Under the Microscope | Clinton Global Initiative | UN Millenium Development Goals
Mon, September 20, 2010 
The world’s powerful and political are gathering in New York this week, with two major global powerhouses in play. The old-guard, highly-political UN holds court in Turtle Bay, while nearby the Clinton Global Initiative rolls into its sixth session.
Both organizations are under scrutiny in a week of major focus on the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, an ambitious blueprint on how to fight poverty, poor health and poor education on a globally-daunting scale.
Everyone associated with the UN programs agrees that it’s possible that only one or two of the eight 2015 goals will be met. It’s believed that the goals of halving poverty and hunger and cutting in half the number of people without clean water will be met.
Everyone is asking these days: what exactly does it accomplish? The most enthusiastic supporters of the UN were stunned by the rich nation/poor nation debacle in Copenhagen in December 2009. When one of the poor-nation delegates threatened to slit her wrists on international TV, even liberal-leaning Anne saw blood, writing Accusations of Obama ‘Climate Shame’ & ‘New Holocaust’ End Copenhagen’s Accusation Ash Heap.
Reuters reports this morning that cash-strapped nations, many facing anti-UN conservatives-energized elections at home, are rethinking their commitments to Millennium Development Goals, concerned about the efficacy of their contributions, given the UN’s lackluster track record.
United States aid chief Rajiv Shah said in an interview with Reuters that it was time to rethink strategies for tackling poverty to focus on economic growth, accountability and fighting corruption. Shah said President Barack Obama’s administration, which remained committed to boost the U.S. aid budget to $52 billion from about $25 billion, was pushing for a new approach to making aid more effective. [nN19239202]
The more aggressive political media stances of poor nations aggressively kicking rich nations in the butt — as observed in Copenhagen and recently by AOC in the Solomon Islands claim that they can kill dolphins without US payback for WWII bases — takes everyone’s eyes off the real-problem ball.
Dumping guilt on rich nations may be good catharsis for poor-nations delegates, but the track record in poor countries for delivering results from a pot-load of global cash is frankly depressing. There are no saints in the global fight against poverty in developing countries.
The UN bears a large global responsibility for fighting AIDS, but with Conservative religious forces demanding that no condoms or protection to women be offered against AIDS except abstinence, the UN has been ineffective in developing an effective action plan to deal with AIDS.
A major new research effort that cuts rates of infection in women by 40% can’t get funding.
CGI 2010: Answering the “How Question”
Anne of Carversville wonders if the relevant action isn’t at the Clinton Global Initiative, a leaner significantly more pragmatic institution focused on results and action, not pontificating, moral lecturing and finger wagging.
Action-oriented types say that at CGI, the magic “happens in the hallways”. The Daily Beast highlights a 2005 huddle with Brad Pitt, Steven Bing and architect Bill McDonough. Just a month after Hurricane Katrina, they joined a CGI panel that ended up launching Pitt’s “Make it Right” initiative in New Orleans. Today the city’s Lower Ninth Ward one of the largest concentrations of green buildings in the country.
It’s suggested that beyond its political inertia, the UN is populated with nerdy, policy people.We wouldn’t know.
The Clinton gang is comprised of Smart Sensuality types, from our point-of-view. Actively engaged, business-oriented pramatists with heart may be the world’s best hope for the future.
“Every September has been an extraordinary experience in terms of coming together with very out-of-the box thinkers, people who are not afraid to innovate and move forward,” says Molly Melching, director of Tostan, an NGO in Senegal that works with both UNICEF and CGI. “President Clinton took what other people were saying—that businesses are bad and doing horrible things and said, ‘Let’s look at them as being potential do-gooders.’… That attitude has really changed social norms for big business; they feel that it’s a responsibility to get involved in world affairs.” via The Daily Beast
The Clinton Global Initiative is focused on four major areas: global health, economic empowerment, energy & climate change, and education. Live broadcasts begin tomorrow. With such a dedicated global audience concerned about the critical issues of our time, Anne of Carversville will dig deeply into these subjects all week, with a special emphasis on the world’s women. Anne
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