The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently released a report estimating that there are now approximately 870 million hungry people in the world, 98 percent of them living in developing countries. While these numbers have adjusted down from recent estimates, it is still 870 million too many. Compounding this problem, research indicates that by the year 2050, the world's population is projected to increase by 38 percent to more than 9 billion, which, combined with changing diets, will require up to a 60 percent increase in food production to feed us all. We confront these challenges in a world that has less land and fewer resources available for production.

Mali is facing a complex emergency: a political crisis, a major drought, and threats to internal and regional security. These interrelated crises call for a careful and considered development response. According to the World Bank, countries that have become characterized as fragile states require 20 to 25 years to recover, at great cost to their own people as well as to the international community in terms of resources diverted to stabilize and get those states back on the track of effective, transparent governance. While Mali is not currently a fragile state, it is in a fragile situation.

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. In 2011, it was home to six of the world's 10 fastest growing economies. Foreign direct investment is approaching $80 billion a year, and trade has tripled over the last decade. Consumer spending is set to rise 80 percent by 2020 and Africa now has a fast-growing middle class, expected to increase from 60 million to 100 million people by 2015. The continent's fortune is not the outcome of good luck. It is the result of years of hard work and better macroeconomic management; improved economic and political governance; a reduction in armed conflicts; increasing foreign capital inflows, particularly direct investment; and improvements in the business climate.

Chairman Rohrabacher, Ranking Member Carnahan, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Larry Sampler and I am the Senior Deputy Assistant to the Administrator & Deputy Director of the Office of Afghanistan & Pakistan Affairs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). I am glad to be here to discuss USAID’s work in Afghanistan and the various methods we are employing to ensure rigorous, multi-layered oversight of U.S.