"...people have asked me if I've been surprised by -- having taken the helm at USAID. Maybe not surprised, but I've seen some things that I didn't quite expect or perhaps didn't appreciate. And the biggest one is the sheer scope of the humanitarian need. My background is in development. I started off as a teacher in Kenya 30-plus years ago. And so, that's what my training is very involved in -- the MCC and the PEPFAR initiative. But the sheer scale of the humanitarian need that we see right now is, as you've heard, unprecedented. There's 66 million displaced people in the world today -- at least the greatest number since World War II. My guess is probably the greatest in our history.
And it presents all kinds of challenges to those of us who are involved in development and humanitarian assistance. How is it that you provide services to people who are displaced, coming and going from camps? How do you provide basic education so these kids have some semblance of a normal life, a productive life -- they're engaged with their communities? It is challenging.
But one of the most important pieces of that is how do you provide nutrition? We know that those first months, those first years are crucial, and they define so much of what a young boy or a young girl can grow up to be. And so, the types of interventions that we seek through the World Food Program and programs that we celebrate tonight are extraordinarily important. They're irreplaceable."