Clinton Initiative pledges $9,4 million

By Naagesh Naaraayana

Microfinance Focus, Sept. 26, 2009: President Bill Clinton, joined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, closed the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on Friday. 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. 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.

“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 announced include:

* 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 on Friday include:

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.

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. The 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, said a release.

© 2009, Microfinance News. All rights reserved. 2008-09