I would like to express my appreciation to everyone who has accepted an invitation today to join in celebrating 50 years of the OAS scholarship program. As you know, Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza was supposed to join you this morning, but as you may know he is otherwise occupied. But he has assured me, and I want to convey this to you on his behalf, of his personal and professional commitment to this program. So be assured that whatever I say and commit to, I say that with authority.

For half a century, the member states of this organization have continued to recognize the importance of education and especially higher education through their support of this program. And let me immediately state, that as you have seen in the statistics in the book that you have received to commemorate this event, that almost, if not all, Member States have significantly benefitted from this program.

In the Organization, many changes have been made over the last year, but this program’s contribution to social and economic development and capacity building in the countries of the Hemisphere has always been recognized, and therefore maintained in the last fifty years. If this program was not achieving its purpose, if it did not belong here in the Organization of American States, we all know it would have been closed long ago. But today we have heard the value of this program directly from those who benefitted from the educational opportunities provided through the OAS Scholarship Program, and therefore that it does belong in the Organization of American States.

Five decades ago, the original 21 member states, and then Secretary General Dr. Jose Mora, recognized the need to work together, not just to host a political forum, a political debate, but to also work on concrete development issues together. We owe great thanks to those who came before us for their foresight in fighting for this program’s establishment. Writing about the program on the eve of its launch, Jose Mora noted that it took an inspired effort by the member states to get this program off the ground. I can definitively say today, knowing what we know, that it was worth the effort.

In the past I have acknowledged that there is an important synergy between democracy and development. The member states knew this in 1958, and we still know it today. OAS involvement in providing access to higher education in the hemisphere makes an important contribution to progress in these areas of development, of stability, of prosperity and of security.

I am personally proud of this program as someone who believes strongly in the importance of education. Education is key for the development of any nation. From my own experience, I know the value of having a higher education – to the individual and to the community to which we belong. I know the difference it can make for a student to have the financial support to be able to attend university. I know what it means to have a student who is thriving in his studies because he was counseled and guided by experienced people to identify the right program of study and the right university, and that is what the OAS is doing.

I know the importance of having quality higher education institutions which provide a first-class education to their students. We know the benefits that come from studying in another country and the sharing of information across borders. That is what the OAS scholarship program is all about- providing access to quality education to help citizens improve their living standards and that of their communities as a whole. And this is where the OAS makes a significant difference in the personal lives of average citizens in a very meaningful and direct way. It changes the lives of those who have participated as you have heard in the testimonials earlier.

Today, we reap the benefits of an investment of political will and some 50 years of financial support to higher education by the Organization of American States. Everywhere I come, I hear from counterparts, government officials and private sector and other civil society representatives that they benefitted from an OAS Scholarship Program and they always share this with pride and a smile. And this is what you hear throughout the Americas.

So, we need only some examples to recognize the cumulative value of this program over the years:

• A Caribbean Hospital manager taking over the management of her country’s most important public hospital from a non-national, with the help of the OAS.

• A Panamanian gaining the experience and the expertise to help guide the sustainable use of water for his country and the region to which he belongs, again with the help of the OAS.

• A Canadian studying the impact of NAFTA from Mexico’s perspective and then sharing his research with his Canadian foreign affairs officials, with the help of the OAS.

• A Mexican building the first webpage in Mexico, an Argentinean teaching generations of business students what he learned from his doctorate at Harvard and a young Guyanese leader helping to lead the Guyana Energy Agency, all with the help of the OAS.

Clearly our contribution has been significant, not only to individuals, but to countries as a whole.

We can also take great pride in the example of many who have contributed to the strength of this scholarship program. Allow me to just mention highlight the work of the educator Dr. Mario Leyton, who won the 2009 National Prize in Education in Chile. Dr. Leyton was awarded an OAS Scholarship in 1960. After receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago he returned to Chile and in 1964 he began his active participation in the education system reforms of the country. Under his guidance, Chile for the first time guaranteed access to basic education for all children, regardless of their socioeconomic level. His role in this tremendous accomplishment is truly priceless. Again, the impact of one person studying on an OAS Scholarship on the future of his country is clear.

Several weeks ago, Dr. Leyton returned to the OAS, some 50 years after being awarded his scholarship to serve as Chair of the OAS Academic and Technical Studies Scholarship Selection Committee. This is a very real manifestation of the underlying mission of the OAS Scholarship Program. He has given back what the member states invested in him, through the OAS, many times over, we should all be immensely proud of his work, and that of many others, and of, in this case, his continuing desire to give back to his country and the Hemisphere.

So ladies and gentlemen, distinguished Ambassadors, there is no doubt that this program has had an important impact in the past. It is highly relevant in facing the problems we face today, and it will continue to be an important program. Therefore, on behalf of Secretary General Insulza and myself, I can assure you that it will continue to have an impact for decades to come, because the program will continue with the same strength and impact that it has had for the past fifty years.

I thank you very much, and would like to add my words of congratulations and appreciation to the OAS staff under the leadership of Marie Levens and others in the past to this program in designing but also in the making more efficient of the delivery of education services to the people of the Americas.

Thank you very much.