With the Clinton Global Initiative and his new book Giving, President Clinton is working to help trigger a new culture of giving.  He is using a positive example to incentivize people, worldwide.

Imagine an era of giving instead of an era of taking.  This is so much the opposite of recent times, which have been a time of greed and accumulation.

Imagine an era of people looking out for each other instead of a culture where we are all on our own, in it just for ourselves, for what we can get, with a dog-eat-dog attitude.  We see that all around us and it certainly has been pushed from the top. 

Imagine an era of people doing good for other people.  This is what the Clinton Global Initiative is about.

Think about what it means to be a 21^st century citizen in a time when reality catches up to the excesses we have been living.  Global warming, debt, war, division... Fixing the world begins with believing that individuals will make a difference.  As President Clinton said at the closing of CGI, he is trying to move people from opinion to conviction – from saying I Wish to saying I Will.

The closing session was carefully staged.  Attendees seated in a circle around an elevated platform in the center of the room.  A single chair on the platform, next to a table. An announcer comes on the speakers, "Ladies and gentlemen, the 42^nd President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton," and President Clinton walks in the room, up on the platform and addresses the attendees with a short statement.  Then he sits in the chair and asks for summarizing reports from the four working groups – Education, Poverty, Energy and Climate Change and Health.

Following the reports, Clinton talks about the role of the CGI process, and the role of government.

Some background on this question: From the opening of the conference there was a question in the air.  The scale of the commitments at this CGI was clearly going to be large, and the kinds of challenges people were taking on affect so many people, that I found myself wondering what about governments?   Shouldn't they be doing these things, not CGI and other private/non-profit efforts?

I realized that others were asking this as well when I went online to see what other bloggers were writing.  Wednesday Matt Yglesias wrote that the CGI is really about things that government should be addressing, not philanthropy:

"…it really seems to me that Bill Clinton could do much more good using his charisma and standing to try to convince rich guys and executives at big companies to take a more enlightened attitude toward the political process, to return to the sort of public-spirited involvement in public affairs that characterized the business class in the 1950s and 60s. Realistically, you can't resolve climate change if the United States of America is in the grips of a fanatic ideological aversion to taxes and regulation, an ideological aversion that American business has spent -- and continues to spend -- tons of money propagating and re-enforcing. Similarly, you could do a ton of poverty alleviation if you worked through the political process to reorient America's global engagement away from such a lopsided reliance on the military. But somebody other than defense contractors and Israeli nationalists would need to invest serious money in foreign policy ideas."

And Ezra Klein was writing about similar questions,

Everyone was very impressed when, at last year's Clinton Global Initiative, Richard Branson pledged $3 billion to fund renewable energy respurce. That's great! And to us mortals, who are used to thinking in sums of a couple hundred, or thousand, it's an almost inconceivable sum. But on the scale of creating new sources of energy, it's actually rather small. Very useful, but small. And it's certainly not a substitute for collective action that caps the total carbon output. The private donations can drive some technology, but they really can't do the job. Only collective action can, and the virtuous momentum of the CGI and various corporate press releases can't be allowed to serve as a substitute for public action.

Commenters at the blogs were even asking if CGI was actually providing cover for government inaction.

So how much of the CGI is responding to the inaction of governments?  And how much of this is really the job of government?

President Clinton was aware of these concerns and addressed them at the closing session.

He said that there is no question that these are problems that require a public response – a government response.  For example, it was governments that set up the regulatory processes that kept capitalism from destroying itself.  Only governments can raise the kind of funding that will really address the major challenges.  "Government have to do more because there's more money there."  And many of these problems are so big that we need governments working together. 

But, he said, it works best when all three sectors are working together and that is the approach he is trying to trigger here.  He said that he intends CGI to be an action-forcing event.  These are the kind of problems that are ready-made for the CGI process.  It is not an either/or between government and private, non-government action.  While we wait around for government action, we can explore new approaches, learn what works, and get programs ready and scalable for governments to take them on.  And there are so many things that we can do more quickly.

So he hears the criticisms, and felt a need to address them.  I have a few comments, but I'd like to get a discussion started first.  Leave a comment here.

I am in the "big room" waiting for the closing session to begin.  I won't be able to live-blog, but will post on it later - when I can find wireless. The press (me) has been kept somewhat away from the conference, and I have been observing as much as I can.  The end of the conference is when I'll get time to think and reflect and write.  So please check back through the weekend and into next week as I write about my observations and impressions. 

I was able to enter a working session this morning and take a few photos.  The working sessions are closed to the press, but are webcast.  (No, I didn't sneak in.  This was an official, organized, approved photo opportunity, because the sessions are not as crowded today as they have been.)

This was the Accelerating Green Building session of the Energy and Climate Change track.  The first gives a sense of the room.



The second better shows how the panel is situated.



I am using a wide-angle snapshot camera and the room is smaller than these pictures imply.  In fact the second picture more accurately represents what it is like to be at almost any table in the room, feeling like the panelists are right there with you. 

There is a much closer sense of intimacy in this room than in the plenary sessions.  This is intentional, and fosters creative discussion.  The panel talks, there are questions, and then the participants discuss the topic at the tables, in a brainstorming process, coming up with ideas for solving problems.  These are the ideas that some of the attendees might decide to take on as commitments.

OK, in the morning plenary session President Clinton is talking again about ethanol conversion ratios and how they differ between corn and sugar cane, dependent on different enzyme processes, and tying this to taco riots in Mexico...  And he is relating all this to historical corn prices - actually quoting the different prices over time and today.  I guess these are some of the things he checks in the morning while he has coffee.

Now, introducing the plenary panelists he is talking about the differences between political parties in Turkey...

And he makes it all interesting.

I am watching President Clinton open the Friday morning plenary session.  Every time Clinton speaks he begins by hiliting some of the commitments that are made here at CGI.

He just announced that the Skoll Foundation is involved in a commitment to increase educational opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa for girls.  This commitment will impact the lives of 2 million children and young women.

Clinton is talking now about how this kind of educational opportunity for girls and women affects population growth.  The commitment involves education delivery in seven countries and 4000 communities.

I was typing while he was speaking -- if anyone can offer more details on this, please leave a comment.

I attended the Inaugural Clinton Global Citizen Awards ceremony last night, at Carnegie Hall. Before the awards the African Children's Choir performed. Following the awards Tony Bennett performed. (It was late, but I stayed to the end in case a certain saxophone player chose to join the band...)

The following four people were recipients of this first award. (The bios are from the press release.)

President Clinton presented the first award to Andre Agassi. Agassi, Founder, Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation, created a tuition-free college preparatory academy, providing educational and recreational opportunities for students in under-served areas of his hometown of Las Vegas, NV. With the first graduating class expected in 2009, Agassi remains a strong supporter of the growth and future success of young people in Nevada.

Other awards went to:

Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, has helped lift millions of people out of poverty through education, healthcare, and microfinance programs in Bangledesh and beyond. He founded BRAC on the belief that poverty must be tackled from a holistic viewpoint, transitioning individuals from being aid recipients to becoming empowered citizens in control of their own destinies.

Vicky Colbert, Executive Director, Escuela Nueva Foundation, has become the single most influential person in the education of rural Colombian students through her innovative Escuela Nueva methodology (Spanish for "New School"), which reshapes the roles of teachers, administrators, and the community, making learning relevant to the daily lives and contexts of students. This approach is being implemented in classrooms in over half of the rural schools in Colombia and throughout Latin America and Caribbean, improving the level of education for hundreds of thousands of students.

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems. Under his leadership, Cisco has become not only a global technology leader, but also a global leader in corporate social responsibility. He has spearheaded a diverse portfolio of programs, primarily focused on using technology to impact basic needs, education and socio-economic development.

In a morning special session titled Promoting Growth and Fairness, Andy Stern of SEIU said they are working with the one legal Chinese labor union.  But the future of labor in China is really up to American corporations.  He said, "If Chinese workers can organize, wealth in China will be distributed.  If corporations decide not to let them we will have growing inequality in China.  American corporations that operate in China should be expected to promote unions not kill unions as a way to promote distribution of wealth."

Globalization occuring in a world with a labor surplus.  Who gets the benefits?  Discuss.

President Clinton said something at his press conference that has stuck with me, and I want to emphasize it by bringing it out into its own post.  On population, he said,

There is only one thing we can do to slow population growth - within the context of preserving our freedoms.  This is to make sure girls are educated and women have jobs.  This is proven to slow population growth and lwoer the strains on natural resources.  Education and economic empowerment of women.  And this helps all of the issues we care about.  Universal education and equal access to the workplace for women is at the center of a more just and equal world.

I have not been hearing very much about population growth in the ongoing climate-change discussions. I don't mean just at CGI, but in general. And it is the root cause. But beyond that, I want to suggest a different angle on population growth -- if climate change means drought, famine, displacement, etc. these effects will harm fewer people if there are fewer people.  If parents want to avoid having their children suffer when the worst effects of global warming arrive they can avoid this by having fewer children.  A person not born today will not be 30 or 40 years old when the worst effects really hit, will not starve in a famine, will not be a refugee from flooded areas and will not be thirsty from drought.

Yes, the press crush was here because Angelina and Brad were here.  There were very few press yesterday compared to Wednesday.  That's the value of star power.  (That's why CGI is successful - Clinton's star power.) 

But along with being a star, Angelina Jolie is a wonderful, brilliant, caring person who has done a great thing with her Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.

Watch this compelling video clip:



Oh, what the heck, here's some Brad:



And some more Angelina:


There are more video clips from the event at the Clinton Foundation's YouTube page.

I have some observations about the growth of this conference. Last year I felt that CGI was about trying out a new approach to philanthropy – developing new forums and channels that bring together the business, government and non-profit worlds to form partnerships aimed at solving the world's problems.  And it was about applying a venture-entrepreneur approach.  For some time ideas about venture/entrepreneurial philanthropy had been in discussion, and early pioneers were exploring early implementation. But after last year's CGI I wrote,

"Now from my admittedly limited, outsider perspective, last I knew the various innovative ideas of venture/entrepreneurial philanthropy and public/private were supposedly still in formative, developing stages – yet here it’s almost as if these had been an operational strategy for decades, all the kinks worked out, “of course this is how it’s done”

In many ways this conference feels like a dam bursting, releasing an explosion of pent-up, problem-solving energy."

So last year was proof-of-concept.  And this year we can see that it worked.  All of that energy was applied, people met their commitments.  So this year is the beginning of implementation rollout.  We're seeing a scaling up, and many new commitments are being made.  Let me give an example.  I wrote earlier today about the carbon-reduction efforts mentioned at President Clinton's press conference,

"In the last two years more than 20 million tons of carbon were kept from the atmosphere as a result of CGI efforts.  But this year, just yesterday brought commitments to reduce another 555 million tons."

This shows the difference of scale between last year and this year.  Last year it was remarkable that the different cultures were brought together, partnerships were formed, lots of money was committed and incredibly practical, specific "tackling global challenges in bite-sized chunks" goals were established.  

This year that is all so last year.  This year everyone sees the method working, the process is understood and people are jumping on board.  Huge commitments are being made, everyone expects the projects to succeed and expand.

Next year in May the first Asian CGI will occur. So we are seeing the beginning of taking the process worldwide.

Please, leave a comment and tell me and the readers what you think about this.

President Clinton held a press conference this morning to talk about what the Clinton Global Initiative has accomplished.  Or, as President Clinton put it -- "what it has meant to people's lives."

1280 attendees and 400 speakers.  38 NGOs from developing countries.  WHile there were 600+ commitments from the previous CGIs, there have been over 100 commitments in the last 24 hours.  Those 05 and 06 commitments have affected more than 80 million people and more than 1000 organizations in 100 countries.

In the last two years more than 20 million tons of carbon were kept from the atmosphere as a result of CGI efforts.  But this year, just yesterday brought commitments to reduce another 555 million tons.

He is interested to see what the web will bring.  Over 400,000 people have watched the webcasts of this CGI.  So far they have received 200 commitments over the web.

President Clinton was asked, What is your motivation?

Answer:  I think I should spend my life trying to give back to the country and the world for the great life I have had.  I owe it.

Second, I didn't lose all interest when I stopped being President.  I feel that I can have an impact.

And third, I like it. I find it immensely rewarding.

Responding to a question about his 1990's proposal for carbon markets carbon markets he talked about how (approximate quote) "in the sweep of history people propose changes that are not embraced right away.  FDR's reforms were actually proposed 20 years earlier in the time of his cousin Teddy Roosevelt ad it took the Great Depression to motivate people to try them.  It is a good thing to fail in the right cause. Politics is a pilgrim's progress.  If we get health care in the next administration you should thank Harry Truman, who began the effort.

Specifically about carbon markets, he thinks they are a better solution than a carbon tax because it will energize entrepreneurs. 

On resource depletion and population: The depletion of vital resources we are seeing today is related to the climate change problem.  The oceans are working to try to soak up the carbon, and this is causing chemical changes, so fewer fish are surviving.  We are depleting the fisheries and at the same time the oceans are having more trouble supporting life.

150,000 years ago one homo sapien was on the earth.
90,000 years ago people walked out of Africa.
40,000 years ago when the oceans were lower, someone built a boat to sail to Australia.
15,000 years ago all of the continents were finally inhabited by people.
8,000 years ago there were 5 civilizations.
It took 150,000 years to reach our current 6.5 billion people. But in the next 43 years we will reach 9 billion.

There is only one thing we can do to slow population growth - within the context of preserving our freedoms.  This is to make sure girls are educated and women have jobs.  This is proven to slow population growth and lwoer the strains on natural resources.  Education and economic empowerment of women.  And this helps all of the issues we care about.  Universal education and equal access to the workplace for women is at the center of a more just and equal world.

Clinton Whirlwind II

Last year I wrote about the whirlwind that is Clinton unscripted.  This year was no different.  In response to questions he discussed the details of transport systems in Costa Rica, and the history of the development of their police and military procedures.  He also discussed the details of Hindu-Muslim cooperation following the recent earthquakes and religious cooperation following the tsunamis.  Earlier in the conference he again got into my favorites from last year - the different ethanol yields from the technical differences of fermentation processes and this year expanded on different crops, in different countries and how they affect the yield ratios.



Update - Matthew Yglesias writes about posting pictures of Clinton.

Former NBC news-anchor Tom Brokaw moderated the morning plenary panel.  The participants were Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom; Gro Harlem Brundtland, M.D., M.P.H., Former Prime Minister, Norway, Special Envoy on Climate Change, United Nations; Hank Paulson, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury; and His Excellency Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

The panel discussed climate change.  Sec. Paulson did not deny that global warming is taking place, and talked about the rise in temperatures melting glaciers.  He sounded like he gets it.  He claimed that the Bush administration takes global warming seriously and is working hard to reduce carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Zenawi said that biofuels offer hope to Africa, because the demand might be high enough to overcome American farm subsidies, thereby creating a market for African agricultural products.  He also said Ethiopia and other African countries need access to

All agreed that it is necessary for governments to mandate carbon reduction targets worldwide, because this sets a level playing field.

This is brief because I had to leave to cover a press conference with President Clinton, which I will write about next.

I am posting this to remind readers that you can watch CGI sessions live in your web browser over the internet.  Click here.

Also, all of yesterday's sessions are archived and can be watched at will.  Go to this page scroll down a bit, and in the main column you will see listings of available webcasts from yesterday.

I just attended a press conference where Angelina Jolie announced a significant initiative to help educate children in conflict areas.  This will be discussed at the afternoon plenary session that begins soon.  The project was founded by Jolie and Gene Sperling.

The announcement is the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict.  It brings together eighteen commitments to reach a total of one million "children in conflict, post-conflict refugee and emergency situations."  This includes placing 350,000 out-of-school chindren in schools, and "improving the learning environment, safety, materials and teacher quality for another 650,000 students-including 200,000 Iraqi refugees and 300,000 children affected by the crisis in Darfur." 

The dollar amount of this project is $148 million.  I'll post more information and links to details as it becomes available.

A couple of photos from the press conference:

This year's CGI has 1300 attendees from 72 countries.  52 current and former heads of state are attending.

This year's focus theme is Global Education.

Movie stars include Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.  (That newspaper at the supermarket must have made a mistake)

Before today's opening there had been 600 CGI commitments to date, totaling $12.5 billion.

Last year 17 people were not invited back because they had not met their commitments.  This year there were only 5.  (The Clinton Foundation staff works to assist each of the commitment-makers, to help them obtain resources and get them through the process.)  Asked at the press conference who wasn't invited back the spokesman said they won't tell who or give examples, saying, "We're not the philanthropy police."

I am in a press room, with four large screens and an earphone setup that allows me to listen to the audio from any of the screens.  The screens show what is happening in the four working session track rooms.  I just looked up at the "Energy and Climate Change" screen and Brad Pitt is talking about New Orleans and the problems of the ninth ward.  Yikes!  No wonder there are SO MANY press here -- maybe triple last year's press attendance.

Or maybe it is because President Clinton has a new book out, and these are all reviewers.

Remember, you can watch live, and you can watch later when they put each video on the website.  I found an alternative source for webcast info here.

Brad Pitt announced he and Steve Bing will match, dollar for dollar, the first $10 million of commitments to help the ninth ward.  They will build a new 150-home community.  This will be "a green, affordable, sustainable and replicable community to serve as a model for further rebuilding."   They will use sustainable construction practices and involve the local community.

Tom Watson is covering the Clinton Global Initiative for onPhilanthropy, and has a roundup of other bloggers covering the CGI.  He notes that:

- Lindsay Beyerstein of Majikthise is here and taking some fantastic photos of the proceedings. You can see them on Flickr.

- TreeHugger is covering CGI from the environmental standpoint.

- Longtime blogger Dave Johnson is covering CGI for the Skoll Foundation's SocialEdge blog.

- Jessica Valenti from Feministing is blogging (she's also working to organize bloggers here).

- Michelle Kraus is reporting live for the Huffington Post.

It looks like Lindsay definitely brought a better camera than I did!

The Clinton Global Initiative is held at this location and this week because this is the week that leaders of countries from around the world gather to attend the United Nations General Assembly.  You probably know that President Bush addressed the assembly yesterday.  And you might have seen some news about Iranian President Ahmadinejad being in town.  So President Clinton takes advantage of this to bring many of these leaders to his conference.

When you have a number of world leaders in town there are vast security concerns.  You have to worry about terrorists.  Then you have to keep Bush and Ahmadinejad apart.  Then you have to keep Bush and the Cubans apart.  You have to keep Bush and Hugo Chavez away from each other.  (Chavez didn't show up this year but last year's address was memorable.) 

Yesterday I took a walk in the area around the UN building.  Block after block is lined with police officers and vehicles.  Intersections are blocked by dump trucks filed with sand.  Every intersection has a police presence.  Everywhere you see police, people with "Secret Service" jackets, black Suburbans with tinted windows and really strange-looking antennas all over them, and license plates that say "US Government" are everywhere.  And there are the black Suburbans with tinted windows and signs saying "Zimbabwe Press" or "Ethiopian Government."  Also there are black Suburbans with tinted windows and no apparent government connection driven by large men with earpieces.  The middle lane of the FDR highway, which passes under the UN building, is blocked by a dozen police cars, accompanied by black Suburbans with tinted windows.  Even stores are lined with security men with earpieces.  Barnes and Noble had three or four, looking at me.  (I decided not to browse the section of book on how to construct bombs.)

While I was walking a press gaggle passed buy, big hurry, cameramen walking backwards, microphones on booms pointing into the center of the group, everyone running up the street.  A few minutes later a woman ran up, asked, "Did the Secretary General pass this way?" and ran down the street.

I passed a homeless looking guy with dreadlocks, riding a brand-new bicycle, with an earpiece, looking very observant.  He was talking to his wrist.  I'm serious.  I think he was part of the security.  Or crazy.  Or perhaps he was just swept up in the moment.

Getting into this conference involves passing through a security detail with metal detectors. A background check was required to receive press credentials.  Outside, the street is partially blocked off, so cars can not come down the lane closest to the building.  The building is lined with police.

So security is very tight here, and necessarily so.

Here are a few photos:



President Clinton welcoming world leaders and opening the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative




President Clinton moderating the morning panel



The press room with the four screens