At the 2023 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting

Every morning, all of us wake up and make a decision. Most days, we probably don’t even know we’re making it. But in the face of big and small challenges, from the deeply personal to the greatest global crises, we all have to decide. Will we throw our hands up and say it’s all too much? Or will we live our lives in a way that builds a better future?

In a year that often saw the forces of division try to tear us apart, the Clinton Foundation continued our work and advanced our core values of partnership, progress, and putting people first.

Throughout the year, we experienced firsthand how our programs and partners are making a difference — each providing powerful examples of how solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges are within our reach.

• At the 2023 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, we brought together more than 2,000 leaders to explore what it takes to keep going in the face of the extraordinary challenges we face today. We heard stories and solutions from those who are on the frontlines of leading change in communities around the world — including remarkable moments with His Holiness Pope Francis, Ukraine First Lady Olena Zelenska, Reverend William J. Barber, Ai Wei Wei, Michael J. Fox, and many more. We also saw our community continue to answer the call to drive progress, launching 160 new CGI Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable plans that address global challenges — on a wide range of issues, including a dedicated CGI Action Network on the humanitarian response in Ukraine and a new focus on projects that will advance equal rights and opportunities for women and girls worldwide. We also traveled around the globe to meet with CGI’s growing ‘community of doers,’ spanning five continents in five weeks to engage even more leaders on the front lines of the issues that matter to all of us. And, through a partnership with Vanderbilt University, we heard directly from hundreds of student leaders who are already turning their ideas into action for meaningful change on their campuses and in their communities.
• Too Small to Fail continued its work around early childhood development – expanding successful community efforts into statewide programs in California and Pennsylvania, and kicking off a new exploration of the unique role we as an organization can play in advancing solutions that prioritize children’s health in the face of climate change.
• From Little Rock to Las Vegas, the CGI Overdose Response Network continued its work to combat overdose deaths across America – distributing free naloxone, conducting trainings on how it’s administered, and cultivating a powerful sense of community among those committed to saving lives and supporting those who need help. For National Recovery Month in September, the team organized a bus tour of 48 stops across Georgia aimed at celebrating long-term recovery and engaging leaders across the state in our work.
• Through the Clinton Presidential Center and our Project 42 initiative, we also spent the year marking important moments during the Clinton administration that continue to make a meaningful difference for millions of people. In April, we marked the 25th anniversary of the historic Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and established a framework for shared government. In addition, two major programs – the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and AmeriCorps – turned 30 this year. Since they were established, FMLA has been used more than 400 million times, and more than 1.2 million volunteers have served their communities through AmeriCorps. Behind each of these numbers are stories about real people benefiting from common-sense policy solutions.
• Building upon the momentum of the “Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes, Women’s Rights” summit at the Clinton Presidential Center, we expanded the work of the Hillary Rodham Clinton Leadership Project. Milestones included traveling to the salt pans of Gujarat, India, to see firsthand how extreme heat affects women workers. And, after announcing a specialized focus on issues of women’s equality through CGI, attending the COP28 climate conference where we prioritized issues at the center of climate change, public health, and women’s equality.

And initiatives that were started through the Foundation – like the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Clinton Development Initiative – continue to grow their impact as independent but affiliated organizations.

• More than 20 years ago, the Clinton Foundation launched the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, now known as the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). The goal was to help save the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries by dramatically scaling up access to antiretroviral treatment — a tremendous feat for a challenge many thought would be impossible to solve. Today, 21 million people living with HIV now receive the treatment they need to make the disease a chronic illness rather than a death sentence thanks to CHAI’s pioneering work negotiating price reductions and generic licenses, as well as critical efforts from partners like the Global Fund, PEPFAR, and Unitaid. And, it’s not only in antiretrovirals, as CHAI has negotiated more than 140 agreements for expanded prevention, diagnostic, and treatment efforts for tuberculosis, malaria, early childhood malnutrition, and more.
• At the end of 2023, the Clinton Development Initiative transitioned into an independent, community-led and locally based organization called Community Agribusiness Partners. What began in 2006 with the belief that farmers could better support themselves, their families, and their communities if they had the right information, tools, and connections grew to a program that supported 200,000 farmers over nearly two decades. Now as an independent, community-led network, Community Agribusiness Partners is poised to expand this impact.

Additionally, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded as a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association, is transforming the everyday places children spend their time into healthier environments that can help set them up for success. Healthier Generation has helped thousands of schools and youth-serving organizations ensure that their policies and practices support kids to eat better and move more. To date, their work has affected more than 30.8 million children in 52,000 U.S. schools, districts, and out-of-school time sites. These children are benefiting from better health-promoting practices, including physical education, daily recess, and meals that offer fruits and vegetables.

The Clinton Foundation’s work shows us that all over the world, countless people are still choosing hope. Despite the odds, they keep going. If we join them, we can beat the odds and build a stronger, healthier, more equitable future.