In just five years, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting has become a hallmark of September. Business leaders, heads of state, and philanthropists – led by Bill Clinton – get together to commit to solving the world’s worst social issues. Poverty, education ills, environmental issues and access to health care are all fair game.
The site you are reading now, Tonic, is lucky. One of the members of our board of creators, Jennifer Buffett, is a player in this philanthropic space. She and her husband, Peter Buffett (Warren’s son) won the CGI Global Citizen Award at the conference last year for their work with their NoVo Foundation, which works to improve the lives of women and girls everywhere. Jennifer has a first-person view of what will be accomplished this week. Below she shares her intimate knowledge of what happens at CGI, including some sneak peaks of what’s coming this week.
It’s Indian Summer in Manhattan and we are preparing for the Fifth Annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting here in New York this week. There’s such a feeling of eager anticipation in our office and among colleagues. Emails and texts are flying — all the latest from CGI on who is speaking, attending, organizing, presenting, holding special events, wanting to meet: celebrities, political leaders, thought leaders, luminaries. So many amazing people will be gathering from around the globe in New York to give of their time, knowledge, perspectives, wisdom, resources and heart.
I keep accepting calendar notices and wonder “How many breakfasts, lunch meetings, discussions, press interviews, plenaries, cocktail gatherings and presentations can I fit in, realistically?” There is nothing to be missed so I am resigned to a few days of pumping adrenaline, fast paced fascination, intellectual stimulation, emotion, celebration and the energy of the gathering carrying me through. The infrastructure, logistics, planning, communication and stamina of the teams planning and pulling this all together is truly amazing already.
Last year my husband Peter and I were awarded the Clinton Global Citizenship Award for our “innovation in philanthropy and commitment to empowering adolescent girls and women around the globe” – work called “the girl effect.” I traveled back to New York (in excited anticipation to say the least) that morning, arriving from London JUST in time to receive the award. I have never sprinted from a plane, to baggage, to the car, to my dress in my closet, out the door again, back into the car and out again so fast. At the hotel where CGI is held, I was met by a page who whisked me backstage past production people in headgear with ear pieces, clipboards and phones out to a seat at a large round table in a room full of a thousand guests.
I greeted and kissed my smiling husband then listened to Julia Ormond read the most heartfelt and generous introduction of Peter and me. I suddenly somehow found myself on stage making remarks and saying “thanks.” I sincerely felt all of the girls and women I have ever met in India, Africa, Asia, and here in the U.S. with me on stage in this room. I sat down and watched a few others receive this honor. Then James Taylor and musicians played “Shower The People (You Love With Love)” in front of us. The emotion of it all – recalling times in my life and what brought me to this point in time – hit me and I had a very good, spontaneous public cry!
This year we nominated – and have learned that President Clinton has chosen – Ruchira Gupta to receive one of this year’s Global Citizenship Awards. She is not a big name but does amazing and empowering work for some of the world’s most marginalized populations. Hopefully this award will open our hearts and minds to an issue I care deeply about and I am grateful to CGI for recognizing this individual! (Read Tonic’s profile on Ruchira Gupta.)
I am also so excited about a commitment – and it looks like it may be the first one announced – that will be read by President Clinton slated for the first early morning of CGI. But alas, I can’t reveal it! This is a big investment that will make a real difference for women from someone I admire greatly in New York. I believe that this announcement will signal to other business people and leaders, “The time is now to include and invest in women and adolescent girls in the developing world. Economically, socially and culturally empower them and the cycle of poverty can and will be broken!” Women and girls are a major theme of this year’s CGI – stay tuned!
In years past great discussions and thinking happened around climate change, health, education and poverty. There seems to be a feeling in preparation for CGI that these amazingly important areas are clearly and intimately interconnected and entwined and that it will take men and women, boys and girls, luminaries and leaders and also everyday people to come together, envision and make the changes we want to see in the world – the change we want to BE in the world and share in together.
CGI has evolved and grown much in five years and is now reorganizing around four action areas: Harnessing Innovation for Development, Financing a Sustainable Future, Developing Human Capital and Strengthening Infrastructure. Through a series of events and sessions, CGI will explore how solutions that support girls and women around the world can also significantly improve communities and drive economies forward! This is a big change at CGI and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
Stay tuned to Tonic all week for special, live coverage of the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative.