As usual, no one named Clinton can say or do anything without media outlets viewing it through the 2016 lens, so when
Hillary tweeted on Christmas Eve that
there was "so much to do" in 2014, a choir of carolers chanted that she
was implying a run for the White House. The truth is that Hillary has
a job (a few jobs, actually) that she has carved out for herself at the
family foundation, and she has rolled out a few initiatives over the
past year. Yesterday, the foundation released this report on its 2013
activities as a blueprint for 2014 goals. As she, herself, has said,
she is off the high wire and enjoying the freedom.
The
Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation today released its 2013
Year-End Report, which details the many successes of the Foundation over
the past year. The Clinton Foundation convenes businesses, governments,
NGOs, and individuals to build partnerships that create solutions to
some of the world's most pressing challenges.
In 2013,
these partnerships and investments led to progress across the
Foundation’s core areas of focus: improving global health and wellness,
increasing opportunity for women and girls, reducing childhood obesity,
creating economic opportunity and growth, and helping communities
address the effects of climate change. Among these efforts, the
Foundation launched two new initiatives led by Hillary Rodham Clinton,
which focus on the health of children aged zero to five, and the full
participation of women and girls across the globe.
"I
am proud of the milestones our Foundation has reached this year," said
President Bill Clinton. "Now 6.8 million have access to HIV/AIDS
medicine; 20,000 schools in the US have healthier food options; and 300
new commitments to action that will improve the lives of 22 million
around the world were made through the Clinton Global Initiative. We
continued to build on our existing work and added new initiatives that
will have even more impact in the years to come."
Highlights of this year’s report from each of the Foundation’s initiatives include:
- Alliance
for a Healthier Generation: Added more than 5,000 schools to the
Healthy Schools Program that serves more than 12.2 million children with
healthier food to prevent childhood obesity.
- Clinton
Climate Initiative: Built on the success of the HEAL program
(partnering with employers and workers to make commercial and home
energy efficiency upgrades), expanding from one program in Arkansas to
six programs across the nation.
- Clinton Development
Initiative: Expanded programs in Malawi, Tanzania, and Rwanda that help
farmers generate greater harvests and more stable income; including
bringing the Anchor Farm Project into Tanzania, which will increase
incomes for 120,000 farmers.
- Clinton Foundation in
Haiti: Facilitated $30 million in foreign direct investment in Haiti and
as part of the focus on agriculture, energy, and the environment, and
facilitated the planting of more than 350,000 trees.
- Clinton
Giustra Enterprise Partnership: Opened new supply and training center
enterprises in Colombia and a new distribution venture in Peru, to help
open economic opportunities for small producers and businesses.
- Clinton
Global Initiative: Brought together partners who have made more than
300 commitments in 2013 valued at over $12.9 billion that, when fully
funded and implemented, will impact the lives of more than 22 million;
held convenings of CGI America, CGI University, and CGI International.
- Clinton
Health Access Initiative: Provided access to 6.8 million people in over
70 countries with more affordable HIV/AIDS medicine, while reducing
prices for medicine and vaccines. In five years, worked to increase the
number of infant HIV diagnostic tests from 80,000 to over 1 million.
- Clinton
Health Matters Initiative: Expanded community transformation health and
wellness programs in four markets in the United States; generated
partnerships with national and local partners that represent more than
$100 million in investments in health and wellness programs that benefit
more than 25 million across the country.
- Clinton
Presidential Center: Hosted a symposium on intelligence and presidential
policymaking; developed exhibits on the Northern Ireland peace process
and Oscar de le Renta while marking over three million visitors to the
Little Rock Center since 2004.
- Too Small to Fail
(new in 2013): Released a strategic roadmap to help improve the health
and well-being of children aged zero to five, including a public
awareness campaign and a call to action for private sector partners.
- No
Ceilings: The Full Participation Project (new in 2013): Begun laying
the framework for strategic partnerships that will assess progress made
on participation by women and girls in the global community in the
twenty years since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing
- Day
of Action: Since it was founded in 2012, the Day of Action has held
eight events which have mobilized 2,400 volunteers donating more than
12,600 volunteer hours.
Today,
Next Generation, with which Hillary's
Too Small to Fail
initiative is associated, tweeted the link to this article. The simple
graph tells a powerful story about time and shared space. Parents who
must work two and in some cases three jobs to feed a family clearly do
not have the time to occupy the same space as their small children to
engage in these important activities. Among possible solutions are
raising the minimum wage, reducing the need for parents to work multiple
jobs, and providing affordable child care that can supplement parental
contact with children ages 0-5.
Time has its "Person of the Year." Amazon has its books of the year. Pretty Much Amazing has its mixtapes of the year. Buzzfeed has its insane-stories-from-Florida of
the year. And Wonkblog, of course, has its graphs of the year. For
2013, we asked some of the year's most interesting, important and
influential thinkers to name their favorite graph of the year — and why
they chose it. Here's Hillary Clinton's.
I
used to sing to Chelsea when she was a baby -- until she was old enough
to gently tell me that I couldn’t carry a tune. This graph shows us
that about two thirds of our youngest children are fortunate enough to
have a family member tell them a story or sing to them regularly, and
about half are read to by a family member. That's a great start. We’ve
known for years that singing, reading, and talking to our children helps
their brains grow and develop. Now new research is telling us even more
about how important this is for our kids as they build vocabularies and
prepare for school. Seven hundred new neural connections are formed
every second, laying the foundation for learning, behavior, health. What
happens to children’s brains in the earliest years shapes the adults
they become, the successes they achieve and the contributions they make
to our economy and our society.
The
bottom line is that Hillary Clinton has more imagination than than she
is credited
with by some folks. She can actually think of ways to make
contributions to society and occupy her time other than running for
office. People stuck in that 2016 mode might assist her causes by
getting on board with her initiatives rather than spending their time
insisting that she change course and run. In 2014 we should give her
that space and support and address the 2014 mid-term elections and
current problems (
as the most fascinating person told Barbara Walters)
rather than pushing the 2016 issue. Hillary is too busy to pay
attention to all of that clamor anyway. Give the lady some space and
time. Perhaps some of the time spent harassing her to run might be
better spent singing and reading stories in spaces occupied by little
people.
