Press Release: President Clinton and Sir Tom Hunter Launch the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative in Malawi and Rwanda

Initiative began at the Inaugural Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative

July 14, 2006
Lilongwe, Malawi

President Clinton officially launched the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) today in Lilongwe, Malawi. CHDI was announced as one of the first commitments at the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in September 2005 as $100 million, to be used over 10 years, to develop a self-sustaining, integrated and systemic approach to poverty alleviation.

"This collaboration with Tom Hunter and his foundation is very exciting and we are pleased to officially launch the Initiative," said President Clinton. "The preconditions to successful economic development in most of Africa begin with health, food and water, and sanitation - all of which are interrelated. Working with governments, we hope to create a unified program in Malawi and Rwanda that will build on what my Foundation has learned through its rural health work and address in a comprehensive way all of these issues successfully. We will be saving lives, reducing poverty and directly contributing to growth in income per capita at the same time."

"CHDI has four key characteristics that I believe will set it apart; these include strong African leadership, an emphasis on economic growth, and a commitment to sustainable, scalable, and integrated development. The fourth element is the engagement of President Clinton and the strong partnership between our two foundations," noted Sir Tom Hunter, Chairman of the Hunter Foundation.

"We will apply critical business principles and a private sector mentality to implementing an approach that will enable economic development by supporting the cornerstone needs of the two countries in market development, health, education, and water and sanitation," Hunter concluded.

CHDI will be a government-led effort in which the Clinton Foundation plays a critical supportive and catalytic role. CHDI will work to address the continuum of problems facing African agriculture today through: the application of new technologies and techniques to achieve greater food productivity and sustainable agriculture; changing the economics of agricultural inputs; and the creation of sustainable market mechanisms for surplus agricultural production.