Administrator Samantha Power at as Press Gaggle in Tababela, Ecuador

ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Hello everybody, it is truly wonderful to be here in Ecuador and to start my visit here in Tababela. I just toured this local green bean farm and spoke with farmers who are connecting with Corporación Favorita’s supermarket chains across the country to get access to much larger markets for their products.

Catalyzing private sector partnerships like this are key to USAID's work to spur economic growth and create job opportunities here in Ecuador. To connect even more small-scale farmers to Corporación Favorita’s supply chains, USAID is launching a new partnership with the company through our so-called EDGE fund – an innovative incentive fund, which is designed to engage the private sector in global development. We have chosen to use EDGE fund money here in Ecuador to do just that. 

This investment and this public private partnership is going to provide small-scale farmers with the technical assistance, the training, and the access to finance that they need to grow quality produce at the scale that is needed and at the quality that is needed to meet Corporación Favorita's sourcing requirements. And at the end of the day, that is going to bring these farmers greater profits, as we heard right here on this farm. What is going to happen is Corporación Favorita is going to add more collection sites in remote and historically marginalized communities. They're also going to develop mobile collection centers with refrigerated trailers that are going to be able to pick up the produce right at farm gates in the Amazon so that Corporación Favorita can directly source from producers in these communities – more quickly getting this produce to market, which will enhance the quality and again, meet the important standards of the supermarket chain.

Our $3 million investment is going to – when I say our I mean USAID's $3 million investment – is going to unlock $3 million of additional investment from our partners in this new consortium. Those partners are again, Corporación Favorita, the Alliance for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, AEI,  and business leaders for governance. To stress, this is a great deal for producers. It can be great for communities, and it will be great for Corporación Favorita. It is win, win, win. Farmers are going to earn more money. They are going to be able to employ more people through this direct model rather than paying for layer after layer of middlemen and intermediaries.

The expansion of Corporación Favorita’s sourcing footprint to these remote areas, for example, and to areas where they have not accessed producers before, is going to bring new economic opportunities to isolated communities. And this allows Corporación Favorita to expand and diversify the company's suppliers so that their value chains can be more resilient to shocks and to stresses. And we all know that shocks and stresses are growing and increasing in frequency. Investments like these will deepen the close and growing partnership between the United States and Ecuador and that is what makes it additionally exciting. 

For decades, USAID has worked alongside the people of Ecuador to build schools, to build highways, water and sanitation systems, to conserve millions of hectares of precious biodiversity, to vaccinate most recently, millions of Ecuadorians against COVID-19, to improve child and maternal health, to build stronger democratic institutions. We just saw an election here that was free and fair, where there was a peaceful – there's going to be a peaceful handover of power. It's incredibly important. And to provide support as well to migrants at their time of greatest need. We commend the Ecuadorian people for being so generous in welcoming Venezuelan migrants, in particular here, and the hospitality that has been shown to them at a time of incredible vulnerability.

Between 1961 and 2014, USAID invested nearly $800 million in Ecuador and since we were welcomed back in the year 2020, we have invested $178 million in resources. That's nearly $1 billion from the American people to the Ecuadorian people since the founding of USAID by John F. Kennedy back in 1961. 

Our relationship is only getting stronger. We are incredibly grateful for the partnership that we have deepened with President Lasso. And we look forward to new areas of partnership with the incoming Noboa administration. The United States is going to continue to partner with the Ecuadorian people on key issues like strengthening democratic institutions, supporting environmental conservation while promoting inclusive economic growth – like this partnership will do – combating transnational organized crime and bolstering citizen security at a time when we know that this is a major issue for Ecuadorians. And one that USAID and the U.S. government, as a whole, is expanding our collaboration with Ecuadorian officials, and with Ecuadorian civil society to do more, again, to enhance citizen security at a time where violence has spiked. I am excited for the rest of my trip here. And I look forward to delivering on these shared priorities for the Ecuadorian people.

And with that, I'm really happy to take your questions. Thank you. 

VOICE OF AMERICA: How do you see the possibility of expanding cooperation with the Daniel Noboa administration especially in security?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you for the question and in my remarks I noted our awareness across the U. S. government of how big a priority combating violence and enhancing citizen security is to the people of Ecuador. I will have more to say on this subject tomorrow, but we are very excited about a new initiative that will allow us to work at the municipal level, at the provincial level, and with the national government on strengthening the security planning that every community is doing for itself – increasing citizen input into those plans as to how to combat crime, and ensuring that officials are accountable every day to the insight and knowledge of citizens but also to their concerns about their vulnerability.

So, again, we will have more to say with details of this new initiative. I will also have the chance to sit down with the incoming administration as well as to hear President Lasso's reflections on where he thinks the priority needs to be placed when it comes to deploying not just USAID resources, but also resources from our international law enforcement and counter narcotics institutions within the U.S. government. The effort to support the Ecuadorian people and the Ecuadorian authorities in combating crime, the effort to reduce violence here is a whole of government U.S. priority and the new programming that we are bringing online is a reflection of how we have internalized the urgency of the needs here in Ecuador and the priority both for the outgoing administration and for the incoming administration to deploy resources in keeping with that priority.

EFE: I understand that this initiative is the first of this type in Ecuador. Are you planning to expand this initiative to other sectors beyond agriculture? Are you planning to do something similar in other countries in the region?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much. I think, yes, we are eager to promote, particularly agricultural productivity, in all countries where USAID works in the hemisphere where there are opportunities to see significant growth. Ecuador is a prime example of a country whose fertile land and industrious population could be seeing much greater profitability. Many, many more jobs created, a lot more empowerment of female small-scale farmers, but this pattern of underutilization of more subsistence farming that where if the farmers had access to this insight, they could actually be selling their produce for higher profit margins and contributing to the value chain, contributing to also food security and resilience within their countries. This is not unique to Ecuador, but what Ecuador has to offer is very, very special. So we see tremendous potential here, to expand this kind of initiative over time and above all, to expand the jobs, the incomes of farmers who are already farming, to expand the accessing of small-scale farmers by large producers. And what this initiative does is by eliminating many layers of middlemen and intermediaries to increase the profit margin for the small-scale farmer and increase the quality of produce for the Ecuadorian consumer, for example, of green beans. 

So, we will move out, to reach through this partnership, around 800 small-scale farmers – that is not a huge number. We know that the appetite for this kind of training and this kind of matchmaking, is much, much greater than that, but we will also be doing this in places where Corporación Favorita is not currently sourcing produce. And so, as we break new ground together, for example, in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon by establishing collection centers, fixed collection centers, but in the Amazon when farmers are so spread out, mobile collection centers.

And as we see farmers coming forward, and getting this training, knowing what supermarkets and sellers are actually looking for in terms of the quality of the product, taking training courses on their phones. As we hit that 800 farmer target, then we can look to see how we expand further. We will learn a lot through doing things that haven't been done before to connect producers who right now, as we speak, are growing for themselves, for their families, but haven't yet developed the kinds of partnerships that can bring them far more resources that will expand in turn educational opportunities for their kids. Investments that they'll be able to make in their homes and in their communities. This can be a virtuous cycle. The other thing I would say is that, this is a particular partnership with a very large and well known Ecuadorian supermarket chain and an incredibly important company here in Ecuador.

Corporación Favorita has a subsidiary in Panama. We would like to see green beans grown here make their way as well to Panamanian supermarkets. So, this could also, you know, increase exports for this country. Moreover, we'd like to see other supermarkets and other sellers of produce come forward and wish as well to reach marginalized communities who right now may be operating in isolation but have a huge amount to offer and as they connect with value chains, as they are selling their produce in a more profitable way to more supermarkets, or more shops, or more sellers that will also improve their welfare it will be inherently stabilizing for the country. It will redress, in a small way, but again in ways we hope to expand, some of the feeling that indigenous communities have felt for some time that they have been left behind. 

So just as the government and the officials are prioritizing programming and outreach that includes environmental conservation, but also includes economic growth. So too, it's really important that all actors in Ecuador, including the private sector, think in new ways and perhaps see this public private partnership and get inspired by it themselves, do more in and with communities that are not yet reaching their full potential. 

LA HORA: What is the USAID investment in projects to combat irregular migration in the region? What are the most successful USAID projects in the region?

ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Thank you so much. On your first question USAID has provided significant humanitarian assistance to Venezuelan migrants and the communities that are hosting them here in Ecuador. We realize, especially coming out of a pandemic, and with the earthquake that happened not long ago, and climate events that are happening more and more, as well as an increase in crime here in in Ecuador, that this is a very challenging time for Ecuadorians, and that makes it all the more commendable the decision that Ecuadorian communities have made to host Venezuelan migrants who are often being targeted for political persecution or who have been attacked in Venezuela or who have seen the Venezuelan economy completely collapse because of terrible mismanagement. And so, it is a lot for Ecuador to be as generous as it has been. And so, USAID has endeavored to support those communities that are on the front lines of sheltering Venezuelans. 

In addition, of course, I mentioned that just since 2020, USAID has invested $178 million in both humanitarian and development programming here, whether on public private partnerships like this one, programs to increase participation of women in the economy, programs to address water and sanitation challenges, as well as to support President Lasso's initiative to combat malnutrition, working with the World Food Program and others in the humanitarian space to do that. So, all of the investments USAID makes, all of the investments we make and that we leverage with the private sector are investments fundamentally in also keeping Ecuadorians in Ecuador. We are seeing more and more Ecuadorians feel that despair, and we are encountering more of them even trying to come to the United States, and that is a sign, of course, of the essential importance of economic development right here in Ecuador. It's a sign of the importance of these citizen security programs right here in Ecuador.

All of you, I'm sure, know people who have migrated. I have over the years engaged with many migrants – those who've come legally to the United States, those that have tried to come illegally. I've encountered people back in countries like Ecuador who have tried to come and have been sent back. I don't want to generalize, but almost every migrant I've met, whether in the United States or back in their home country, didn't want to leave. It was the most painful thing they ever had to do. And they only did so because the circumstances in their host community had become unbearable or as a mother, and I speak as a mother myself, they couldn't imagine a better life for the next generation. They just couldn't imagine that things would improve unless they headed north, found opportunity, and then were able to send remittances back or earn money and then eventually return to the land and the communities that they love. 

So all of USAID's investments, all of the investments as well by other donors, other people who have come to Ecuador and seen the magic of this country and the magic of the people here are aimed over time to ensure that people don't have to make those choices. But these are long term investments. They don't overnight change the calculus for everybody, but they underscore, the importance of the conversations that I will have with President Lasso and with the incoming Noboa administration about the investments and the policies by the state itself, which fundamentally are the most substantial investments that will be made, and then their communities understanding of how best we prioritize to work toward that day where nobody has to leave the land and the people they love the most.