Extract from Clinton Global Initiative
University 2008 Meeting
Opening Plenary:
Clinton Global Initiative
University 2008 Meeting
Opening Plenary:
Clinton Global Initiative University
2008 Meeting
Opening Plenary:
Bill Clinton - Our last
commitment is from—involves Lu Hardin the President of the University of Central Arkansas and I should say, you know,
we have a lot of university presidents here today and there will be more to say about the partnership I hope we will have
between the university administrations, college administrations and the younger—the students who are, but I would like
ask President Lu Hardin to come up. This man and I have been friends for 35 years.His commitment is to engage the University
of Central Arkansas’ undergraduate students in research projects that apply successful international poverty alleviation
strategies in rural Arkansas and I will explain the significance of that in a minute.
Over
the next five years, the university will mobilize undergraduate students to improve the lives of 200,000 people living below
the poverty line in the rural part of Arkansas. Once complete, UCA will share the students’ reports and findings with
organizations that work to alleviate poverty throughout the state and the entire Mississippi Delta Region. The
research projects will be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of UCA’s political science, sociology education,
business, and economic programs and students will have a chance to earn credit for participating in the implementation of
this research through internships and work study arrangements. The poverty rate in the Mississippi Delta of the United States
is 50 percent, 55 percent higher than the national average.
Only some of our Native American reservations
have higher poverty rates than the rate in the lower Mississippi Delta region. And the reason I think this is so important
is that America, for all of its wealth, has persistent pockets of poverty. They are principally in the poorest of our Native
American communities, in the Mississippi Delta, and then in isolated mountain communities like Appalachia and in inner city
areas.
There has been, with minor exception, very limited application of the technologies and the practices
and the policies that have worked in other parts of the world, to see
The research projects will be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of UCA’s political science, sociology
education, business, and economic programs and students will have a chance to earn credit for participating in the implementation
of this research through internships and work study arrangements. The poverty rate in the Mississippi Delta of the United
States is 50 percent, 55 percent higher than the national average.
Only some of our Native American reservations
have higher poverty rates than the rate in the lower Mississippi Delta region. And the reason I think this is so important
is that America, for all of its wealth, has persistent pockets of poverty. They are principally in the poorest of our Native
American communities, in the Mississippi Delta, and then in isolated mountain communities like Appalachia and in inner city
areas.
There has been, with minor exception, very limited application of the technologies and the practices
and the policies that have worked in other parts of the world, to see
The research projects will be accomplished by leveraging the strengths of UCA’s political science, sociology
education, business, and economic programs and students will have a chance to earn credit for participating in the implementation
of this research through internships and work study arrangements. The poverty rate in the Mississippi Delta of the United
States is 50 percent, 55 percent higher than the national average.
Only some of our Native American reservations
have higher poverty rates than the rate in the lower Mississippi Delta region. And the reason I think this is so important
is that America, for all of its wealth, has persistent pockets of poverty. They are principally in the poorest of our Native
American communities, in the Mississippi Delta, and then in isolated mountain communities like Appalachia and in inner city
areas.
There has been, with minor exception, very limited application of the technologies and the practices
and the policies that have worked in other parts of the world, to see
if those things could be adapted in America to reduce poverty. Almost 25 years ago now, well, actually
25 years ago, Hillary and I met Muhammad Yunus and we met him in Washington, DC.
We knew that there was—the
Southshore Bank in Chicago has been developed to try to use microcredit to try to re-develop the south side of Chicago. That
empowered a lot of Croatian carpenters, I mean Croatian electricians and African American carpenters to work together to save
a lot of those buildings. Nothing like that had ever been done in the rural part of America.
And we, mostly
she, raised the money for a rural development bank in Arkansas, which now has a branch in Mississippi in the Delta still going
after all this time. But beyond that, not a lot has been done to model successful things that have been done in other countries
to alleviate poverty and see if they could also be implemented here.
We now have, Grameen just opened
their first operation directly in the United States, which is encouraging.
Opening Plenary: Working Together: Students and Universities Take the Lead on Global Challenges Press Conference Morning Working Sessions Rebuilding a Sustainable New Orleans Afternoon Working Sessions Closing Plenary, with remarks from President Clinton 