Tackling unemployment, unfair labor practices, hunger, homelessness, pollution and more seems to be a huge task for only four days. But that is what this year’s Clinton Global Initiative annual summit will attempt, former President Clinton announced this week.
CGI’s fifth annual summit, held from September 22-25 at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, will feature an agenda filled with new initiatives, adjusted to confront the challenges of today’s world.
“We recognized that the CGI of old was no longer going to be a feasible model to move forward on,” Edward Hughes, CGI’s deputy director and the director of this year’s summit, told Reuters.
The summit’s main action areas are titled “Harnessing innovation for development,” “Strengthening infrastructure,” “Developing human capital,” and “Financing a sustainable future.”
The sub-topics will include food scarcity, clean water, renewable energy, green transportation systems, healthcare systems, urbanization, green jobs, responsible labor practices, job creation, micro-insurance, affordable housing in developing countries, small- and medium-sized enterprise finance, and financing climate adaptations.
The special meeting programming will feature an “Investing in women and girls” initiative, as well as the Clinton Global Citizens Awards. Last year’s award winners include Neville Isdell, chairman of the board of the Coca-Cola Company, as well as Julio Frenk, Senior Fellow of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The summit is usually attended by heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, celebrities, philanthropists, heads of foundations, CEOs and heads of nongovernmental organizations. Last year’s summit was attended by President Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, Bill Gates, Lance Armstrong, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
CGI, which was founded in 2005 by former President Bill Clinton, aims to use collaboration from the private and public sectors, as well as nongovernmental organizations and global leaders, to confront the world’s most challenging problems.
The Initiative has invested more than $46 billion in 150 countries, helping more than 200 million people.