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President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Bill Gates Join President Bill Clinton At Closing Plenary Session of the Clinton Global Initiative’s 2010 Annual Meeting

CGI Members Made Nearly 300 New Commitments To Address Issues Within Education, Economic Empowerment, Global Health, Energy, and the Environment; Since CGI Launched, Commitments Worth $63 Billion Have Improved the Lives of Nearly 300 Million People in More Than 170 Countries

President Clinton Announces Fourth Annual Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting, Which Will Take Place April 1-3 at the University of California, San Diego
Members of CGI Lead Program, including Ishmael Beah, Lauren Bush, Pierre Garçon, Jeff Gordon, Pamela Omidyar, and Zainab Salbi, Announce Collective Commitment to Help Refugees and Forcibly Displaced People in Democratic Republic of the Congo
New York, NY – President Bill Clinton was joined by President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, at the closing plenary session of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

President Obama introduced the First Lady, who spoke about the importance of harnessing human potential – in particular, the untapped potential of veterans and their spouses. After her remarks, President Clinton and Gates discussed issues including education, health care, and unemployment, addressing strategies that have worked and problems that still remain to be solved. A webcast of the session can be viewed at clintonglobalinitiative.org.

The session marked the close of the sixth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which focused on finding effective, sustainable solutions to the some of the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of education, economic empowerment, energy, the environment, and global health.

“I’m proud of the nearly 300 new commitments, valued at $6 billion, that we’ve announced during the Annual Meeting,” President Clinton said. “In total, more than 1,900 commitments have been made, worth $63 billion, and they have improved the lives of nearly 300 million people. CGI's continued success is to the credit of our members, who come back with better ideas, more ambitious commitments, and greater innovation year after year, who turn ideas into action and meaningful results. They are changing the way sectors work together and how we solve problems worldwide."

CGI members’ commitments have had the following impact:

More than $1.75 billion in new capital has been invested in or loaned to small and medium enterprises.
More than 16 million women and girls have had access to empowerment initiatives.
More than 10 million people have improved their access to capital and financial services.
Nearly 5 million people have obtained access to information technology.
More than 2 million girls have been reached with efforts targeting female enrollment in schools.
50 million children have been given access to education in formal or non-formal school programs.
More than 90 million acres of forest have been protected or restored.
More than 400 million metric tons of CO2 emissions have been cut or abated.
Enough clean energy has been generated to power more than 400,000 homes.
75 million people have increased access to maternal and child health and survival programs.
Nearly 20 million people have increased access to safe drinking water.
President Clinton also invited to the stage the members of CGI Lead, a new program dedicated to engaging rising young leaders from business, government, and civil society. The inaugural group of CGI Lead members decided to make a collective commitment to launch Rethink Refugees, a pilot initiative that will help thousands of refugees and forcibly displaced people in Democratic Republic of Congo by implementing existing innovative solutions in a new and challenging environment.

This year’s inaugural group of CGI Lead members includes Valentin Abe, director, Haiti Fish Development Project; Ishmael Beah, goodwill ambassador for UNICEF; Jennifer Buffett, president and co-chair of the NoVo Foundation; Lauren Bush, co-founder of FEED Projects; Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO and co-founder of Vestergaard Frandsen Ltd.; Pierre Garçon, founder and chair of the Pierre Garçon Foundation; Jeff Gordon, NASCAR champion and co-founder of the Jeff Gordon Pediatric Cancer Foundation; Ruchira Gupta, founder and president of Apne Aap Women Worldwide; Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube; Jounghoon Lee, CEO of Samchang Enterprises; Capt. Wes Moore, vice president at Citigroup; Pamela Omidyar, co-founder of Omidyar Network, Humanity United, and the HopeLab; Michael Peterson, vice chair of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation; Myron Rolle, founder and chair of the Myron Rolle Foundation; David Mayer de Rothschild, founder and CEO of Adventure Eco logy; Zainab Salbi, co-founder and CEO of Women for Women International; and Alejandro Santo Domingo, managing director of Quadrant Capital Advisors.

Information about all commitments announced today is below.

President Bill Clinton also announced that the fourth Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) meeting will take place April 1-3, 2011, at the University of California, San Diego. The application is available now at CGIU.org. Founded by President Clinton in 2007, CGI U empowers undergraduate and graduate students to explore and create tangible solutions to global challenges. The meeting is hosted by President Clinton, and is free to attend. To apply, each student must create a Commitment to Action, a detailed plan for creating positive change.

Webcasts of CGI sessions can be viewed at clintonglobalinitiative.org. Photos are available through Flickr; the link is at press.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Follow CGI and the Clinton Foundation at twitter.com/ClintonTweet. The official hash-tag for the 2010 CGI Annual Meeting is #cgi2010. During the Annual Meeting, CGI posted daily video highlights on youtube.com/cgivideos. Follow President Clinton’s updates on his Facebook page at facebook.com/billclinton.