From 
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThisRead more memos to President-Elect Barack Obama.
Ending extreme poverty in our lifetime should be our highest calling for the 21st century. To do so, we need a bold new vision for American leadership at home and abroad.
The extraordinary challenges, opportunities, and sheer connectedness of the 21st century call for a new vision of America's engagement with the world. The United States must use smart power—elevating development alongside diplomacy and defense—to build and sustain the world our kids deserve. Today's investments in diplomacy and development are insufficient to expand the benefits of the global economy and promote peace and stability.
Rising food prices brought down a Prime Minister in Haiti. Lack of hope and education has made desperate people susceptible to purveyors of violence. Natural resource scarcity and environmental degradation, exacerbated by climate change, have fueled war and genocide. To find peaceful solutions to our global challenges, we must ensure that everyone has basic necessities and the freedom to pursue a better life without violence or repression. People in the developing world cannot afford extreme poverty, and neither can we.
To tackle poverty at its roots, our most critical investments should be in women. The backbone of many communities, they represent an untapped resource as change agents. Their efforts as farmers, wage-earners and caregivers assure the well-being of families and the success of future generations. Given tools, education, and opportunities, they will transform their communities.
Yet women and girls are disproportionately marginalized. Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half its food, yet earn only 10 percent of the world's income and own less than 1 percent of its property. Approximately 500,000 women die each year in childbirth—a number unchanged in more than 20 years—and almost all those deaths are due to preventable causes.
Extreme poverty is a tragic but not immutable reality: we can change this condition. Together, we can end poverty in our lifetime. Strong leadership will help us do it faster.
Advertisement 
