Clinton Global Initiative Raises Billion
Dollars in Pledges, Produces Lively Debate’
by Sean O'Driscoll
At New York’s Sheraton Hotel, the first-ever Clinton Global Initiative delivered very dramatic results. The three-day conference earned more than $1.25 billion in pledges to h
elp four key global problems: poverty, religious strife, climate change and bad government.
The conference, hosted by former President Bill Clinton, also brought together a dazzling collection of political and economic leaders, generating almost as much security as the U.N. 60th anniversary summit taking place in New York at the same time.
(See related story.)
The attendees included U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife Queen Rania, media mogul Rupert Murdoch and billionaire financier George Soros.
Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, a Middle East policy expert in the U.S. government, spoke ab
out the role of religion in global conflict. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz also attended. Perhaps the prestige of the event was best summed up by the presence of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who insisted on coming despite the huge political upheavals in his country that week, when one of his closest allies split from him.
The 800 participants paid $15,000 each to mingle with the invited guests, and, at the cocktail reception that opened the conference, world leaders mixed with financiers and nongovernmental chiefs in what Clinton hopes will become a yearly event.
But it will take a long time to decide whether Clinton’s biggest post-presidency project will produce tangible results or whether, as the Washington Post and others have suggested, it may all turn out to be another World Economic Forum—the annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, that has become the benchmark for “gab fests,” in which global leaders make grand-sounding terms but often do little to back them up.
Clinton himself was very much aware of the need for concrete action, asking each participant to make a firm pledge. Some of the pledges seemed like hot air, while others seemed to have real substance if they work out. Starbucks, for example, has pledged to set up a program to help farmers obtain a fair price for their coffee, hoping to offset criticism of exploitation.
However, Clinton also made it clear that none of the pledges made at his conference is in any way binding. “Well, there is no consequence except that you won’t be invited back next year. I don’t want anybody to come that doesn’t want to do this,” he said.
It’s debatable whether the participants will stick to their pledges after the media has disappeared, and this will be a crucial factor in deciding the future success of the conference.
Whether or not there is real action by the pledges will have a major effect on another big question: Is this conference Clinton’s launch to become the next secretary-general of the United Nations?
That the Clinton Global Initiative ran at the same time as the U.N. summit, and in the same city, is certainly no coincidence. “I haven’t ever said that,” Clinton said, laughing when asked if the initiative was really his way of announcing his candidacy for the U.N. job.
Having avoided the question with typical Clinton skill, he added that this conference should not be seen as a mere springboard for the U.N. post. “I don’t see how anybody can think that’s a dream job,” he said. “I’m now doing tsunami relief with a small staff of people that have been loaned to me by the U.N., but it doesn’t have anything to do with that.”
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