If the government is vulnerable to public opinion, then famines are a dreadfully bad thing to have. You can’t win many elections after a famine, and you don’t like being criticized by newspapers, opposition parties in parliament, and so on. Democracy gives the government an immediate political incentive to act.

I'’m generally in favor of economic globalization. Having said that, it doesn’t always work and does not immediately work in the interest of all. There are sufferers.

There is considerable evidence that women's education and literacy tend to reduce the mortality rates of children

Education can really transform the insecurities in the world into a bigger vision of what we are as human beings.

the identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute

[The] USA has been immensely successful in making the determination to deal with terrorism [as] a factor in the global world and, similarly, if it took a similar interest in education, it could make a difference.

Gender inequality is not one problem, it's a collection of problems.