President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Close Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative

September 26, 2009

In 2009, members made 284 Commitments valued at $9.4 billion dollars

1,700 commitments have been made since 2005 valued at more than $57 billion

NEW YORK, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- President Bill Clinton was joined today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to close the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). In his remarks, President Clinton announced that by the end of the meeting, which has been underway since Tuesday, CGI members in 2009 have made 284 new commitments valued at more than $9.4 billion dollars. In total, these commitments are projected to improve more than 200 million lives. Since 2005, members of the Clinton Global Initiative have made nearly 1,700 commitments valued at $57 billion dollars.

"I think we can say with some certainty that this model actually does work," President Clinton said. "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 impact of 2009 commitments, once fully implemented, is expected to yield the following results:

    --  79 million people will generate sustainable income through
        self-employment or new job opportunities.
    --  $5.4 billion will be invested in or loaned to small- and medium-sized
        enterprises
    --  25.4 million people will have improved access to capital and financial
        services.
    --  3.5 million small farmers will gain access to inputs, supports, and
        markets.
    --  7 million women and girls will be reached through empowerment
        initiatives.
    --  30 million children will gain access to education.
    --  2 million girls will be reached through school enrollment efforts.
    --  30 million metric tons of CO(2) emissions will be cut
    --  7 million people will be reached with clean energy.
    --  1.5 million people will be engaged in efforts to promote climate change
        solutions.
    --  83 million people will have increased access to health services.
    --  17 million people will have increased access to maternal-child health
        and survival programs.
    --  4.7 million children will benefit from malnutrition interventions.
    --  40 million people will receive treatment for neglected tropical
        diseases.
    --  $50 million will be raised to fund research and development of new
        vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics.

    --  18 million people will have increased access to safe drinking water.

While many commitments are made in advance of the Annual Meeting, some are inspired onsite. For example:

    --  Member Mouhsine Serrrar from Prakti Design Labs came in to the Annual
        Meeting to find partners for his commitment to distribute fuel efficient
        cookstoves in India. This week, he has not only developed a new
        commitment around developing fuel efficient cookstoves in Haiti, a
        country that desperately needs new options for stopping deforestation,
        but he has also found a wide range of implementing and funding partners
        -- including E+Co, AIDG, the Sierra Club, among others -- to make it
        possible.

    --  Another member, inspired by remarks by Dr. Wangari Mathaai, has
        anonymously committed to help Mathaai's organization and to fund
        cataract surgeries for more than 300 individuals.

While attending the action network on human trafficking and slavery, Jim Greenbaum realized that he could use his contacts and resources to make a difference. He committed to put the issue of ending child and slave labor on the map of the Young Presidents Organization, and to work to get all YPO member companies to ensure that they and their supply chains are not utilizing child or slave labor.

Prior to the closing session, a morning plenary session focused on how financial resources could be deployed for the global good. The session, "Moving from Crisis to Opportunity -- Financing an Equitable Future," featured Fazle Abed, founder and chairman of BRAC, Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, James Dimon, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Peter Sands, CEO of Standard Chartered PLC. It was moderated by CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo. Participants discussed how to avoid another financial crisis, and how to extend financial products such as microfinance and insurance to the world's poor.

During the session, several new commitments were announced. Among them:

    --  Moody's, in partnership with Kiva, is poised to dramatically increase
        the number of entrepreneurs benefiting from microloans. Using Moody's
        financial support and expertise in risk analysis, and pro-bono credit
        ratings of Kiva's 20 largest microfinance institution partners, Kiva
        will build on-the-ground teams to expand its capacity to connect with
        entrepreneurs, assess their creditworthiness, and monitor progress
        toward loan repayment.

    --  PRODEL commits to develop a savings vehicle targeted at the very poor,
        which will help raise funds in order to scale up PRODEL's microfinance
        lending, both in Nicaragua and throughout Central America. PRODEL's
        model of social and financial inclusion offers microloans to the poor
        for the improvement of housing, basic services, and infrastructure.

A complete list of commitments made today is included below.

Commitments Announced Friday, September 24, 2009:

    --  The World Food Programme (WFP) commits to bring together key global,
        regional, and local private sector entities to undertake a five year
        project to radically reduce malnutrition in a minimum of two countries
        in Asia. WFP will undertake an analysis of the gaps and implement
        country specific solutions including new product development, increased
        fortified foods, and improved processing technology and training.
    --  The Rockefeller Foundation commits to financially supporting the Global
        Impact Investing Network (GIIN). GIIN is a not-for-profit organization
        dedicated to building the infrastructure, activities, education, and
        research that will enable more effective impact investing around the
        world.
    --  The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) will build a community of
        leading impact investors as the founding membership of the GIIN
        Investors' Council. This commitment aims to build the infrastructure,
        activities, education, and research that will enable more effective
        impact investing around the world, ultimately increasing the volume and
        effectiveness of capital deployed to solve previously intractable social
        and environmental problems.
    --  The Global Impact Investing Network and its partners will launch the
        Impact Reporting and Investment Standards, an initiative to measure and
        report on the performance of impact investments. This project will bring
        transparency and credibility to this industry, encouraging investment in
        effective solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges.
    --  The Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth, Ashoka, and the Bill &
        Melinda Gates Foundation commit to support 32 Young Champions who will
        be selected based on their novel approaches to reducing maternal death
        and disability. The Young Champions will be linked to leading experts on
        the ground and will acquire experience propelling them to become leaders
        in their fields.
    --  One HEART and its partners commit to launching an innovative program
        that will provide supplies and skills training for maternal and neonatal
        health in remote and resource-poor communities in Nepal and Mexico. This
        program aims to reduce maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality in
        indigenous and underserved populations that experience high rates of
        home deliveries and related mortalities.
    --  The Lwala Community Alliance commits to increase health infrastructure
        and community maternal health education to save lives of infants and
        mothers in the catchment area of Lwala and its surrounding villages in
        Kenya. This commitment will provide public health outreach and
        clinic-based safe motherhood services before, during, and after delivery
        by women of reproductive age.
    --  The Pakistan National Forum on Women's Health commits to launch a
        program to train 30 nursing and midwifery tutors from across Pakistan in
        Karachi who will then return to their provinces, teaching at local
        nursing midwifery schools. The project's goal is to train a workforce of
        nurses who will tackle the issue of needless maternal deaths in the
        country.
    --  Jhpiego commits to introduce breakthrough methods to combat eclampsia,
        the second leading cause of maternal mortality, through simple,
        high-impact, and cost effective strategies and tools. Through a
        three-tiered approach consisting of prevention, detection, and
        treatment, this commitment will prevent the needless death of mothers
        and its devastating effect on families in 11 Asian and African
        countries.
    --  American India Foundation (AIF) commits to improving maternal and
        newborn survival in Seraikela Kharsawan, one of India's poorest
        districts. AIF support will allow for increased institutional delivery
        or skilled birth attendance in public and private health facilities, and
        improved community-based newborn care. The project will directly benefit
        17,500 women and 6,400 children under the age of two.
    --  Moody's in partnership with Kiva is poised to dramatically increase the
        number of entrepreneurs benefiting from microloans. Using Moody's
        financial support and expertise in risk analysis, and pro-bono credit
        ratings of Kiva's 20 largest microfinance institution partners, Kiva
        will build on-the-ground teams to expand its capacity to connect with
        entrepreneurs, assess their creditworthiness, and monitor progress
        toward loan repayment.
    --  Impact Capital Partners commits to catalyze the affordable housing
        sector in India through investments in construction and microfinance
        that will lead to the building of 50,000 affordable, sustainable homes
        in India at less than $20,000 a home. This project will create access to
        finance through micro-mortgages for the working poor of India currently
        residing in slums.
    --  UN-HABITAT commits to financially support the Affordable Mortgage and
        Loan Corporation in its efforts to reduce the serious housing shortage
        in the Palestinian Territories. This project will lead to the
        construction of 30,000 affordable housing units in the West Bank for low
        to middle income Palestinians who currently cannot afford housing and
        have no access to formal mortgage finance.
    --  PRODEL commits to develop a savings vehicle targeted at the very poor,
        which will help raise funds in order to scale up PRODEL's microfinance
        lending, both in Nicaragua and throughout Central America. PRODEL's
        model of social and financial inclusion offers microloans to the poor
        for the improvement of housing, basic services, and infrastructure.
    --  Ashoka Arab World, through Housing For All (HFA), commits to
        revolutionize the Egyptian housing industry and transform the affordable
        housing market for families living in unsafe and illegal slum
        conditions. HFA will leverage the strengths of the private sector,
        Citizen Sector Organizations, universities, and low-income populations,
        using market-based strategies to provide affordable and environmentally
        sustainable housing for 18,000 families.
    --  Mercy Corps and its partners will pilot a permanent, sustainable system
        that will promote local community stewardship of natural resources in
        North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through financial
        incentives, this model will motivate communities living in threatened
        habitats to implement environmentally sustainable household activities
        that include using fuel-efficient stoves, planting renewable woodlots,
        and producing reduced emission briquettes.
    --  DonorsChoose.org commits to encourage 5,000 citizen philanthropists and
        institutional stakeholders, through its online platform, to provide
        educational resources and supplies to create a more robust academic
        experience for 150,000 students in nearly 6,000 classrooms, in
        underserved, rural schools in the U.S.
    --  Qifang will launch a scalable model to help young girls from Shaanxi,
        China attain their college dreams and become community leaders. Qifang
        will leverage its social lending and web platform to finance the college
        education of qualified female students. Participants will receive
        life-long mentorship. Those who return to their communities two years
        after graduation will also benefit from debt relief.
    --  The Center for Financial Services Innovation commits to form a
        for-profit, market-rate venture capital firm, Core Innovation Capital,
        which will invest in the most progressive, highly-scalable financial
        technology companies. This commitment will create excellent, market-rate
        financial returns, and create billions of dollars in cost savings and
        asset building opportunities for millions of underbanked households in
        the U.S.
    --  Naya Jeevan commits to provide access to an affordable, high-quality
        micro-insurance program for 100,000 low-income families in Pakistan and
        India. As part of a comprehensive approach, this also includes providing
        primary and preventative healthcare education, as well as workshops on
        sanitation and relevant skill development training, to low-income
        families.
    --  The HealthStore Foundation, with its partners, commits to expanding
        their Child and Family Wellness Clinics (CFW) funded by social venture
        capital equity investments in Kenya and Rwanda, and launching a CFW
        network in Ghana to provide high-quality drugs and basic health care to
        underserved communities.
    --  Freedom from Hunger will extend its Microfinance and Health Protection
        Initiative, building a consortium of practitioners, researchers, donors,
        and advocates to demonstrate that microfinance service providers can --
        and will -- offer their clients health protection options. Five hundred
        or more microfinance service providers will offer health protection
        options to at least 2.5 million very poor clients in the developing
        world by 2014.
    --  Right To Play International, ExxonMobil, and Wasserman Media Group will
        join the United Against Malaria partnership, using the World Cup 2010 in
        South Africa to dramatically accelerate progress against malaria.
        Through this commitment, high-profile individuals and organizations will
        use football, the world's most popular sport, to raise global awareness
        and renew worldwide commitment to prioritize and end malaria.
    --  PATH and its partners commit to improve the health of more than 800,000
        schoolchildren in India by expanding their Ultra Rice meal fortification
        program. Increased demand for Ultra Rice and expected economies of scale
        will make the incremental cost of rice fortification more affordable to
        governments, better enabling them to improve the health of millions of
        malnourished schoolchildren.
    --  Growing Power commits to strengthen food security for school children
        and their care givers in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Growing Power will
        build a new model of local food systems to ensure adequate nutrition in
        the short-term and build a long-term foundation for competitive African
        human capital in the global market place.
    --  Mantria Corporation commits to help mitigate global warming through the
        use of its Carbon Fields site, where Mantria will perform trials on
        their product BioChar, a carbon-negative charcoal, to prove how this
        product can sequester carbon dioxide, improve soil quality when buried,
        and reduce emissions in developing countries.
    --  AgroFrontera and Tres Rios Agricultural Cooperative, with their
        partners, commit to work with 450 smallholder farmers and food companies
        to design and implement innovative food value chains that will improve
        capacity of smallholder farmer organizations in the impoverished
        northwest region of Dominican Republic to supply high quality food
        products to local, national, and international markets.
    --  General Mills, PEPFAR, and USAID's Partnership for Food Security will
        link the technical and business expertise of General Mills experts with
        up to 200 small and medium-sized mills and food processors in
        sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of improving the overall commercial
        viability of these enterprises and enhancing food production of
        nutritious food products for the world's most vulnerable populations.
    --  Pegasus Sustainable Century commits to bring capital, financial,
        operating, and policy expertise to middle-market growth businesses in
        the U.S. Through this commitment, these businesses will have the
        potential to transform a significant segment of industry with more
        efficient, sustainable solutions with sustainability benefits including
        pollution reduction, improved energy efficiency, and reduced resource
        use.
    --  Green For All and Living Cities commit to form the Urban Opportunity
        Retrofit Fund, a new social investment fund that finances innovative
        efforts to retrofit homes, businesses, and community facilities to
        achieve greater energy efficiency and other environmental benefits while
        creating jobs and cutting costs for low-income communities.
    --  CMEA Capital commits to investing new capital in clean technology and
        new energy initiatives in companies whose technology combines scientific
        breakthroughs from a variety of disciplines. This commitment extends
        CMEA's history of investing in technology entrepreneurs and innovators,
        with a particular focus on those opportunities and innovations that
        translate environmental challenges into significant global economic
        value.

    --  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), CDC Foundation, Grupo ABC,
        the Nduna Foundation, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNIFEM, and the World
        Health Organization will develop a global initiative to address the
        human injustices of sexual violence against girls. Through surveillance
        methodology, policy and social interventions, and a media campaign, the
        commitment aims to achieve sustained positive change in the treatment of
        girls.

About the Clinton Global Initiative

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) brings together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 100 current and former heads of state, 10 of the last 16 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made more than 1,400 commitments valued at $46 billion, which have improved the lives of more than 200 million people in more than 170 countries.

SOURCE Clinton Global Initiative