Clinton Commitments

If there´s something unique at the Clinton Global Initiative it is the Commitments section of this event. I have never seen anything like this. Throughout the day as sessions start, President Clinton comes to the podium and announces that such and such a person has made a certain commitment to improve the world. These commitments are very specific.
For example, a person commited to fund a program to train truck drivers in Subsaharan Africa to use condoms. It turns out that truck drivers are a leading means of transmission of HIV/AIDS as they travel, have many different sexual partners and tend to have unprotected sex. As I listen to Clinton tell this story I wonder if they teach the use of condoms as part of the curriculum to get a truck driver´s license in Subsaharan Africa.

This is the wall where commitments were being posted. I thought of giving a commitment myself. The most appropriate commitment would have been the Summit on Identifying the Causes and Promoting Steps to Reduce Latin American Poverty that I am working on. During this summit poverty meant Africa. But there´s still tremendous poverty in Asia and Latin America. Indeed half of the people who speak Spanish and Portuguese are poor. I think that a gathering of business people, NGO´s and Government to come up with a concrete plan to reduce poverty in Latin America could be very useful and I am working along those lines. But frankly, I felt a bit embarrassed going up on the stage and getting a Clinton diploma over this.

• Clinton Global Initiative
• commitments
• Latin America
• poverty