Ertharin Cousin

“Don't ever take a seven-year-old with you to a campaign dinner - they will embarrass you no end.”

“Too often, as a global community of humanitarians, we meet the needs of the same families, the same individuals, the same communities crisis after crisis, when we are focused on meeting crisis needs but not on building resilience.”

“Our goals and what we hope to achieve by moving to food assistance is even in supporting the crisis needs of the most vulnerable people, we provide them with the capacity to be more resilient to the next shock.”

“When you're providing emergency aid, you're fighting hunger; you're filling stomachs.”

“The majority of small-holder farmers in Africa are women and, in urban areas, you're primarily looking at women-led households. So we can't solve hunger if we don't have gender-sensitive programming that addresses access to opportunities for women, whether it's through education or tools for cooking, like solar-powered stoves.”

“I consider myself a persuasive person. With the ability to persuade comes a certain level of power.”

“I'm lucky. As soon as I open my mouth, people see I know what I'm talking about, and when I leave the room, I think most say, 'She's OK.'”

“If we're afraid to stand in our own skin with those we work with, then how do we lead those who have no voice at all?”

“Unfortunately, the world pays attention when the media shines a light on those in need, which is why it's so important that we maintain the global public will that is necessary to meet the needs of those we serve.”

“When people are hungry, when a mother or father is facing a child that they can't feed, you can't ask that family to lay down their arms.”

“One of my strengths is my ability to talk and communicate with people.”

“The people in the United States are some of the most generous people in the world. We saw it in Haiti. We saw it with Katrina. When devastation strikes, American people want to step up.”

“We recognize that the majority of people who are food-insecure or hungry in the world live in rural areas. And most of them are small holder subsistence farmers.”