Clinton Global Citizen Awards
The Clinton Global Citizen Awards ™ were established in 2007 to recognize extraordinary individuals who have demonstrated visionary leadership in solving pressing global challenges. Through their work, these citizens have proven that diverse sectors of society including philanthropic, public service, corporate, and civic organizations can work together successfully to implement and devise solutions that effect positive, lasting social change.
The ceremony took place on Thursday, September 22. Sarah Jones, Tony and Obie award-winning playwright and performer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, acted as the emcee, while Somali Canadian rapper K’NAAN and Sting provided the evening’s musical entertainment. Morgan Freeman, Iman, Muhtar Kent, Michael Mckean, Annette O’Toole, Barbra Streisand also made special appearances in honor of the recipients. The ceremony was broadcast on hulu and can be viewed in full here.
Nominated by CGI members, the honorees are chosen based on their innovative and effective approaches to making positive global change, and on their work's potential for scalable growth and sustainability. They are leaders whose efforts transcend borders, change lives, and set an example for us all.
Mhammed Abbad Andaloussi
Chairman and CEO, Injaz Morocco
Mhammed Abbad Andaloussi, a former banker, works to improve the education system in Morocco by mobilizing collaboration between businesses and school communities. He launched Al Jisr, which encourages businesses to adopt public schools, and Injaz Al Maghrib, which stimulates young people’s entrepreneurial spirit. He is an Ashoka Fellow, a Synergos Senior Fellow, and a member of the Moroccan High Council of Education. He won the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2010 Award for the Middle East and North Africa conferred by the Schwab Foundation and the World Economic Forum. In 2010, President Clinton commended Andaloussi’s project as a model for the Arab World and perhaps for the U.S.
Dr. Denis Mukwege
Founder and Medical Director, The Panzi Hospital
Denis Mukwege Mukengere is the founder and medical director of Panzi Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a young child, Dr. Mukwege accompanied his father, a Pentecostal pastor, while visiting sick members of the community. This later inspired him to become a doctor. The Swedish Pentecostal mission helped support him in his medical studies. He decided to specialize in gynecology and obstetrics after observing that female patients at Lemera Hospital suffered from insufficient medical care, which caused complications during their deliveries. Amid the war in eastern drc, in 1998, he initiated the construction of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, which has become known worldwide for the treatment of survivors of sexual violence and women with severe gynecological problems. Dr. Denis Mukwege has been awarded the Olof Palme Prize, the UN Human Rights Prize, the King Baudouin International Development Prize, and has been named African of the Year.
Güler Sabanci
Chairman and Managing Director, Sabanci Holding
Güler Sabanci is chairman and managing director of Sabanci Holding,
the parent company of the Sabanci Group, Turkey’s leading industrial
and financial conglomerate. She is also the president of the board of
trustees for the Haci Omer Sabanci Foundation, which has made more than $1.5 billion in charitable contributions since 1974. Sabanci is the founding president of Sabanci University and has been presiding over its board of trustees since 1996. She is also the first female member of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, as well as the European Round Table of Industrialists. She sits on the board of the International Crisis Group and the Atlantic Council and is also a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. In 2010, Sabanci placed third on The Financial Times’ list of the world’s top 50 businesswomen. She has also been awarded the Raymond Georis Prize for Innovative Philanthropy; the Austrian Schumpeter Prize; and the European School of Management and Technology’s Responsible Leadership Award.
Trudie Styler and Sting
Founders, Rainforest Fund
In 1989, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler started the Rainforest Foundation, an organization devoted to protecting rainforests and their indigenous peoples in South America, Africa and Asia. To date they have raised more than $25 million for the cause, principally through the now legendary fundraising concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall. Trudie’s charitable work has been recognised by many organizations, including the Rainforest Action Network in 1994; Amnesty International in 2000; Oceana in 2008; and New York’s non-profit organization Riverkeeper in 2011. As an Ambassador for UNICEF, Trudie has been responsible for raising $5 million for their projects all over the world. She has also united the Rainforest Fund, UNICEF Ecuador, and the Amazon Defense Fund in a scheme to provide reliable access to cleaner, safer drinking and bathing water for the rainforest communities of Ecuador whose land remains poisoned after four decades of exploitation by
international oil companies.
Philippe Douste-Blazy
Chairman, UNITAID
Philippe Douste-Blazy is Chairman of the Executive Board at UNITAID, an international drug purchasing facility that finances global health initiatives through a tax on airline tickets. UNITAID’s mission is to provide access to medicines for the world’s poorest people as part of the global fight against the three major pandemic diseases – hiv/aids, malaria, and tuberculosis. Dr. Douste-Blazy has combined a successful career as a doctor with a long-standing service to the government of France. He has held a number of major positions inside the French government: twice Minister for Health, Minister of Culture, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During his term as the leader of French diplomacy, he strongly advocated for the creation of UNITAID and the implementation in France of a solidarity contribution on airline tickets aimed at supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, in particular in the health sector. Since 2006, UNITAID has committed over $730 million to support 16 projects in 93 countries. Dr. Douste-Blazy is also Under Secretary General and Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development at the United Nations.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
This year, CGI worked in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) to commission a local artist to design the 2011 Clinton Global Citizen Award. NYFA’s mission is to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. Over the past 40 years, NYFA has worked with thousands of visual, literary, and performing artists working in all styles and disciplines. NYFA’s curatorial services help organizations, corporations, and individuals find engaging artwork for their offices, homes, festivals, events, and other spaces.