Three Cheers for the Clinton Global Initiative

With all the press about the recent annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, I thought it was worth opening up some discussion about this new organization. If you spend a few minutes on the webpage, or read a few articles about the annual meeting, you cannot help but be impressed. This is not Davos, or the Aspen Institute. This organization is different because its entire ethos is about action.

Whatever your politics, there is something clearly right about world leaders in business, entertainment, education, law and politics gathering together to make concrete commitments for action. Focus areas this year include education, poverty, health, energy, climate change, religious and ethnic conflict, and governance. Concrete commitments range from globalizing Teach for America, to the Survive to 5 program, to a $1 billion paper recycling program.

As discussed here, the Clinton Global Initiative is a “non-partisan catalyst for action, bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges…. The defining characteristics of the Clinton Global Initiative are its action-oriented nature and its track record of converting pioneering ideas into viable solutions with tangible results. CGI members develop ‘commitments to action’, focusing on practical, effective problem-solving measures that can be taken now. Member commitments are comprehensive, formal plans of action with timetables for evaluating progress.”

As reported here, in the first two years $10 billion in commitments were made for 600 projects in 100 countries. CGI has a policing mechanism as well: if you want access, we need to see action. If you don’t follow through with your commitment CGI does not invite you back to the annual conferences. In 2006, 17 members were not invited back and this year the number dropped to five. And with 50,000 people following the conference, CGI has launched My Commitment so that lesser humans like us can make our own individual commitment.

I don’t see a downside to any of this. CGI is proving to be a major force for good in the world.