The Daily Tell

As the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) came to a close last Friday, former President Bill Clinton and wife/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that discussions during the meeting had resulted in 284 new charitable commitments valued at over $9.4 billion that could influence and improve up to 200 million lives around the world.

Among the many philanthropic ventures that were initiated during the four-day conference – which was attended by numerous heads of foundations, philanthropists, nongovernmental organization directors, and prominent media members – was the World Food Programme’s commitment to unite global, regional, and private sector units for a five-year campaign to reduce malnutrition in Asia.

Another program, launched by One HEART, will seek to provide supplies and training courses for maternal and neonatal health in poor communities in Nepal and Mexico.

In all, the pledges announced during the meeting – if followed through on – would result in improvement to a number of causes, including $5.4 billion that would be invested in small- and medium-sized enterprises, increasing health service access to 83 million people, the cutting of 30 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and improved access to educational services for 30 million children.

"I think we can say with some certainty that this model actually does work," President Clinton said of the CGI meeting and the philanthropic results it produced. "People don’t have to have the same politics, the same religion, or speak the same language to work together and to have an impact. We all have things to learn from each other. What we need is a shared mechanism to achieve common goals."

The CGI was established in 2005 by President Clinton as a means to bring together global leaders to "devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges." Since its inception, CGI members have made more than 1,400 philanthropic and charitable commitments valued at more than $46 billion.