The Clintons pitch philanthropic commitments as pro-democracy work at their 2024 foundation meeting

NEW YORK (AP) — With the backdrop of elections worldwide that highlight strains on democracy, former President Bill Clinton urged attendees of his foundation’s annual meeting to meet their communities’ needs through collective action.

Strong democratic institutions, Clinton argued, are necessary to achieve the social impact sought by the political, business, and philanthropic leaders convened this week by the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

“Being here and making commitments to action can actually deliver real results to real people,” he said Monday morning. “It’s the best way we can strengthen faith in those kinds of democratic institutions.”

It was a strong endorsement of philanthropy’s ability to help address discontented voters’ concerns at a time when surveys show higher levels of trust in the nonprofit sector than others. The Clinton Foundation underscored that outlook over the past two days through its theme of “What’s Working,” unveiling 175 new commitments that seek to prove even the greatest challenges in these tumultuous times have solutions.

Throughout the conference, participants emphasized the need for collaborations when one sector alone cannot tackle a difficult problem.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture pledged more than $466 million to bolster food security in 16 other countries by providing school meals or implementing climate-conscious farming technology.

Partnerships are key, according to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, because much of the agency’s food aid gets funneled through non-governmental organizations that “are trusted in areas of the world where something coming from ‘the U.S. government’ may not be.”

“The reality is if you have people who are well fed, you’re going to have less strife,” Vilsack told The Associated Press. “If you have less strife, it’s going to be a less unstable world.”

Other commitments included the nonprofit Center for Mind Body Medicine’s pledge to provide trauma healing services to 500,000 youth and adults throughout the Gaza Strip. Jill Biden unveiled a $500 million plan to advance women’s health research. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the opening of a comprehensive women’s center in Iraq led by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad to support survivors of sexual violence.

In between panels, attendees from over 80 countries mingled in lounges focused on issue areas like climate and health.

Wayuu Taya Foundation founder Patricia Velásquez credited past Clinton Global Initiative meetings for connecting her nonprofit with the partners necessary to scale up its provision food, water and medicine throughout indigenous parts of Venezuela.

Over 20 years of trust-building became all the more crucial in more turbulent recent years, she said. Runaway inflation, intensified repression and an exodus of millions have unfolded under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Velásquez told AP that philanthropic organizations like hers are best positioned to provide aid under those “complicated” circumstances because “we don’t take sides.”

“We can’t put a color or political party on those who need,” she said. “If the political parties want to put colors on us, that’s a whole other story. But our job is to help the people.”

The Clintons’ deep network also allows the initiative to elevate new actors on the global stage.

Spotlighted was Welcome.US, a not-for-profit initiative connecting U.S. sponsors with refugees from countries including Ukraine, Afghanistan, Haiti and Cuba. After both parties clear background checks, U.S. citizens help refugees land on their feet through a lesser-utilized pathway to entry called humanitarian parole.

Since its founding in 2021, Welcome.US reports that the process has gone from welcoming roughly 11,000 refugees in one year to nearly 500,000.

“We can take some risks with things that government can’t,” Welcome.US President Anya McMurray told AP. “Nonprofit philanthropy can make some big bets. There is more room to be innovative and creative because there is the ability to assume risk that, sometimes, government cannot do.”

To inspire their 2,000 attendees, organizers leaned on familiar faces like José Andrés. In less than 15 years, the celebrity chef has turned World Central Kitchen into a leading provider of food relief.

Yes, he said during a conversation with journalist Katie Couric and renowned conservationist Jane Goodall, the war in Gaza sometimes looks like “a war against humanity itself.” But he added that “the best of humanity shows up” in the worst moments, citing the example of Israeli and Gazan chefs who he said have expressed interest in feeding the hungry on both sides of the border.

“These are the voices of humanity,” he said to much applause. “That’s why we all need to be asking, always, for peace.”

The final panel featured Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled Belarusian political activist whose husband has been imprisoned for over a year after he challenged his country’s authoritarian president, and Yulia Navalnaya, who has similarly taken up the mantle left behind by her late husband Alexei Navalny after the Russian opposition leader died earlier this year in a state prison.

Dictators, Tsikhanouskaya said, try to make you believe they hold “simple solutions to difficult situations.” The prevalence of dictatorship in any one country is a threat to democracy all over, she added.

“Every person has to understand this moral obligation of each of you to contribute somehow in strengthening democracy,” she tasked the audience.

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