Bill Clinton says the global financial crisis likely will hurt fundraising at his first philanthropic summit in Asia, but he still hopes to encourage a culture of giving in the region.
His Clinton Global Initiative is a summit that gathers heads of state, celebrities, business leaders and humanitarians in a bid to tackle issues of poverty, energy and climate change, healthcare and education.
Four annual meetings have been held so far in New York where nearly 1,200 pledges have been made to take action worth $46 billion aimed at improving more than 200 million lives in 150 countries.
While continuing to hold annual meetings in New York, the initiative is also branching out to Asia and will hold a summit in Hong Kong on Dec. 2-3 to address the region's problems in education, energy and climate change and public health.
"Yes there will be some problems with the economy probably, but I hope that the exercise will serve to swell the ranks of nongovernmental action throughout Asia," Clinton told a news teleconference.
"It may cut down on how much money we can raise but I'm not so concerned about that right now," he said. "The main thing I am trying to do is increase this feeling of civil society."
The initiative to tackle some of the world's thorniest problems was born out of Clinton's frustration while president from 1993 to 2001 at attending conferences that were more talk than action. His summits have tough attendance rules: Members must make a pledge and keep it if they want to return.
Citizen action
The initiative summits are a project of the Clinton Foundation, which also separately tackles issues from climate change to HIV/AIDS and malaria primarily through negotiating a reduction in costs of products, technologies and drugs.
Despite leaving office in 2001, Clinton's humanitarian work saw him ranked No. 11 on Vanity Fair's 2008 top 100 leaders of the information age.
"No matter how effective government policy is and no matter how vibrant the private sector is there will be holes in the fabric of society that can only be filled by citizen action through the nongovernmental sector," he said.
"Countries are stronger when they have a vibrant civil society," he said. "If we can begin to make that sale I think you will see a big increase in this activity in Asia."
Among those due to attend the first Asian summit were Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former prime ministers or presidents of Singapore, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Thailand, and actor Jet Li.
