A few weeks ago, in the midst of the holiday season, President Obama showcased some cutting-edge gadgets in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. But they were not new tablets, smartphones, or digital cameras. They were protective suits, state-of-the-art cooling vests, and germ-killing gels — all tools that could make the difference between life and death in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Designed in partnership with the U.S. Global Development Lab, these innovations will not only speed up our response on the ground, but also protect health workers on the frontlines of the epidemic. They embody our Agency’s new model of development — one grounded in mobilizing the energy and creativity of a new generation of students, inventors, and entrepreneurs to bend the curve of progress.

Today, the United States is helping to lead a global response in West Africa with a strategy driven by evidence, innovation, and data. As the epidemic has evolved, so too has our response — adapting our strategy to be highly mobile and scalable and allowing for a quick response to flare-ups in rural and hard-to-reach areas. The rapid deployment of safe burial teams, alongside widespread community awareness campaigns, has contributed to a significant reduction in transmission. In Liberia, new cases have dropped from more than 30 a day to as few as one. But much more must still be done to keep up our momentum and eliminate the virus at its source. 

That’s why President Obama announced Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development, a grant competition designed to challenge the world to invent better tools to tackle this disease in a matter of months, not years. In just two months, it received more than 1,500 ideas from a global community of innovators — from re-engineered personal protective suits to lotions that repel the virus.

One award nominee is Johns Hopkins University, which created a protective suit prototype with easy-to-open zippers and a built-in cooling fan that runs off a cell phone charger. While the old suits took 22 steps and 15 minutes to take off safely, these new ones come off in less than 60 seconds — all in one fluid motion. Another nominee is Qore Performance, a Virginia startup that produces wearable cooling packs for athletes. By repurposing their technology to fit protective suits, frontline health care workers can provide better care.

Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design and Jhpiego

With just a small amount of seed funding, these innovations have the potential to improve the speed and impact of our response. In addition to improved designs for personal protective equipment, we are exploring advances in diagnostics to test patients on the spot — eliminating the need to transport blood samples over rough roads. We are also working to improve real-time data, empowering local teams to better predict the spikes and valleys in active cases.

Our nation’s life-saving response to the worst Ebola epidemic in history represents an impressive display of American values, commitment, and ingenuity. Even as the headlines have slowed, the tireless work of thousands of frontline health care workers and disasters responders has not. In a year marked by an unprecedented number of humanitarian crises — from South Sudan to Syria — we remain committed to providing help in an emergency, regardless of danger or difficulty. It is one of the most profound expressions of who we are as the American people.

As President Obama said recently, “America has never been defined by fear. We are defined by courage and passion and hope and selflessness and sacrifice and a willingness to take on challenges when others can’t and others will not…all in the constant pursuit of building a better world not just for ourselves but for people in every corner of the Earth.”

The very first thing you do when you arrive in Liberia is wash your hands in chlorine.

As I learned on my recent visit to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, the simple acts of hand-washing and bumping elbows -- instead of shaking hands -- quickly begin to feel normal. As the Ebola epidemic overwhelms communities and threatens livelihoods in West Africa, this change in behavior is saving lives.

Today, the U.S. is helping lead a global coalition to fight Ebola with a clear strategy and data-driven approach. During my visit, I met courageous humanitarians, health workers, and community leaders who are helping turn the tide against Ebola. In fact, there are currently over 950 U.S. Government personnel on the ground in the region, and I could not be more proud of them. 

USAID Administrator Raj Shah meets with DART, CDC, and DoD about the Ebola response in Liberia. October 14, 2014. (by Morgana Wingard)

In Liberia, we are helping to build as many as 26 Ebola treatment units, as well as community care centers to provide communities with another level of care and isolation. In Monrovia, I visited one of the largest Ebola treatment units, which will soon open on the site of the Old Ministry of Defense and provide 300 beds.

USAID Administrator Raj Shah, U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac, and Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Børge Brende, visit an Ebola treatment unit under construction on the grounds of the former Ministry of Defense building. October 14, 2014. (by Morgana Wingard)

We’re also supporting 65 safe burial teams that are working in every county across Liberia to safely and respectfully dispose of bodies. On my trip, I met local workers on these burial teams who endure the stigma of the virus to bury loved ones and reduce the risk of transmission.

On our way to the airport in Monrovia, we visited the 25-bed critical care U.S. hospital for Ebola health care workers. It is an impressive feat of engineering. Teams from the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. military have worked closely with colleagues on the ground to ensure they are learning and applying best practices in treatment and prevention.

Rear Admiral (RADM) Scott Giberson, Acting U.S. Deputy Surgeon General and Commander of US PHS Commissioned Corps Ebola Response, gives USAID Administrator Raj Shah a tour of the new 25-bed critical care hospital for all health workers on the frontlines of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. October 15, 2014. (by Morgana Wingard)

Time and again, we’ve seen the value of innovation in crisis response. In Sierra Leone, I attended an abbreviated training session for Ebola health care workers on how to safely put on and take off personal protective equipment (PPE). Through Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development, we are calling on the world’s brightest minds to invent better tools to tackle this disease -- including improved designs for PPE.

Experts participate in a Workshop to Design and Prototype Personal Protective Equipment hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and USAID. October 10, 2014.

In Guinea, we visited the Donka Ebola treatment center, which has provided care to 220 people with Ebola since opening in March 2014. I had the opportunity to speak with two Ebola survivors who are now health care workers themselves. Their commitment was humbling, and I left even more in awe of their bravery.

Every Ebola outbreak in history has been stopped, and this one will be too. But it will continue to require great ingenuity, speed, cooperation, and -- most importantly -- courageous men and women serving on the frontlines. 

The Bong County Ebola treatment unit is run by International Medical Corps with support and funding from USAID. It is designed to accommodate up to 70 patients, but it is still scaling up after opening a few weeks ago. It has two make-shift ambulances to ferry patients. October 7, 2014. (by Morgana Wingard)

USAID Administrator Raj Shah and U.S. Ambassador Deborah R. Malac meet with Doland Willis and Gabriel Frank of the U.S. Army JFC Operation United Assistance Liberia at the Ebola Emergency Operations Center in Monrovia. October 14, 2014. (by Morgana Wingard)

Ed. note: Below are excepts of an op-ed by USAID Administrator Raj Shah for USA Today. Read his op-ed in its entirety here. 

In the heart of the Ebola epidemic, there is a clear sense of hope. I've just returned from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where I met dozens of health workers, humanitarians and community leaders who are making a difference in this fight.

There is no question that the pace, ingenuity, and scale of our global response must continue to grow quickly. But at a time when fear and misinformation spread panic faster than a virus, let's not miss the opportunity to scale up what's working, fix what isn't and bring the best of science, technology and innovation to bear on this devastating disease.

I spoke with Ebola survivors who now care for sick patients in the very same Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) that saved their lives. I met local workers on burial teams who enter communities threatened by Ebola and endure the stigma of the virus to bury loved ones. At a training session for health care workers, I met a young doctor from Germany who gave up her holiday to put on a personal protective suit in the stifling heat and train others to work in the hot zone. We need hundreds more just like her. And we must ensure that when these brave individuals do volunteer to serve, we not prevent or unduly discourage them from undertaking this indispensable and selfless work.

...

Time and again, we've seen the value of innovation in crisis response. We relied on satellite-based predictive modeling to save lives in advance of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and during the 2011 famine and drought in the Horn of Africa. We need similarly creative and bold thinking today. That is why President Obama announced Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development, a grant competition designed to invent better tools to tackle this disease in a matter of weeks, not years.

We're exploring advances in diagnostics that reduce the difficulty of transporting blood samples over terrible roads; new laboratory solutions, such as vaccines and therapeutics; improved designs for personal protective equipment; and real-time data to better predict spikes and valleys in active cases.

But the United States cannot end this epidemic alone. Already the U.S. response -- in dollars alone -- accounts for more than one-third of the global commitment. As President Obama has stressed, governments, international organizations and the private sector must step up far more aggressively.

Like every Ebola outbreak in history, this one will be stopped. I know because I've met the heroes on the front lines who fight when so many others flee and who face what so many others fear. We owe them more than our thanks. We owe them our commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder until we beat Ebola at its source.

Health workers in personal protective equipment (PPE) wait to enter the hot zone at Island Clinic in Monrovia, Liberia on Sept. 22, 2014. PPE is their primary protection, but it is also the greatest source of stress. (by Morgana Wingard, USAID)

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the U.S. Agency for International Development's blog. See the original post here.

Saving lives at birth. Powering clean energy solutions in agriculture. Inventing new tools to teach a child to read.

Across development, we’re calling on the world’s brightest minds to tackle our toughest challenges. In the last few years, we have helped launch five Grand Challenges for Development that have rallied students and scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs to tackle some of humanity’s toughest problems.

Today, we face just that kind of challenge — a global health crisis that is in dire need of new ideas and bold solutions. From Guinea to Liberia to Sierra Leone, Ebola is devastating thousands of families, disrupting growth, and fraying the fabric of society. The United States is helping lead the global response to the epidemic, but we cannot do it alone. That is why President Obama launched our sixth Grand Challenge. Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development is designed to provide health care workers on the front lines with better tools to battle Ebola.

To help kickstart this Grand Challenge, some of our nation’s most innovative problem-solvers will gather in D.C. today and tomorrow to work on this issue. We’re also inviting people from all over the country to share their ideas. You can add your thoughts and see what other people saying here.

As the United States and the international community work to contain the worst Ebola epidemic on record, courageous men and women are performing critical tasks every day to save lives and prevent the spread of the virus. Personal protective equipment (PPE) — the suits, masks, and gloves the health care worker wears — is their primary protection, but it is also the greatest source of stress. In these hot and uncomfortable suits, health workers must administer to the patients and remove contaminated materials.

Together with the White House Office of Science and Technology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, Fighting Ebola seeks new practical and cost-effective solutions to improve infection treatment and control and provide better care to those who need it most.

The first part of the initiative is an open innovation platform powered by OpenIDEO, one of the world’s top design firms. Through it, the global community can brainstorm, collaborate, and comment on new ideas that generate practical solutions to the Ebola epidemic. The strongest ideas may be encouraged to apply for funding later in the Grand Challenge. Our aim is to begin funding ideas in a matter of weeks.

Over the last several years, we’ve found that Grand Challenges not only generate inventive tools and breakthrough technologies, but inspire us to confront seemingly insurmountable challenges — and succeed.

Get started by joining the conversation. To learn more, please visit http://ebolagrandchallenge.net.

Last year, Yemen negotiated a political solution that allowed the country to pull itself from the brink of conflict and begin implementing long-overdue political, military, and economic reforms. Yet Yemen is embarking on this promising path under the shadow of significant challenges, including nearly 40 percent unemployment and a dire humanitarian crisis in which ten million people – nearly half of Yemen’s population – go to bed hungry every night. And, Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, could potentially run out of water in a decade.

The Yemeni government’s “Transitional Program for Stabilization and Development” – which was presented at the conference – describes plans to rebuild the economy, advance the political transition, enhance security and the rule of law, and significantly improve the welfare of the Yemeni population. At the conference, Yemen agreed to a “Mutual Accountability Framework,” which outlines the relationship between Yemeni goals to restore political, security and economic stability and the supporting role of donor countries.  

Yemen cannot carry out its ambitious agenda without significant international support. The Donor Conference, hosted in Riyadh by Saudi Arabia, the World Bank and the Yemeni government, was critical to rallying this support and strengthening donor coordination. During the conference, partner countries pledged nearly 6 billion dollars and I had the opportunity to emphasize the strong commitment of the United States as a friend and partner to Yemen during this incredibly important time. 

Supporting Yemen’s transition is a priority for the United States. To do our part, the United States is providing both immediate assistance in response to the humanitarian crisis and longer-term support to help lay the foundation for a stable, prosperous and democratic Yemen. This year alone, the United States is providing $346 million in security, humanitarian, and development assistance to Yemen – more than double what we provided last year. 

More than half of what the United States is providing this year, $185 million, is for political transition, humanitarian, and development assistance. Of the $185 million, $117 million is for humanitarian relief, making the United States the single largest provider of humanitarian support to Yemen. The UN estimates that Yemen will need $585 million to get through this humanitarian crisis, but the UN humanitarian appeal is less than 50 percent funded.  We urge all nations to generously give to the UN’s appeal for Yemen. 

When I visited Yemen in June, I was able to see first-hand the critical impact of our development and humanitarians efforts. To address hunger, our aid has helped feed 415,000 Yemeni people and trained nearly 5,000 famers in good crop production and livestock management practices so they don’t have to rely on food aid. I visited Zinjibar in southern Yemen, where our partnerships are helping rehabilitate schools, clinics, and other public buildings, as well as supporting the recovery of vital public services, including power and water. Our work also allowed 780,000 Yemenis to benefit from quality medical services at Red Crescent facilities that we refurbished.     

Ultimately, we know that solutions to the humanitarian crisis and the nation’s pressing economic and security challenges can only be realized through the development of effective, responsive, and accountable institutions and an inclusive and transparent political system.

The foundations for such institutions and systems will be laid through Yemen’s upcoming National Dialogue Conference. To help prepare Yemeni civil society for participation in the Dialogue, the U.S. Agency for International Development has launched a training academy for 165 civil society organizations, and we have trained nearly 2000 youth in civic engagement.  

It is an exciting moment for Yemen, as the Yemeni people come together to resolve some of the most difficult problems that have held their country back, write a new constitution, and build a new future.  

Real challenges remain, however, not least of which includes responding to the pressing needs of millions of vulnerable people so that Yemen can successfully undertake the transition it has begun.  

But as I saw during my visit to Yemen in June – and as made clear by the Donor Conference– there is real reason to be hopeful as citizens across Yemen take up the call to chart their own nation’s development.  The United States is a proud partner in those efforts.

The setting is especially significant; 50 years ago, South Korea was largely a country of peasant farmers. It was poorer than North Korea and than two-thirds of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and its people barely lived past the age of 54.  

Today, South Korea is a high-tech hub, an emerging donor and its people have some of the longest life expectancies in the world. South Korea also happens to be the seventh largest market for American goods; we sell more to the South Koreans than we do to the French. The free trade agreement President Obama recently signed with South Korea means we’ll be selling even more to Seoul in the future, leading to high-paying American jobs. 

South Korea’s economic miracle—from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the most advanced —serves as a powerful example of how effective foreign assistance can be, if delivered well and used wisely to catalyze growth. With a focus on transparency, mutual accountability, strong private sector engagement and meaningful results, development assistance can help developing countries thrive. 

President Obama, Secretary Clinton, CEO Yohannes, and I have worked hard to reform the way America delivers assistance abroad. As part of our nation’s first ever Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, we’ve made our assistance more transparent, accountable and effective. 

We created foreignassistance.gov— an online dashboard that anyone can use to track American foreign assistance investments. We launched a major effort to deliver our aid directly to the people we intend to help, rather than routing it through middlemen and contractors. And we launched the Open Government Partnership, a new multilateral initiative through which governments—including the U.S.—make concrete commitments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption and use new technologies to strengthen governance.  

But America will do even more to ensure our development assistance is delivered transparently and accountably. Yesterday in Busan, Secretary Clinton announced a major step forward for development transparency: the United States—the world’s largest donor of foreign assistance—will join the International Aid Transparency Initiative.  This takes our standard of transparency to a new level, committing ourselves to publish up-to-date information in a common, open format that makes it easy for anyone around the world to find, use, and compare information about our aid spending. 

From keeping the development pledges we made at the Gleneagles donor summit, to delivering major reforms to our aid through an effort called USAID Forward, to launching a global food security initiative called Feed the Future that will lift 18 million people out of hunger and poverty, the United States has shown its commitment to be a modern, global leader in international development. 

But delivering effective aid is a two-way street – it also requires leadership from our partners. That’s why we will also strengthen our partnerships with foreign governments that show commitments to economic reform and democratic governance.  The U.S. continues to work with its partners to strengthen our impact and bring real and tangible benefits to the poorest around the world.  We are emphasizing mutual accountability for results.

As part of the President Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive on Global Development, we launched an effort called Partnership for Growth emphasizing that American engagement — if matched by mutual commitments by partner governments—could help catalyze growth in countries best positioned for economic success. We’ve worked in close partnership with the governments of El Salvador, Ghana, the Philippines and Tanzania to conduct joint analysis of their constraints to growth and develop joint action plans to help break down those barriers.

Finally, we will expand our partnership with the private sector, as part of our continuing and sustained efforts to make American taxpayer dollars go further. A cornerstone of this effort is forming new, high impact public-private partnerships—working and investing together to build new markets, unlock opportunity and deliver meaningful results. We must support the work of markets that can deliver profits, create jobs and deliver economic opportunity for women, minorities and the poor.               

But ultimately, we are in Busan to listen and learn.  The U.S. continues to reform our development work, and what we learn from our development partners helps improve our ability to deliver impact. South Korea’s experience has taught us much about effective foreign aid. We have just as much to learn from the rest of the world. 

As many of you know, the worst drought in 60 years has devastated communities throughout the Horn of Africa, leaving more than 13 million people in a state of crisis—greater than the population of Los Angeles and New York combined.

In Somalia—where twenty years of war and violence has limited humanitarian access and destroyed the country’s ability to respond—the drought has led to an outbreak of famine. According to UNICEF, as a result of this crisis, a child is dying in Somalia every six minutes.

The millions suffering from the effects of this crisis are facing incomprehensible suffering. Left with nothing, many are walking more than 100 miles toward refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Because the crisis in the Horn is so complex and because the scale is so difficult to comprehend, we have not seen people come together to respond in the same way they did after the earthquake in Haiti. Many who do hear about the crisis are left with the impression that we can’t successfully do anything about it.

But I know for a fact that we can fight this famine.  We were fighting it before it started. Through safety net programs, we have helped 7.5 million Ethiopians withstand the worst effects of this drought without the need for humanitarian assistance.

And as a result of Feed the Future investments, we have seen more than a 300 percent increase in grain yields in Western Kenya in just one year, securing the nation’s agricultural backbone and helping lower the price of critical staples throughout the region.

But despite being the single largest donor of assistance in the region, we recognize we cannot fight the famine alone.

That’s why today, I’m announcing the launch of the FWD Campaign—in partnership with the Ad Council—to highlight the uniquely devastating nature of this crisis and to ask people to help spread awareness.

FWD—stands for Famine, War, Drought: the three major crises that have led to this perfect storm of devastation in the Horn of Africa. But it also stands for our call to action—that people get informed, get engaged and forward this information on to their friends and families.

The FWD campaign is our attempt to make our world smaller—to connect people with the clear knowledge and understanding of exactly what is happening in the Horn—and giving them a powerful way to respond.

The campaign has three components. One is an effort that’s centered on using a strong online presence and social media to raise awareness.  If you go to USAID.gov/FWD, you’ll see a number of new ways we’re using to inform and engage with people. We’re providing infographics, interactive maps and tool kits that people can use to learn about the crisis in simple, clear ways—and more importantly share that information others.  And we’re partnering with Google, Facebook and Twitter to make sharing this information as easy as searching, updating your status or sending out a tweet.

Learn more about how you can get involved on the IMPACTblog. 

Dr. Rajiv Shah is Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.

Eighty kilometers from Kenya’s border with Somalia, the Dadaab Refugee Complex—already the world’s largest refugee camp—has seen on average 1,500 exhausted and starving men, women and children arrive each day.  Fleeing from famine that is now gripping a large portion of southern Somalia largely inaccessible to aid workers, thousands of refugees have walked days—or even weeks—to reach help.  The United Nations estimates that over 12.4 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical care, across the drought-stricken eastern Horn of Africa.

Yesterday, I arrived in Dadaab with representatives from across the United States Government, including Dr. Jill Biden, Special Assistant to the President Gayle Smith, Senator Bill Frist and Assistant Secretary of State Eric Schwartz.  The trip underscored the commitment of the U.S. Government—the single largest donor in the region—to respond to the immediate crisis with life-saving assistance and investments in long-term solutions to hunger. Ultimately, we know that it is smarter and cheaper to invest in food security than face the consequences of famine and food riots.

In Dadaab, we visited the Dagahaley camp’s reception center, where newly arriving refugees receive a medical screening and three weeks’ worth of food to tide them over until they complete a formal registration process. The USAID-funded rations include high energy biscuits, corn meal, vegetable oil, yellow split peas, salt and sugar.  Medical staff weigh the children and measure the circumference of their small arms to determine their nutrition status.  Today, the worst-affected regions in Somalia have the highest malnutrition level in the world, with nearly half the population malnourished.

Because the high rates of acute malnutrition make children extremely susceptible to deadly diseases, we are also aggressively pursuing public health interventions, including therapeutic feeding and immunizations.

The Government of Kenya is working closely with the GAVI Alliance to administer pneumococcal vaccines to protect every child from pneumonia at the point of registration.

I met one Somali woman who traveled by donkey cart with her two children for 12 days looking for food. It is hard to believe that she counted among the lucky, as many families have lost children along the way.

It does not have to be this way.  With Feed the Future, President Obama’s initiative on food security, we are working with the Kenyan government and smallholder farmers to achieve sustainable, long-term and life-saving agriculture development.

Tomorrow, I will share with you some exciting innovations in agriculture that we saw on our visit to the Kenya Institute for Agriculture—innovations that could help ensure we never face another famine again.

Learn more about the U.S. response to the crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Rajiv Shah is USAID Administrator. 

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to speak with American youth from the White House about the importance of getting involved in international development. Kalpen Modi, the Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement, invited me to answer questions from a room full of young innovators and the Twitter and Facebook online communities.

I found this experience especially meaningful because I believe that young people today have a deeper and more thoughtful understanding of global development and its ties to our nation’s prosperity, security and values than at any time in our history. Through the power of social media and political advocacy, as well their ground efforts, they have gained a profound appreciation of the difficulties developing countries face and the interests our nation has in alleviating them.

A few weeks ago in Southern Sudan, I met a group of kids who are learning English and math in a USAID-supported primary education program.  The students ranged in ages from four to fourteen years old. Many of the older students have lived through a period of violence and suffering and have not yet had the opportunity for even a basic education. When you see American taxpayer money being effectively used to provide education in a way that improves the lives of these children and contributes to the peaceful founding of a new nation—the 196th country in the world—you get a genuine sense for the significance of this work.

More than ever before, young people recognize the importance of sustainable, long-term development and are getting directly involved in issues like education, hunger, climate change, and global health. They understand that a world in which hunger is beaten, diseases are eradicated, the planet is protected, markets are free and people are equal is a world that makes us safer, enhances our prosperity and reflects our values as Americans.

Today, the opportunities exist for young people to steer their talents towards serving those in greatest need, no matter what professions or degrees they choose. Whether you’re a teacher, investment banker, or engineer, you have valuable skills that can help drive meaningful change around the world. Visit our website to learn more, stay connected and tell us about the global development issues that concern you.

Stay tuned for more blog posts with additional answers to your specific development questions.