President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Bill Gates Join President Bill Clinton At Closing Plenary Session of the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2010 Annual Meeting

Contact: Clinton Global Initiative Press Office, press@clintonglobalinitiative.org 

President Clinton Announces Fourth Annual Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting, Which Will Take Place April 1-3 at the University of California, San Diego

Members of CGI Lead Program, including Ishmael Beah, Lauren Bush, Pierre Garçon, Jeff Gordon, Pamela Omidyar, and Zainab Salbi, Announce Collective Commitment to Help Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People in Democratic Republic of the Congo

New York, NY – President Bill Clinton was joined by President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at the closing plenary session of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

President Obama introduced the First Lady, who spoke about the importance of harnessing human potential – in particular, the untapped potential of veterans and their spouses. After her remarks, President Clinton and Gates discussed issues including education, health care, and unemployment, addressing strategies that have worked and problems that still remain to be solved. A webcast of the session can be viewed at clintonglobalinitiative.org.

The session marked the close of the sixth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which focused on finding effective, sustainable solutions to the some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of education, economic empowerment, energy, the environment, and global health.

“I’m proud of the nearly 300 new commitments, valued at $6 billion, that we’ve announced during the Annual Meeting,” President Clinton said. “In total, more than 1,900 commitments have been made, worth $63 billion, and they have improved the lives of nearly 300 million people. CGI's continued success is to the credit of our members, who come back with better ideas, more ambitious commitments, and greater innovation year after year, who turn ideas into action and meaningful results. They are changing the way sectors work together and how we solve problems worldwide."

CGI members’ commitments have had the following impact:

• More than $1.75 billion in new capital has been invested in or loaned to small and medium enterprises.
• More than 16 million women and girls have had access to empowerment initiatives.
• More than 10 million people have improved their access to capital and financial services.
• Nearly 5 million people have obtained access to information technology.
• More than 2 million girls have been reached with efforts targeting female enrollment in schools.
• 50 million children have been given access to education in formal or non-formal school programs.
• More than 90 million acres of forest have been protected or restored.
• More than 400 million metric tons of CO2 emissions have been cut or abated.
• Enough clean energy has been generated to power more than 400,000 homes.
• 75 million people have increased access to maternal and child health and survival programs.
• Nearly 20 million people have increased access to safe drinking water.

President Clinton also invited to the stage the members of CGI Lead, a new program dedicated to engaging rising young leaders from business, government, and civil society. The inaugural group of CGI Lead members decided to make a collective commitment to launch Rethink Refugees, a pilot initiative that will help thousands of refugees and forcibly displaced people in Democratic Republic of Congo by implementing existing innovative solutions in a new and challenging environment.

This year’s inaugural group of CGI Lead members includes Valentin Abe, director, Haiti Fish Development Project; Ishmael Beah, goodwill ambassador for UNICEF; Jennifer Buffett, president and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation; Lauren Bush, co-founder of FEED Projects; Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO and co-founder of Vestergaard Frandsen Ltd.; Pierre Garçon, founder and chair of the Pierre Garçon Foundation; Jeff Gordon, NASCAR champion and co-founder of the Jeff Gordon Pediatric Cancer Foundation; Ruchira Gupta, founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide; Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube; Jounghoon Lee, CEO of Samchang Enterprises; Capt. Wes Moore, vice president at Citigroup; Pamela Omidyar, co-founder of Omidyar Network, Humanity United, and the HopeLab; Michael Peterson, vice chair of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Myron Rolle, founder and chair of the Myron Rolle Foundation; David Mayer de Rothschild, founder and CEO of Adventure Ecology; Zainab Salbi, co-founder and CEO of Women for Women International; and Alejandro Santo Domingo, managing director of Quadrant Capital Advisors.

Information about all commitments announced today is below.

President Bill Clinton also announced that the fourth Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) meeting will take place April 1-3, 2011, at the University of California, San Diego. The application is available now at CGIU.org. Founded by President Clinton in 2007, CGI U empowers undergraduate and graduate students to explore and create tangible solutions to global challenges. The meeting is hosted by President Clinton, and is free to attend. To apply, each student must create a Commitment to Action, a detailed plan for creating positive change.

Webcasts of CGI sessions can be viewed at clintonglobalinitiative.org. Photos are available through Flickr; the link is at press.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Follow CGI and the Clinton Foundation at twitter.com/ClintonTweet. The official hash-tag for the 2010 CGI Annual Meeting is #cgi2010. During the Annual Meeting, CGI posted daily videohighlights  on youtube.com/cgivideos. Follow President Clinton’s updates on his Facebook page at facebook.com/billclinton.

The following commitments were announced today:

Amazon Aid Foundation 
Inspiring Action to Protect and Preserve the Amazon
Within three years, Amazon Aid Foundation (AAF) commits to provide education, awareness, and solutions to the devastating environmental issues affecting the Amazonian rainforest. This will be done through a documentary film, a photography exhibition by Ron Haviv, and high school curriculums. AAF will bring awareness and change through art and science presentations, based on scientific data and research about rainforest losses

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina 
Shape NC: Healthy Starts for Young Children
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield North Carolina Foundation commits to launch Shape NC, an early childhood obesity prevention initiative that will work with 30 communities over three years to develop and implement anti-obesity plans focused on physical activity and healthy eating. The Foundation will work in collaboration with the North Carolina Partnership for Children, as well as the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, which will lead a state-level taskforce to provide policy and program recommendations on early childhood obesity prevention

CGI Lead 
CGI Lead commits to launch Rethink Refugees, a pilot initiative that will help thousands of refugees and forcibly displaced people in Democratic Republic of Congo by implementing existing innovative solutions in a new and challenging environment. The initiative will focus on replicable and holistic programs in the areas of economic empowerment, education, and energy. This includes leadership training to support refugees in rebuilding their lives and enhancing their own security. The CGI Lead members will measure the project’s impact, and communicate the results and knowledge acquired to organizations and people around the world in a significant awareness building campaign.

Climate Action Reserve
Climate Action Reserve Tropical Forestry Program
The Climate Action Reserve commits to establish a Tropical Forestry Program that will research and set credible standards for carbon offset programs to be used in the Mexican forestry industry in order to protect ten million acres of tropical forests over the next three years. Operating within the UN-REDD framework, the Tropical Forestry Program will help private companies offset and reduce carbon emissions, and also set standards for the Mexican forestry industry’s forest management and reforestation initiatives.

DataDyne.org 
Stockout Knockout: Getting Medicine to Those in Need
DataDyne.org commits to help health care providers around the world track, order, and receive essential medical supplies by mobile phone. Through a cloud-based system accessible from mobile phones in remote locations, DataDyne.org will enable this data collection for thousands of organizations in more than 150 countries worldwide. Medical workers and pharmacy managers can use their mobile phones to order supplies when they are out of stock, and track materials as they are transported.

Discovery Communications Inc. 
Be The Future: Discovery STEM Education Initiative
Discovery Communications will extend “Head Rush,” an educational program on the Science Channel, from a six-month to a one-year-long show. The program will target middle school students and encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Discovery Communications will make the show’s content available to 35 million students through its digital education service.

Duke Energy Corporation and Cisco 
Envision Charlotte
Duke Energy and Cisco commit to pilot Envision Charlotte, an innovative program that aims to reduce the energy use of 60 commercial buildings in Charlotte by 20 percent over five years. In collaboration with the governor’s office, the Charlotte mayor’s office, Center City Partners, and Bank of America, the initiative will combine smart grid technology, energy education, and automation technology to create a replicable and sustainable model of energy efficiency.

F.I.S.H. Foundation 
Mar Elias H.S. Technology Upgrade, Israel/Palestine
F.I.S.H. Foundation commits $100,000 over the next four months to provide academic and research technology for the biotechnology, physics, and computer labs of Mar Elias High School in Ibillin, Israel. This Palestinian-founded school, with 1,200 students from all over northern Israel, needs upgraded technology equipment to help students excel on Israel’s standardized matriculation exams.

Girls Inc. 
Girls Inc. Eureka!: STEM Career Development for Girls
Girls Inc. pledges to launch an intensive science, technology, engineering, and math based academic program with college counselling for 2,160 underserved girls in grades 8 through 12, based on a pilot program in which 100 percent of the girls went on to succeed in college.

Goodhart Foundation and Billions.org
A Billion Impressions for Good
Billions.org will support the creation of $1 million of advertising for initiatives addressing social and economic development, with the goal of inspiring an estimated 400,000 to learn more and contribute to these causes. In partnership with some of the largest digital media organizations in the world, including News Corp and Yahoo!, Billions.org will apply the expertise of leading marketers to Clinton Foundation initiatives, with the goal of developing a model that can later be expanded to promote organizations around the world.

Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products
Market-Driven Restoration - Marrecas Indigenous Community
Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products will work with the Marrecas indigenous community in Brazil to establish an organic yerba mate business. Guayaki will help the Marrecas community design a detailed plan with specific environmental and social goals, and will link its customers with partner farming communities in order to provide a sustainable livelihood for 250 indigenous families and sustain and restore 40,000 acres of Atlantic rainforest in Brazil.

Honeywell International Inc. 
Turnkey Science and Technology Kits for Mexican Schools
Honeywell will provide hands-on scientific learning materials to students and teachers in six Mexican middle schools in Mexicali, Monterrey, and Mexico City. Local Mexican-based Honeywell employees will mentor teachers on how to fully utilize these materials. Honeywell commits $50,000 to fund this one-year project for 250 students.

Hult International Business School 
Hult Global Case Challenge 
Hult International Business School commits to hold a global competition for a business plan that will tackle a challenge currently faced by a CGI Commitment to Action. One hundred teams from the top business schools across the world will compete to develop the best solution to the challenge for a $1 million grant that will be invested in the implementation of the business plan.

Kim Samuel-Johnson 
Pioneering Permanent Energy Savings
Kim Samuel-Johnson commits $2 million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America. This service will allow customers in three Nebraska towns to cover the costs of energy-smart retrofits to their homes by paying for them with a portion of their annual energy savings. It will strive to fundamentally transform the way energy efficiency services are delivered to ratepayers by making retrofit assessments and implementation significantly faster and therefore accessible to more people. Energy Pioneer Solutions will work with 19 nonprofits and 6 local religious institutions to identify families that would benefit most from saving money by saving energy.

Linklaters and Camfed International 
Good Governance as a Key to Empowerment
Linklaters and Camfed commit to implement programs that will promote the need for effective governance, transparency, and accountability within the development sector. Working with members of government, non-government and private sector organizations, the initiative will host meetings and share best practices to encourage a more formalized model of governance within this sector and raise awareness of the importance of good governance in developing countries.

Mercy Corps, Trilogy International Partners 
Mobile Money: Financial Inclusion for Haiti's Recovery 
Much of Haiti’s tenuous infrastructure was damaged after the January 2010 earthquake. But Mercy Corps, Trilogy International Partners, Voila, and UNIBANK realized that mobile services were readily restorable and could leapfrog the old system of financial access for the poor. These partners have made a commitment to provide mobile money services for 100,000 individuals in Haiti through a pilot project focused on mobile cash-for-work programming. This is the first step in an initiative that will provide a range of financial services and will serve as a platform to roll out mobile money to more than half a million Haitians.

National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance 
Global Innovation Initiative
From 2010 to 2018, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance will create a global network of more than 100 universities that will participate in online educator trainings and idea exchanges. This network will create more than 500 new social enterprises, and help train the next generation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) innovators.

Sangari
Expanding Science Education
From 2010 to 2011, Sangari will provide six underserved American elementary schools with Sangari Active Science Units, which include curriculum materials, science kits, shared laptops for teachers, and on-site professional development. 

The Paradigm Project 
Clean Cookstoves: Changing the Energy Paradigm in Kenya
The Paradigm Project commits to provide 400,000 clean cookstoves to Kenyan households over the next ten years. This commitment will use a carbon offset program to generate revenue to fund the project, which will save an estimated 1.7 million trees, eliminate 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions, and save low-income families $4.5 million in fuel costs.

Toyola Energy Limited and E+Co., Inc. 
Innovative Finance for Clean Energy in Ghana
Toyola and E+Co commit to sell 140,000 energy-efficient cook stoves and 10,000 solar energy products to low-income families in West Africa within three years. E +Co will provide small business loans to Toyola and will assist in leveraging carbon finance and creating microfranchises operated by local entrepreneurs.

TrustAfrica 
Africa Investment Climate and Business Environment Fund
TrustAfrica commits to invest $2.7 million in cutting-edge research that will focus on improving Africa’s investment climate and providing opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to thrive. TrustAfrica will provide technical assistance to strengthen the ability of civil society organizations to secure democracy and social justice.

TXTeagle 
Building the World's Largest Global Knowledge WorkForce 
TXTeagle commits to activate a global workforce through its new technology that allows any mobile phone subscriber to earn money by completing simple micro-tasks on his or her mobile device. Typically outsourced jobs, such as translation services or image tagging, can now be distributed to remote populations looking for work. TXTeagle commits to provide more than 250 million micro-tasks to 1 million mobile subscribers over the course of this year, and subsequently reimburse these workers with mobile airtime or cash.

Wangari Maathai 
The Wangari Maathai Institute: Training for Action
Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, commits to establish the Wangari Maathai Institute to provide training in sustainable environmental management. Through research, education, and community outreach, the Wangari Maathai Institute aims to improve attitudes towards the environment, and advance environmental resource management tools that promote peace and improve livelihoods.

We Love Reading 
A Library in Every Neighborhood 
We Love Reading commits to open 100 neighborhood libraries throughout Jordan to encourage children to read. These libraries will be established close to neighborhood centers, mosques, and other community meeting spaces. Staff in the new libraries will train individuals from the surrounding community to read aloud to children.

About the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes 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 125 current and former heads of state, 15 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 1,900 commitments valued at $63 billion, which have already improved the lives of nearly 300 million people in more than 170 countries. The CGI community also includes CGI University (CGI U), a forum to engage college students in global citizenship, MyCommitment.org, an online portal where anybody can make a Commitment to Action, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young leaders from business, government, and civil society. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.