Clinton Global Initiative 2011—Invitation to the Age of Participation
by Krisztian Simon, SIPA ‘13
Panelists of CGI breakout session: Waste to Wealth / Courtesy of Adam Schultz, Clinton Global Initiative
“It has been said that no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come. CGI was an idea whose time has come,” stated President Barack Obama at the Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) annual conference. This year’s conference addressed three main topics: employment, sustainable economies, and the rights of women. Former president Bill Clinton established the initiative 6 years ago, in order to convene global policy makers to create solutions to the most pressing challenges of our times. Over the years CGI members have made more than 2,000 commitments, which are valued at $63 billion if fully implemented, and could improve the lives of more than a quarter billion people. This year’s conference took place on September 20 – 22 in New York City.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called our times “the age of participation,” in which more and more people are able to get involved to help their fellow human beings. According to the conference program, CGI would take the lead by presenting workforce training programs, government incentives and business developments that can help improve the conditions of the world’s 205 million unemployed people. The programs will focus on the 1.5 billion “vulnerable” workers whose jobs are either informal or who have insufficient income to meet their necessary means of subsistence. This planning also took into account the fact that workers’ lives cannot be improved in the long term if discussions of climate change are excluded. Nations and corporations should reduce waste, packaging, energy and water use so that communities that have been endangered by irresponsible consumption habits can become beneficiaries of the global economy. Former Al Jazeera talk show host, Riz Khan mentioned that mother earth will pose a bigger threat to our civilization than terrorism.
The conference also addressed the issue of women in the developing world, arguably one of the most vulnerable populations globally. While the discussions have traditionally touched upon questions of schooling and participation in economic and political life, human trafficking and forced marriages have garnered recent attention. One out three women in the developing world was forcibly married during childhood, and some of these women were as young as 5 years old at the time. This practice “robs millions of girls of their childhood, their rights, and their dignity,” said Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, who spoke as chairman of The Elders and promised 3 million dollars to be raised in support of a program to stop child marriages.
The aforementioned discussions can be watched on CGI’s homepage: http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.
Published in RightsNews
Volume 30, no. 1, November, 2011.
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