2008 Woodie Awards
Simmons moderates global poverty panel featuring Clinton and Gates
Mary-Catherine Lader
Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: Campus News
NEW YORK - The world's richest person, two former heads of state and a globetrotting economist were all subject to President Ruth Simmons' questions as she led a panel discussion on solutions to global poverty and disease yesterday in New York City at the Clinton Global Initiative.
Former President Bill Clinton's second annual meeting for international leaders in diverse fields, the event encourages participants to both consider and commit to solutions to world issues. By the end of its first day, the event raised more than $2 billion for commitments related to the conference's four themes: climate change, poverty, global health and religious and ethnic conflict.
Simmons' panel came at the end of the first day's sessions and focused on how institutions and individuals could effectively target large-scale problems through specific projects.
Panelists included Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, now chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who has been a professor at large at the Watson Institute for International Studies since 2003, and Clinton.
"I know if anyone can inspire you, this group will," Simmons said as she introduced the panel.
Simmons asked the four panelists to identify global problems that could be solved by philanthropy and ways that both individual leaders and cross-sector partnerships could combat them.
"You have to start with health," Gates said. "But all inequities are found together, whether it's lack of educational opportunity or agricultural production or a lack of good governance. They tend to reinforce each other."
Despite his foundation's focus on public health, Gates said companies and individuals seeking to make a difference should concentrate on achieving results in a very specific area rather than addressing broad issues.
Part of the unique role of philanthropy, Gates added, is stimulating growth and effecting change in countries where the economic and political risks are too great for significant foreign direct investment.
Former President Bill Clinton's second annual meeting for international leaders in diverse fields, the event encourages participants to both consider and commit to solutions to world issues. By the end of its first day, the event raised more than $2 billion for commitments related to the conference's four themes: climate change, poverty, global health and religious and ethnic conflict.
Simmons' panel came at the end of the first day's sessions and focused on how institutions and individuals could effectively target large-scale problems through specific projects.
Panelists included Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, now chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto; former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who has been a professor at large at the Watson Institute for International Studies since 2003, and Clinton.
"I know if anyone can inspire you, this group will," Simmons said as she introduced the panel.
Simmons asked the four panelists to identify global problems that could be solved by philanthropy and ways that both individual leaders and cross-sector partnerships could combat them.
"You have to start with health," Gates said. "But all inequities are found together, whether it's lack of educational opportunity or agricultural production or a lack of good governance. They tend to reinforce each other."
Despite his foundation's focus on public health, Gates said companies and individuals seeking to make a difference should concentrate on achieving results in a very specific area rather than addressing broad issues.
Part of the unique role of philanthropy, Gates added, is stimulating growth and effecting change in countries where the economic and political risks are too great for significant foreign direct investment.