in businesses that employ women. In too many places, we're still missing half the workforce. At USAID, we're transforming the way that we do business to focus on supporting our partner countries on their journey to self-reliance. Or to put it another way, all of our programs should look forward to the day that they are no longer needed and we must measure our progress by how far we move each day towards that goal. As part of this shift, we know that private enterprise can be the single greatest force for lifting lives and achieving sustained development impact. For that reason, we're embracing what we call enterprise-driven development. We know that only through attracting private investment and facilitating inclusive market growth will countries see sustained development results at scale. In order to integrate this philosophy across all of our work, later this winter USAID will publish a new policy that will serve as a call to action for all USAID staff and partners to ask and address three questions every time we approach a development or humanitarian issue. First, is there a market-based approach that would be valuable in addressing this issue? Second, what are the roles and the interests of the private sector in addressing this issue? And third, are there factors constraining the private sector from involvement or investment in this issue? We believe that by proactively assessing and addressing each of these questions, both USAID and our partners will open opportunities to new ventures and more sustainable market-based approaches across our work. We're also committed to continuing to make it easier and more streamlined for the private sector to collaborate with the US government through a variety of tools and approaches. Earlier this month, the US Congress passed a new law called the Build Act, or the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development Act, which will bring USAID's Development Credit Authority, known as DCA, and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, better known as OPIC, into one US International Development Finance Corporation. The establishment of this new Development Finance Corporation creates a unique opportunity for USAID to expand and scale the use of a broader array of financing instruments and support for development. I'm really pleased that David Bohigian is here from OPIC to share more on this this afternoon. Overall, we're really excited that through the creation of this new Development Finance Corporation, our teams and our partners around the world will be able to take advantage of an expanded toolbox of financing options, including debt, political risk insurance, and equity. And so I'll repeat my ask of you. If your business case doesn't work on your own and it has strong potential for positive social impact, don't shelve it. Open it to new partners. We're open for business and excited to be growing the ways that we can work together. In fact, we're so excited about a number of things we are doing across USAID's 80-plus country programs that I have a list of things that our teams wanted me to share with you. So hang with me. I'm going to move fast, and it's all great stuff. Last month, we announced the reopening of our Development Innovations Program, also known as DIV, which is a funding window that focuses on piloting, testing, and scaling creative solutions to any global development challenge. It invests in early-stage entrepreneurs who lack the funding needed to refine and expand their solutions because they're deemed too risky for traditional investors. DIV is open to anyone from anywhere. And over the last month, we've had nearly 200 applications and nearly 1,000 have been started. We invite you to join them. In partnership with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, USAID recently announced 23 finalists to our Humanitarian Grand Challenge. The challenge was designed to enable governments and the private sector to work together alongside affected communities to test new approaches to address the unprecedented magnitude of suffering around the world. And a few of those finalists are here at SoCAP this week, including the Rainmaker Enterprise, which is piloting a system of solar-powered water pumps and sensor-driven drip irrigation in South Sudan to support the livelihoods of conflict-affected people, as well as Needs List, which is implementing a chatbot program that aggregates real-time humanitarian needs from frontline responders. Earlier this month, we were also pleased to announce new partners under USAID's Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship Initiative, better known as PACE. Our new partners include the AgaCon Foundation, Finca International, Growth Africa, New Ventures, and Stage 6, all of which work to catalyze private sector investment into early-stage enterprises and identify innovative approaches that help entrepreneurs bridge the pioneer gap. To date, PACE's public-private partnerships have supported more than 1,000 enterprises, catalyzed more than 100 million in private funding, and created more than 11,000 jobs, more than 3,000 of which were for women. But that's not enough, because our research in conjunction with this initiative showed that women-led businesses in the PACE portfolio significantly outperformed their peers, growing revenues 1.5 times faster and jobs twice as fast. Yet, despite owning faster-growing businesses, women aren't raising significantly higher amounts of capital. And so I'll repeat my second ask of you. Invest in women. It's good development, and it's also just smart business. In closing, I want to open the door to collaboration, not just through USAID's programs, but also in shaping our strategies. This fall, we were really pleased to partner with nine other US government departments and agencies to release the first-ever US government strategy on international basic education. As next steps, we are seeking input from across the public and the private sectors into USAID's new policies and plans to implement this strategy. We're also in the process of developing a blended finance roadmap on how USAID can source and execute transactions that attract new private sector capital and in-kind investments for global health impact. This roadmap will highlight initial opportunities in India, Tanzania, and Liberia, and USAID welcomes input and collaboration from financiers, investors, and other stakeholders interested in blended finance approaches for health in these and other low- and middle-income countries. Last, and I know of great interest to many in this room, we're currently developing a new digital strategy for USAID, which will offer best practice guidance to our country teams in pursuit of growing sustainable digital economies and social services. Approximately four billion people in developing countries still don't have access to the internet, and women are still, on average, 14% less likely to own mobile phones than their male counterparts. For this reason, USAID is seeking co-investors to the Women Connect Challenge. Expanding digital infrastructure, access to digital financial services, and information-sharing platforms can be transformational for communities that have not been connected to these resources. There are representatives here at SoCAP from USAID interested in your ideas and input into all three of these areas. So I come back to my starting asks of you. I can promise that for each of these strategies, we will be investing in market-based approaches that have an impact for underserved and marginalized communities. As part of that, we will continue to invest in women and girls, and we hope you will too. And also, we're very much looking for your business cases alongside your impact cases. We hope you'll share them with us. But not just you. You're already here. You're already a believer. Social capital is a movement that needs new followers every day. So please make connections for your colleagues and partners who aren't here. To link back to the video from yesterday's opening session, let's bring more people into the tent. Thank you for the opportunity to share some of the ways that USAID and the broader US government are building new pathways to advance development impact through market-based approaches. As I said at the outset, this is a really inspirational group. And we're excited to exchange ideas, make connections, and learn from many of you at SoCAP 2018. Thank you.