Jaspreet K. Singh, Co-Founder, ICAAD: This was the second time ICAAD was invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, a who’s-who of world leaders in both public and private sectors. A four day occasion, the Annual Meeting is comprised of panel presentations, small group discussions, networking meals, and awards, geared towards creating opportunities for partnerships to affect global challenges, or to recognize those efforts and individuals that have made significant progress in addressing a challenge. This brings together some of the best and brightest, often across many sectors, to make a “CGI Commitment to Action,” or a plan to address a significant global challenge. The Commitments are monitored and showcased by CGI.
While I won’t attempt to cover the entire experience of the conference, as it was a daily marathon of events and meetings, I’ll share a few highlights here.
The first session I attended at the conference couldn’t have been a better start for the days to come. Titled “The Economic Implications of Gender-Based Violence,” the session featured actress and advocate Ashley Judd; President of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Moreno; Chief Sustainability Officer for Coca-Cola, Beatriz Perez; and Executive Director of the South Asia Women’s Fund, Tulika Srivastava, among others.
Ashley Judd gave a moving presentation where she spoke about her own experience with sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) — being given an unaccompanied minor visa to model in Japan at the age of 14, and being sexually assaulted by her employer. Her story is both one of sadness but also of resilience, and it was inspiring that she’s using her fame and fortune to work against SGBV and for the advancement of women and girls. SGBV is an unfortunate reality for more than 35% of women globally, and more than 60% of women in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs), where ICAAD works.
Ashley Judd, Actress and Ambassador for Population Services International
Anu Madgavkar gave an enlightening data-filled presentation on this report recently released by the McKinsey Global Institute. One of the findings she pointed out was that if women’s participation in the economy was equally allowed to grow globally, it would “add up to $28 trillion, or 26 percent, to annual global GDP by 2025 compared with a business-as-usual scenario.”
Anu Madgavkar, Senior Fellow, McKinsey Global Institute
L to R: Margaret Greene, Chair, Promundo Board of Directors; Beatriz Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer for Coca-Cola; Tulika Srivastava, Executive Director, South Asia Women’s Fund; Luis Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; and Rohini Anand, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer, Sodexo
Jaspreet K. Singh, ICAAD Co-Founder with Ashley Judd
I was fortunate to meet with Ms. Judd, Ms. Madgavkar, and Ms. Srivastva after the panel discussion ended to discuss some of the work ICAAD is engaged in, including our Commitment to Action to combat SGBV in Pacific Island Countries.
Another session I’ll highlight in particular was a panel on “The Future of Girl’s Education.” At that discussion, it was wonderful to hear from Tisungeni, a 13 year old girl from Malawi representing “Let Girls Lead,” who spoke about the challenges that girls face in terms of education and early child marriage. The soft spoken and often shy child spoke of a friend who had been married to a man much older at the age of 12, became pregnant shortly thereafter, and hence was no longer able to go to school. When asked about her own schooling and what kinds of books she liked to read, Tisungeni commented that many children work to afford school and that library books also cost money, and that she wished these services were provided to all children. Actress and advocate Frieda Pinto was also on the panel with Tisungeni and spoke about Girl’s Rising, and the need to promote education as a basic right.
From R to L: Tamela Noboa, Managing Director, Discovery Learning Alliance; Freida Pinto, Actress and Producer of Girl Rising; and Tisungeni, Girl Leader, Let Girls Lead
Discussing the challenges girls in the Pacific face with Frieda Pinto
Other highlights from the meeting included seeing Niel Degrasse Tyson interview Richard Branson and Sangeeta Bhatia, Director, Laboratory for Multiscale Regenerative Technologies at MIT; and seeing President Bill Clinton discuss development and security with the President of Ukraine, recovery with the President of Liberia, and the Future of Equality and Opportunity with Jack Ma, Founder of Ali Baba, and Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos CEO and Founder.
The Annual Meeting once again proved to be an excellent opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones. It also served to inspire the ICAAD team to continue to expand our cross-sectoral partnerships and efforts. You can read more about ICAAD’s CGI Commitment to Action here.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Pres. of Liberia, and Pres. Bill Clinton
