PRESS CONFERENCE ON WORK OF CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE

 

Members of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) have made some 20 commitments worth billions of dollars in partnership with the United Nations to address pressing global challenges and next week they will announce approximately 10 more involving the Organization and ranging in value from more than $1 billion to less than $1 million, Initiative President Bob Harrison said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

“CGI’s goals are in perfect alignment with the Millennium Development Goals,” Mr. Harrison said.  “President Clinton’s goal of democratizing the achievement of the MDGs, so that we all do our part, is on its way to being realized, in part through the good work of our CGI members.”

Since former United States President Bill Clinton founded the Initiative in 2005, more than 230 of its nearly 1,000 commitments, valued at more than $30 billion, in poverty and hunger reduction, education for all, environmental sustainability and public health, among other issues, have been completed.  More than 200 million people in over 150 countries will benefit.  Many of the projects have combined public, private and non-governmental organization resources.  Another 200 commitments are under development, 80 of which will be announced next week.

For example, last year, the non-governmental organization Camfed [Campaign for Female Education] expanded education programmes for children and young women in 61 communities in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana and the United Republic of Tanzania, he said.  Proctor & Gamble, in partnership with 17 non-governmental organizations, had already provided potable water to 750,000 of a targeted 1 million children in Africa through a water-purification project.  Scottish philanthropist Tom Hunter, who committed $100 million for sustainable economic development in Rwanda and Malawi in 2005, has teamed with the Initiative on the project.

CGI neither donates money nor mandates where and in what sectors its members should focus their efforts, he said.  Rather it works to match people with ideas with those with resources in order to develop practical and effective problem-solving plans of action, he continued.  Members’ projects were currently spread out relatively evenly among the world’s regions, and the Initiative’s current four focus areas were education, climate change, global health and poverty alleviation.

Some 1,100 participants, including more than 80 Heads of State, senior executives of major corporations, non-governmental organizations and philanthropic institutions, wealthy individuals, celebrities, athletes and Nobel laureates, are expected to attend the Initiative’s fourth annual meeting next week in New York City.

Also participating in the press conference was George Kell, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, who stressed the importance of the private sector’s role in global poverty reduction and the need for more partnerships like the Initiative in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

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For information media • not an official record