On-the Scene Coverage of the Clinton Global Initiative
CGI Returns to a Place Called Hope
Each year, layer upon layer is added to the Clinton Global Initiative. Government leaders, philanthropists, corporate titans are all intricately choreographed into panel discussions, awards ceremonies, plenary presentations and commitment announcements.
And the issues: the bigger the better. Water. Global warming. Financial markets. Human trafficking. Rather than wearying of tackling such deeply intractable problems year after year, CGI draws new energy from celebrities Brad Pitt, Demi Moore serious visionaries - Muhammad Yunus, Paul Farmer… still wealthy moguls - Ted Turner, Eli Broad - TV anchors -David Gregory, Diane Sawyer… and world leaders: Yes, President Barack Obama.
This year, the current president headlines the opening plenary alongside WJC, and after the next three days Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will offer the closing keynote. The potentially tricky balance of power issues make the UN opening session across town look tame.
Let’s put it in perspective: this time last year, financial markets were in meltdown. Observers like us wondered if philanthropy had much hope of survival, much less recovery in the wake of foreclosures, defaults, bailouts. Today, the US Government is considering whether to accept help from robust banks, and nonprofits are gingerly dipping toes into major fundraising campaigns once again.
Less Money, More Commitment?
The organizers of the Clinton Global Initiative, unfolding this week in New York, expect the actual dollars committed to projects this year to decline over the 2008 total because of the global recession - but they also expect the number of commitments (the CGI term for development deals) to increase.
There are more than 1,200 delegates to this annual gathering - timed to coincide with the opening of the United Nations each September - including more than 60 heads of state. That's more people than attended last year, when more than $8 billion was committed through about 250 partnerships, facilitated (and tracked) by the year-round CGI commitment process.
CGI CEO Robert Harrison told Reuters this week that he wasn't even sure there would be a 2009 meeting if corporations weren't able to continue their funding and involvement.
"I was genuinely nervous that companies would close their pocketbooks and that this would be a very bad time for corporate social responsibility and ... grants," Harrison said. "All of us have been very pleasantly surprised at how none of that is the case."
He said that while the dollar number may be lower, CGI expected a greater number of commitments this year. CGI continues to evolve, meanwhile: this year there are fewer panel discussions and more collaborative sessions designed to let delegates meet (and develop commitments). Since it kicked off in 2005, there have been 1,400 commitments valued at $46 billion. But the number President Clinton always mentions first is the number of people assisted by a program that came out of CGI - a number the organization pegs at 200 million people worldwide.
Notes from CGI: Giving Points, Quizzes, and Social Media
Call 'em gizmos, marketing tricks, or widgets. But there are more techniques designed to get people more involved and plugged in at the fifth annual Clinton Global Initiative, unfolding in New York this week at a packed conference attended by 1,200 government, nonprofit and corporate leaders. A few examples:
Using a trick on view during last year's Presidential campaigns, the big plenary panels are taking questions via YouTube, Twitter and text messages from people in the room. From what I've seen, the queries so far are well-chosen and have led to some interesting exchanges.
Instead of the typical goodie bag filled with consumer giveaways and corporate tchotkes, delegates to CGI (who pay $20,000 apiece to attend) received 200 "points" that can be used at special Giving Back Center kiosks. The points can be used for things like a water filtration packet from Proctor & Gamble, books for schools, shoes, and other items paid for by corporations and nonprofit organizations.
CGI sharpens focus on women
Kicking off the second day of CGI, President Clinton introduced a session on "Investing in Girls and Women," stating that "empowering women is central to what the world has to do in the 21st century."
He cited studies showing that investing in women's reproductive health can mean half a million lives saved and unleash $15 billion in productivity each year. Prior to a panel discussion moderated by Diane Sawyer, Clinton brought several philanthropists and heads of foundations to the stage to make commitments centered around women and girls. Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York, appeared in his role as head of his own foundation. He cited the importance in philanthropy to be willing to run risks, try new ideas. "Innovation is the key to making a difference," he said. "The private sector is making a difference in ways the government can't or won't."
Together with Jennifer and Peter Buffett of the NoVo Foundation, Bloomberg announced the expansion of support to Women for Women, in countries ravaged by war. The commitment will help over 100,000 women receive rights education and vocational and business training, to enable them to participate in their countries' political and economic decision making.
TV Anchorwoman Diane Sawyer, introducing a panel discussion on the theme, referred to this time as a moment when "the giant river of what is right meets the river of what is needed, and we can all feel that has begun."
Innovation for Development Emerges on Many Levels
In introducing a CGI panel on Harnessing Innovation for Development, The Economist's Matthew Bishop pointed out that virtually all sectors - nonprofit, government, the corporate sector, embrace innovation. With 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners, a philanthropic foundation president and leaders of an entrepreneurial group on stage, Bishop had an opportunity to explore how each of these areas can encourage and integrate innovation.
Grameen Bank founder Muhammud Yunus, who had received the Nobel for his work in microcredit, said he could envision similar innovation by using a similar social business appoach in many other areas: "sanitation, health, growing vegetables, health insurance programs. Social businesses address issues while making money, as we did in making and selling yogurt that had enhanced nutrients, and opening a nursing college."
From CGI Idea to Headline: Cash for Clunkers
Last year, social entrepreneur/technologist Jack Hidary made a proposal at the Clinton Global Initiative: why not incentivize car buyers to trade in older vehicles with lousy mileage for newer ones with great mileage?
The problem was obvious: the United States burns through 83 million barrels of oil a day, most of it imported - 25 percent of the world's total usage - and half of that goes for motor fuel. The idea was to attack U.S. dependency on foreign oil at the core of its usage, while also reaping the benefits of cleaner skies and a smaller carbon output.
Getting the "worst offenders off the road" was how Hidary put it at a news conference at CGI today. And so last year at CGI, the kernel for the "Cash for Clunkers" program was planted.
Hidary and Bracken Hendricks, a fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Clinton track chair who also advised the Obama transition on energy issues, broke down the process from idea to highly successful legislation - and one of the keys was the attendance at last year's CGI. Several automakers' CEOs were in attendance last year and "we were able to engage on the spot."
The program eventually leveraged $3 billion in taxpayer funds leading to $23 billion in consumer spending - a win for the automakers and for the recession-riddled consumer sector - but more importantly, said Hidary, it sent a fleet of cars averaging 15 miles per gallon into the crusher in favor of cars average 25 MPG. "It was win-win-win," he said.
