This is the second in a series of posts by Sue Preziotti, reporting on the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) held in New York last week.
President Clinton announced new member commitments to directly combat the problems of global hunger and undernutrition during the closing plenary of the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on Friday, September 24. According to CGI, 4.7 million children are expected to benefit from these malnutrition interventions, which include:
· The World Food Programme(WFP) announced a commitment to bring together key global, regional, and local private sector entities to undertake a five-year project to radically reduce malnutrition in a minimum of two countries in Asia. WFP will undertake an analysis of the gaps and implement country specific solutions including new product development, increased fortified foods, and improved processing technology and training.
· General Mills, PEPFAR, and USAID's Partnership for Food Security will link the technical and business expertise of General Mills experts with up to 200 small and medium-sized mills and food processors in sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of improving the overall commercial viability of these enterprises and enhancing food production of nutritious food products for the world's most vulnerable populations.
· Freedom from Hunger will extend its Microfinance and Health Protection Initiative, building a consortium of practitioners, researchers, donors, and advocates to demonstrate that microfinance service providers can – and will – offer their clients health protection options. Five hundred or more microfinance service providers will offer health protection options to at least 2.5 million very poor clients in the developing world by 2014.
· PATH and its partners commit to improve the health of more than 800,000 schoolchildren in India by expanding their Ultra Rice meal fortification program. Increased demand for Ultra Rice and expected economies of scale will make the incremental cost of rice fortification more affordable to governments, better enabling them to improve the health of millions of malnourished schoolchildren.
· Growing Power commits to strengthen food security for school children and their caregivers in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Growing Power will build a new model of local food systems to ensure adequate nutrition in the short-term and build a long-term foundation for competitive African human capital in the global marketplace.
· AgroFrontera and Tres Ríos Agricultural Cooperative, with their partners, commit to work with 450 smallholder farmers and food companies to design and implement innovative food value chains that will improve capacity of smallholder farmer organizations in the impoverished northwest region of Dominican Republic to supply high quality food products to local, national, and international markets.
At the closing session, President Clinton announced that CGI members had made a total of 284 new commitments so far in 2009, which are valued at more than $9.4 billion dollars. The commitments, some of which were actually inspired at the meeting, are projected to improve more than 200 million lives through sustainable endeavors that bring new job opportunities, improved access to healthcare, access to safe drinking water, and much more. http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/newsmedia/newsmedia_pressreleases_092509b.asp?Section=NewsMedia
Note: Everything posted on this blog is my personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or its clients.
Comments