Bill Clinton: How To Save the World

Ahead of his annual conference, the former president on the secrets to making change

Max Orenstein / Clinton Foundation

Former President Clinton visits Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where a Clinton Global Initiative project is teaching this community to save and manage money.

It's not enough to just talk about solving the world's problems. A core principle behind the Clinton Global Initiative is what we call the Commitment to Action: our members work together to identify specific challenges and opportunities, and then commit to finding local, sustainable solutions with the ultimate goal of working ourselves out of a job. Because solutions are only effective if they are implemented, this year our special emphasis is on rallying people, organizations, and resources to do that. We're calling it Mobilizing for Impact.

To see what this looks like on the ground, consider the Tony Elumelu Foundation, which last year committed to a five-year, $1 million effort to design and implement a technical and vocational training curriculum to tackle the skills gap and unemployment problems in Nigeria. They're helping 1,200 students transition from theory to practice in such skills as masonry, carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. And last year, Injaz Al Maghrib committed to training 26,155 Moroccan students in entrepreneurship over three years.

These are just a couple of examples of the way CGI and our partners are helping people create better stories for themselves all over the world. In the next few pages, you'll hear from other CGI members on how mobilizing for impact helps empower people faster, more effectively and at less cost than other alternatives.

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!