The Work Continues across the Caribbean
President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton met with over 500 leaders from across the Caribbean in government, business, and civil society at the fifth meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Action Network on Post-Disaster Recovery.
At this year’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Action Network on Post-Disaster Recovery meeting in Puerto Rico, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton brought partners together with the goal of strengthening response, recovery, and resilience efforts in the Caribbean. Whether it’s generating new partnerships focused on addressing the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas in 2019, or identifying creative solutions to support long-term recovery in the southeastern region of Puerto Rico — CGI members have collaborated to take action with new Commitments to Action that were announced at the meeting.
Keep reading for what we learned.
How a President spends Presidents Day
The meeting followed two days of visits by President Clinton and Secretary Clinton with CGI Action Network commitment-makers who are promoting response, recovery, and resiliency across Puerto Rico.
On Presidents Day, President Clinton met with several CGI Action Network commitment-makers across Puerto Rico, including Inclusiv, who are committed to expanding the Community Development Financial Institution sector in Puerto Rico and providing rapid response after natural disasters; Hispanic Federation, who are working to keep communities strong by supporting maternal and mental health, solar energy, and housing; Direct Relief, who are committed to addressing the growing opioid crisis in Puerto Rico; and The San Juan Bay National Estuary Program (Estuario), who are committed to improving response to natural disaster.
The following morning, Secretary Clinton visited CentroMAM, a non-profit women’s health center with the goal of educating and supporting local families from pregnancy through childbirth, postpartum, and parenting. She met with clinicians, new and expectant moms served by the clinic, and representatives from Solar Libre, including women apprentices who worked on the solarization of the center.
Secretary Clinton’s visit also marked a new partnership with our early childhood education initiative, Too Small to Fail, which has committed to providing books, resources, and training to promote babies’ early brain language development.
Devex: Puerto Rico emerges as an ‘incubator’ for disaster preparedness efforts.
“A lot of the resilience that is being shown every single day here is exactly the way forward. It’s not waiting for some one size fits all solution,” Clinton said during a site visit to Centro MAM, which is supported by a Clinton Global Initiative commitment to provide solar panel installations and training to women.
Glamour Magazine: ‘Solar-powered midwives have big “this is the future” energy.’
“You know, the press has never taken reproductive health seriously,” Clinton says. “And I know that from my own races — they don’t raise it, they don’t understand its importance. We have to do a better job of speaking up and educating people about why this is a critical issue for women.”
The Weekly Journal: President Clinton spreads the message that positive change is happening at the community level in Puerto Rico.
“I’m trying to give people a different image of Puerto Rico, about what is really happening, how the people really are and their real potential,” President Clinton said. “It bothers me that we only hear about the problems and there are so many really extraordinary things happening here.”
El Nuevo Dia: Members of the Clinton Global Initiative Action Network apply lessons learned from previous natural disasters to increase resiliency.
“I’m grateful for the work members of this action network have done to respond and especially for the heroic work that the community leaders and networks have done to put the lessons learned from María to work for their neighbors,” said former US President Bill Clinton, who moderated the plenary session “Accelerating the Road to Recovery.”
New commitments strengthening communities across the Caribbean
At the meeting in San Juan, President Clinton and Secretary Clinton launched more than a dozen new Commitments to Action. Take a look at a few commitment highlights:
- Comic Relief USA & Boys and Girls Club of Puerto Rico offer support services to help parents and children meet their educational and career path goals: Comic Relief USA, in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico, committed $1 million to support the launch of the Vimenti Project, a comprehensive program to address generational poverty.
- The Clinton Climate Initiative, Rocky Mountain Institute, FCX Solar, and CJQ Engineering report that rooftop solar survival in the face of major hurricanes is achievable: The Clinton Climate Initiative, Rocky Mountain Institute, FCX Solar, and CJQ Engineering committed to write and publish a technical report to identify the root causes and types of rooftop solar PV failure and create actionable best practices for members of the solar sector to harden their systems.
- World Central Kitchen create a plan to improve response efforts in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters: World Central Kitchen committed to lead the development of a 21 Day Plan for disaster response in the Caribbean, which will provide a critical framework to be utilized by nonprofit organizations, private sector companies, and government bodies throughout the region to improve coordination and response efforts in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters.
Impact of the Action Network
To date, the Action Network has launched 114 commitments to action that, when fully funded and implemented, will drive an estimated $386 million in investment for programs in storm-affected areas, including:
- 27 million trees planted to support environmental sustainability and resilience
- Over 250,000 training opportunities in disaster preparedness, environmental sustainability, agriculture, community health, and a focus on women’s empowerment
- 100 million invested in supporting business growth in Puerto Rico
- $75 million invested in green construction and building
- $5.9 million distributed to entrepreneurs and SMEs in the region
- 10,000 well-child exams administered to children to support their socio-emotional and physical recovery from disaster trauma
- 840 housing units constructed, repaired, or preserved
- 248 community facilities built or renovated, many with solar PV installations
