Posted on September 25, 2012

New Commitments Announced on Day One of Clinton Global Initiative 2012

The Clinton Global Initiative has announced six new commitments to address global challenges in the areas of environmental protection, women's empowerment, sustainable energy, and global health during the first day of its eighth annual meeting.

Commitments announced on day one of the three-day event include $12 million from businessman and philanthropist Tom Golisano to sponsor twelve Special Olympics International Healthy Communities Demonstration Projects that deliver a sustained set of health interventions and supports for individuals with intellectual disabilities through a comprehensive, community-based year-round model. New commitments also were announced by NISAA Broadcast Radio Company, a woman-owned radio station in the West Bank, to train and hire female community reporters and students; and the New York City-based Georges Malaika Foundation to expand educational access and quality learning opportunities to three hundred and forty young girls in Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

During the opening-day session on Sunday, former President Clinton reported on the progress CGI members have made on commitments announced at past meetings. For example, Procter & Gamble, which is working to expand its efforts to provide clean drinking water to developing countries and reach its goal of saving a life every hour of every day by 2020, reported that it had provided one billion liters of clean drinking water over the last ten months through its PUR packet program — an effort it hopes to scale up to two billion liters by 2020.

More than a thousand global leaders are expected to attend some portion of the 2012 event, which seeks to examine the most effective ways to address urgent global challenges and design a more prosperous and sustainable world.

"As CGI's eighth annual meeting begins, I am deeply grateful that such a diverse group of esteemed leaders are here with us to motivate global action and change lives worldwide," said former President Clinton. "Their dedication reminds us that the international demand for solutions must take priority over the differences that divide us. It's the same dedication to humanity that has helped CGI members make nearly twenty-three hundred commitments that have impacted the lives of more than four hundred million people since 2005. In the next three days, I look forward to seeing how the world's leading thinkers will propose creative and inclusive solutions to the obstacles facing our planet."