An Ambitious Initiative
Former President Bill Clinton will be back in the spotlight this week when he hosts the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The get-together has lofty ambitions indeed: to rid the world of extreme poverty, reduce religious conflict, slow global warming, and foster good governance in new democracies. Clinton recently spoke with U.S. News chief economics correspondent Matthew Benjamin.
On how he chose the topics for the meeting. I did it after rather extensive consultation with a group of people that are interested in all these areas. I believe that there are now proven strategies that will alleviate poverty and generate economic subsidies among the poor. I believe there is a lot of money to be made in helping the world transition to cleaner energy, which reduces our dependence on oil and reduces climate change. And I believe that religion can be a source of unity in the world, not division. I just got back from Tanzania, and one of the things that impressed me was this new program we announced there to bring healthcare to rural areas. The leader of every major religious group was at the announcement.
On how the initiative differs from the World Economic Forum annual summit in Davos, Switzerland. I am a big fan of Davos, which has given literally thousands of business people from across the world a level of awareness of global conditions and challenges that they would not have had. But a lot of people are frustrated because they are never asked to do anything, so I am going to ask every private-sector and NGO person who comes to make a specific commitment to take some action in one of the four areas we've targeted. If we can have 500 to 1,000 people do this every year for a decade, we can make a huge dent in some of the world's biggest problems.
On consequences if guests don't follow through. 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.
On what sort of commitments he expects from business leaders like Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch could say he's going to take one African country and fund a malaria prevention effort there, and he's going to provide the meds and the other basic materials. Another executive might say, "Figure out what the gap is between the number of people in a particular country being served with AIDS medicine and the number of people that need it. And I'll make up the difference." That's the kind of thing that I want to have happen.
On whether his initiative competes with White House efforts. No. As a matter a fact, I hope we'll get a lot of participation from the White House. I tried to make it completely bipartisan. Half of the Republicans in Congress I hope will come by. I know Secretary [Condoleezza] Rice is going to come. The NGO community, corporations, labor groups, and others have a big role to play in this, no matter how much foreign aid or debt relief is offered by the U.S. and the European Union.
On wanting to be U.N. secretary general. I haven't ever said that [laughs]. I don't see how anybody can think that's a dream job. 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.
This story appears in the September 19, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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