BY: Liliana Rocio, Senior Editor for World Liberty TV
About the Clinton Global Initiative: Founded by President Bill Clinton in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative is a community of doers representing a broad cross section of society and dedicated to the idea that we can accomplish more together than we can Apart.
Through CGI’s unique model, more than 9,000 organizations have launched more than 3,900 Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable projects and programs.
About CGI 2023: The theme of the CGI 2023 Meeting is “Keep Going.” This year’s meeting will focus on what it takes to keep going—to maintain and advance progress, in spite of the difficulties that arise, and increase our capacity to cross the divides and make common cause with one another wherever possible to build a stronger future for all.
At CGI 2023, we’ll hear from those who are tackling some of today’s most pressing issues, including climate change, health inequities, food insecurity, economic inequality, threats to democracy around the world, and record-breaking refugee displacement.
We will examine ways to channel energy and investment to scale solutions that are already improving people’s lives, and explore how tools like AI can be responsibly harnessed for good.
The CGI Meeting 2023, was very well attended close to 1200 people in attendance from all walks of life, in attendance from all over the world. For one reason how they can help humanity with their money, skills, technology and expertise.
We at World Liberty TV, has covered most of Clinton Global Initiative, since President Clinton founded the Organization since 2005. Have to say we met some of the World’s elite people from the Political World, Royalty, Business Tycoons, Sports Celebrity’s, Non-Profit leaders, Presidents and prime ministers from around the globe and so many more.
President Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2005 to bring together world leaders, business executives, leaders of effective nongovernmental organizations, and philanthropists to match resources with those doing good work on the ground.
CGI asks everyone who attends the annual meeting to make a Commitment to Action – new, measurable, and tangible — to solve a specific global challenge. Since 2005, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 current and former heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs along with heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media.
To date, CGI members have made more than 2,100 Commitments to Action, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries.
Once these commitments are fully funded and implemented, they will be valued in excess of $69 billion. In recognition of the 2012 CGI Annual Meeting, which will be held in New York City from September 23–25, here are top highlights showing how CGI has revolutionized philanthropy and impacted millions of lives and communities in the U.S. and around the world.
Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) is a dynamic community of students committed to developing innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.
CGI U is a unique opportunity to connect aspiring leaders with leading experts in business, technology, and social impact.
Each year, thousands of undergraduate and graduate students from across the country and around the world apply to participate in CGI U’s year-round community of learning, leadership, and action — beginning with a global meeting where participants, topic experts, and high-profile innovators convene to support and learn from each other.
Today, His Holiness Pope Francis joined President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2023 Meeting for a conversation via remote link.
During the conversation, His Holiness Pope Francis and President Clinton discussed the urgent need to act on climate change, our collective responsibility to come together in the face of difficulty, the work of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, and more.
See full transcript of the conversation below. Between President Clinton and Pope Francis:
President Clinton: The Pope is with us today. Holy Father, we are so honored to have you join us at CGI this year.
You’re speaking to a room full of people from all over the world, from all walks of life, who, each in their own way, are trying to follow the admonition of Isaiah, who told us we had to be repairers of the breach.
They know our world is broken in many ways, but also full of many possibilities, and they’re trying to make the most of their ability to make a difference.
I thought it would be interesting given our wonderful meeting a few weeks ago, if you could say what you believe about the obligations of ordinary people to make a difference, to deal with these big challenges that are so big that no person, no matter how wealthy or powerful, no person can believe that he or she could do them alone.
What are ordinary people supposed to do with their days that will make our societies better or our problems less severe?
Pope Francis: Thank you, Mr. President, for inviting me to your meeting. Thank you very much. It is important to spread a culture of encounter, a culture of dialogue, a culture of listening and of understanding. It is necessary to share thoughts on how to contribute to the common good and how not to leave behind the most vulnerable people such as children, who through the foundation, the patrons of Bambino Gesù, are at the root of this meeting.
We all know it. We are living through a changing epoch. Only together can we emerge from it better. Together. Only together can we heal the world from the globalization of indifference.
You, Mr. President, have listed the many challenges of our time: climate change, humanitarian crises affecting migrants and refugees and childcare and many others. I would add to this, the wind of war that blows around the world fueling with the spirit of war, what I have repeatedly called the Third World War, but peaceful.
We are in need of a great and shared assumption of responsibility. No challenge is too great if we meet it, starting with personal conversion, the personal conversion of each of us, the personal contribution that each of us can make to solve it, and from an awareness of what it is that makes us part of one destiny.
No challenge can be overcome alone, not alone, moving together, sisters and brothers, children of God. This is why I always encourage, and I want to do so here as well, all women and men of goodwill not to give up in the face of difficulties.
Difficulties are part of life and the best way to deal with them is to always seek the calming good, never alone, always together. Difficulties can bring out the best or the worst in us.
Therein lies our challenge, fighting selfishness, narcissism, division with generosity and humility. Better unity than conflict. It is time to find the path of peace, the change for fraternity.
It is time for weapons to cease and for us to return to dialogue. Let the designs of conquest and military aggression cease. That is why I repeat, no to war, no to war. It’s time to work together to stop the ecological catastrophe before it’s too late.
That’s why I’ve chosen to write a new document ten years after the publication of the encyclical Laudato si’. Let us stop while there is still time. Please, please let us stop while there is still time. It’s time to face migration emergencies. Remembering that we are not talking about numbers, but about people: men, women, and children.
When we talk about migration, let’s think about the eyes of the children we’ve seen in refugee camps. It’s time to think about the youngest, the children, and of their education and to their care. As you know, Mr. President, this meeting of ours stems from a great small project that I care about very much.
It is about children and their health. In Italy, in Rome, near the Vatican, there’s a very special hospital: The Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital. In the world, it is known as the Pope hospital, but to me, that’s not why it is unique.
It is evident that our great little hospital cannot solve the problems of all the children in the world. However, it seeks to be a sign, a testimony that it is possible through many struggles to bring together great scientific research geared toward caring for children and the gratuitous welcoming of people in need, science and hospitality. Rarely are these two things found together.
The hospital welcomes children here in the Vatican. Two or three times, a helicopter has arrived with children who need urgent help from different parts of the world. In these terrible months marked by war, the Bambino Gesù Hospital has treated more than two thousand small, young patients of Ukraine who escaped from their country with various relatives. The healthcare sector today, more than ever, the first and most concrete form of charity is science.
The capacity to care, which however must be accessible to all. Bambino Gesù Hospital is a concrete sign of charity and mercy of the church. There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children who cannot be cared for. Let’s keep this in mind. There are illnesses that cannot be cured, but there are no children who cannot be cared for. This is the distinctive feature of the hospital. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you all and I wish you all a nice day.
President Clinton: Thank you so much. It’s wonderful to see you again and hear you in such great voice, and thank you for saying something that I hope will mean something to every person because one of the things that we try to do, which is difficult enough in any form of life, but especially in public life, is to convince every person that he or she has a role to play without regard to their age or their standing. And I think you make us all feel empowered.
And perhaps that is your greatest power as the Pope that you make everybody, even people who aren’t members of the Roman Catholic Church, feel that they have power and therefore they have responsibility. It’s an extraordinary gift, and I thank you for that. I know you have a busy day, but I wonder if there’s anything else you want to say. I thank you for what you said about the children and what you said about climate change. Do you have any other message for us before you go, anything you want to make sure we take to heart?
Pope Francis: Both things, children and climate change. Please on climate change, let us take action before it’s too late.
President Clinton: Thank you very much.
President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton announced programming and participants for next week’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) 2023 Meeting, to be held September 18-19 in New York City.
CGI 2023 will begin Monday at 9:15 AM ET with a special conversation between President Clinton and His Holiness Pope Francis via remote link, on what it takes to keep going on the most pressing global challenges of our time like climate change, the refugee crisis, the welfare of children, and the mission and projects of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital.
Programming announced today includes a fireside chat with Secretary Clinton and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen; a session on freedom of the press highlighting Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention in Russia; as well as programming featuring Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, Alphabet and Google President, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, NBA Hall of Famer, Entrepreneur, Producer, and Philanthropist Dwyane Wade, and many others.
Participants for CGI 2023 announced included His Holiness Pope Francis; Janet L. Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana; Charlotte Alter, National Correspondent, TIME Magazine; Sophie Beren, Founder and CEO, The Conversationalist; Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Executive Chairman, The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change; Jeanne Bourgault, President and CEO, Internews.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO, DP World; Jonathan Capehart, Associate Editor, Washington Post; Keely Cat-Wells, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Making Space; Jodie Ginsberg, President, Committee to Protect Journalists; Aidan Gomez, CEO and Co-Founder, Co here; Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Almar Latour, CEO, Dow Jones and Publisher, Wall Street Journal; Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
Gavin Newsom, Governor, California; Dana Perino, Co-Anchor of America’s Newsroom and Co-Host of The Five on FOX News Channel, and former White House Press Secretary; Ruth Porat, President, Chief Investment Officer, and Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google.
Jen Psaki, Host of “Inside with Jen Psaki” on MSNBC, and former White House Press Secretary; Jason Rezaian, Global Opinions Writer and former Tehran Bureau Chief, Washington Post, Christy Turlington Burns, Founder & President, Every Mother Counts; Patricia Velasquez, President and Founder, The Wayúu Taya Foundation; Dwyane Wade, NBA Hall of Famer, entrepreneur, producer, and philanthropist; and Gretchen Whitmer, Governor, Michigan.
Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, received the 2023 Clinton Global Citizen Award from Hillary and Bill Clinton during her visit to New York, where the 78th session of the UN General Assembly is taking place.
The 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, honored Zelenska with the Clinton Global Citizen Award, established in 2007.
The award is given to individuals whose vision and leadership inspire societies around the world and demonstrates that significant change can be achieved through collaboration.
Zelenska noted that she shares the award with all Ukrainians. She believes that every person in Ukraine is a dedicated leader.
Actor and philanthropist Michael J. Fox won this year’s Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, which the “Back to the Future” star plans to use to further his foundation’s work to find treatments for Parkinson’s disease.
Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 29 in 1991, received the award at the Clinton Global Initiative, or CGI, conference on Tuesday in New York.
The annual prize, which went to Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai last year, includes $250,000 from the Elevate Prize Foundation and support to amplify the winner’s messaging.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who interviewed Fox onstage at CGI, credited him with research advances in understanding Parkinson’s. “I don’t think this work would have made the progress it has if Michael hadn’t been so open,” she said.
Attending the CGI Meetings, I also feel that great things are done around the world, helping humanity, Climate change, Hunger, Poverty alleviation and how new technology, like AI, can help in all these missions. Again being a Humanitarian for 46 years, helping millions of people around the world, through our Foundation Humanitarians of the World Inc., Click here for more information. www.hotwinc.org
My takeaway is that, President Clinton is such a visionary and a great Humanitarian, who sincerely brings everyone together and is the Gandhi of our Era. I personally like to thank him for giving me an opportunity to be in attendance and showcase his work through our World Liberty TV, Humanitarian Channels, our readers and listeners are huge fans of all the great work CGI does.
Also view exclusive coverage of the event in our Video showcase: Clinton Global Initiative Meeting Opening of CGI -2023 by clicking here. 2nd Video Showcase: Clinton Global Initiative World Leaders & Humanitarians Speaking at CGI 2023 Meeting by clicking here.
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