Clinton raises $7.3 bn to help tackle world woes

New York, Sept 23: Former US President Bill Clinton wrapped up his second annual brainstorming summit yesterday with commitments worth 7.3 billion dollar to combat illness, poverty, religious and ethnic conflict and climate change.

The 215 commitments secured during the three-day Clinton Global Initiative in New York were headlined by British billionaire Richard Branson's pledge yesterday to spend an estimated 3 billion dollar over 10 years fighting global warming.

While the 2006 initiative secured less than the 300 or so commitments made during the inaugural event last year, the value of this year's pledges almost tripled the 2.5 billion dollar achieved in 2005.

''What Richard Branson did here is wonderful, but you don't need 3 billion dollar to replicate it,'' Clinton told the summit, adding the aim of the initiative was simply to ''create a piece of common ground in a highly contentious world.'' Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp also reminded people that commitments to tackle the world's woes did not need to involve a big monetary donation.

''We can do many, many things, they're not multibillion dollar things, but maybe they're more valuable,'' Murdoch said at the event.

Among the pledges made was a commitment to create a green fund expected to raise up to 1 billion dollar and to be managed by former World Bank President James Wolfensohn to support investments in renewable energy.

Microfinance nonprofit Opportunity International pledged to provide 500 million dollar in loans, savings, insurance, and training to help 50 million people work their way out of poverty around the world.

The world's biggest diamond producer, De Beers, pledged 2 million dollar to help improve the lives of diamond miners in Tanzania, frequently exploited by middlemen and rogue traders.

Merck&Co. Inc committed 75 million dollar in a partnership with the government of Nicaragua to vaccinate every child born in Nicaragua over the next three years against rotavirus, the most common cause of severe diarrhea among children.

The initiative grew out of Clinton's frustration as president from 1993 to 2001 at attending conferences on important world issues that were all talk and no action.

Among those helping generate ideas and money at the summit were billionaire businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and 50 current and former heads of state, along with entertainer Barbra Streisand.

In a recorded message shown at the initiative, former South African President Nelson Mandela commended the 1,000 people attending the summit for accepting Clinton's call to action.

''This initiative is a global movement where every word spoken, every partnership discovered and every promise made can have a direct impact on the lives of millions of people across our planet for generations to come,'' Mandela said.

REUTERS