Purpose Promoting the Well-Being of Humanity Throughout the World An Interview with Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President, The Rockefeller Foundation EDITORS’ NOTE Dr. Rajiv Shah INSTITUTION BRIEF The Rockefeller intentional focus and professional civic leader- brings over twenty years of expe- Foundation (rockefellerfoundation.org) ship can accomplish if appropriately resourced rience in business, govern- is a global institution with an unpar- and focused on delivering results for people ment, and philanthropy to The alleled track record of success car- who are vulnerable. Rockefeller Foundation. In 2009, rying out its founding mission to What were your key priorities when he was appointed to serve as USAID promote the well-being of humanity you assumed leadership of the Foundation? Administrator by President Obama around the world. Over its century long These institutions are amazing, but can and unanimously confirmed by history, The Rockefeller Foundation also sometimes feel like it’s diffi cult to make the U.S. Senate. Dr. Shah was has embraced scientific frontiers to the change you need to make to live up to the charged with reshaping the $20 lift up vulnerable children and fami- moment we live in. I was appointed into this billion agency’s operations to pro- lies. Today, The Rockefeller Foundation role shortly after the last election, which was vide greater assistance to pressing seeks to apply science, technology, and a couple of years after I had played a role as development challenges around Rajiv J. Shah innovation to this task and end pre- a member of the Obama administration in the globe. In this role he also led ventable child and maternal mortal- shaping two global agreements, one on ending the U.S. response to the Haiti earthquake and ity, transform food systems to reduce the global poverty around the world and one on address- the West African Ebola crisis, and served on the burden of disease, end energy poverty for mil- ing climate change between the Sustainable National Security Council. By elevating inno- lions in Africa and Asia, and enable meaning- Development Goals and the Paris Accord. It just vation and public-private partnerships, and ful economic mobility in the United States and felt like we had to change the way we work to shifting how dollars were spent to deliver stron- around the world. rise up to a moment where public leadership ger results, Dr. Shah secured bipartisan support was going to walk away from the biggest chal- that enabled USAID to dramatically acceler- Will you provide an overview of The lenges we face as a planet – poverty, inequal- ate its work to end extreme poverty, including Rockefeller Foundations’ storied history? ity, and climate – and so we did change. We the passage of significant Presidential priori- This institution has an extraordinary his- re-embraced our roots, refocused on data sci- ties – Feed the Future and Power Africa and tory that is 106 years old. It was created ence and innovation, created programs in four the Global Food Security Act, which is the sec- by John D. Rockefeller before there was an areas – health, food, power and jobs. ond largest global development legislation after income tax, and therefore, an income tax Will you discuss the Foundation’s PEPFAR. When Dr. Shah left USAID in 2015, deduction from which to benefi t. It was also efforts relating to power and energy? he continued to follow his passion for creat- before the federal government had a signifi - We have for years been working on ing opportunities for communities to thrive cant role in supporting the living standards bringing the science and technology around in the developing world by founding Latitude and welfare of vulnerable American families off-grid solar mini-grids to communities where Capital, a private equity fi rm focused on power across the country, and certainly before we people don’t have power electricity. There are and infrastructure projects in Africa and took on those responsibilities around the roughly two billion people on the planet who Asia. He was also appointed a Distinguished world. It was founded in a very simple idea don’t have regular access to reliable electric- Fellow in Residence at Georgetown University. that we could bring the frontiers of data sci- ity, and it’s very hard to read at night, to be Earlier in his career, Dr. Shah served as Chief ence, evidence-based policymaking, and safe in your community when it’s dark, to Scientist and Undersecretary for Research, innovation to the task of lifting up everybody. get a job, to start a small business and hire Education and Economics at the United States Now, 106 years and two Nobel Prizes later, people, to use power tools to make carpen- Department of Agriculture. He also served in we have helped create the field of medicine try products, without electricity and power. a number of leadership roles at the Bill & and public health at home and around the Much of the world, especially the poorer parts Melinda Gates Foundation, where he helped world, invented agricultural technologies that of the world, rely on diesel backup genera- launch the Alliance for a Green Revolution sparked a Green Revolution that moved a bil- tion, which is dirty and very expensive. in Africa (a joint venture by the Gates and lion people off the brink of hunger and starva- It is an extraordinary constraint to unlock- Rockefeller foundations) and the International tion, built much of the scientifi c infrastructure ing human potential and inclusive growth. We Financing Facility for Immunization (cred- of many parts of Europe and the United States, built solutions and partnerships that we believe ited with raising more than $5 billion for protected scholars during World War II through can help hundreds of millions of people move childhood immunizations worldwide) and our Refugee Scholars program, which included out of energy poverty. In November, I launched where he supported the creation of the Global Madeleine Albright’s father, who was brought the largest public/private partnership this insti- Development Program. Dr. Shah is a grad- here and installed as a professor at the University tution’s ever been a part of, which is a billion uate of the University of Michigan at Ann of Denver as a result of the Rockefeller grant, dollar joint venture with a company called Tata Arbor, the University of Pennsylvania School and trained tens of thousands of people, includ- Sons in India that will reach 25 million people of Medicine, and the Wharton School of ing Albert Einstein and others, as fellows of this by building 10,000 of these rural solar mini- Business, and has been awarded honorary institution. grids, powering hundreds of thousands of small degrees from Tuskegee University, American It is an extraordinary legacy, and one businesses and creating jobs and growth for University, and Colby College. that I think is a profound example of what those communities. 16 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2020 LEADERS MAGAZINE, LLC VOLUME 43, NUMBER 2 “Obviously we are still confronting the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions. It is times like these when philanthropy can and must step up to meet the moment for our grantees and partners, and for the communities we together seek to serve. The Rockefeller Foundation is working to do this in the near-term in China, Italy, and for low-wage workers in America hurt by this crisis, but our longer-term response is also guided by our DNA: in this case, investing in a data platform that will enable tracking of pandemic disease cases worldwide in real time. While serving in the Obama administration I helped lead our efforts in West Africa during the Ebola epidemic, and I know how critical real-time data is to stop the spread of disease. Coronavirus does not respect national boundaries, and we hope to do more to help countries mount a coordinated and aggressive response, because protecting people in other parts of the world protects us all.” You have been deeply engaged on the These community health workers are often rela- a $100 million Precision Public Health initiative issue of climate change. How concerned tively low-skilled health outreach workers to achieve that outcome. are you about America’s current position that will go into a village and knock on doors Do you see the issues that The in addressing climate change? and fi nd out if a woman is pregnant, and if she Rockefeller Foundation is addressing I’m deeply concerned, because at the end is, they will help her get access to a medical as interrelated? of the day, without American participation and provider, or if a child is deeply malnourished, They’re deeply interrelated, and at the end leadership in a global agreement, it’s next to will help that child get access to appropriate of the day, the interrelationship is all about impossible to keep China and India on a green nutrition so they have the immune strength to using data science and innovation to empower growth path and to collectivize the challenge protect themselves from simple diseases. women to be successful. Sometimes that means of reducing emissions with the urgency and There are more than fi ve million commu- empowering them to be successful as mothers specifi city required to save the planet. In our nity health workers around the world today and through childbirth and in the early part of a case, we’re very focused on helping two billion if we can turn them into hyper-empowered, child’s youth. Sometimes it means empowering people go from one or two dollars a day to $10, hyper-effective outreach personnel that are them to be in a community where they get a job $20, $30 a day of income.