From Oprah to Nike – Using 2024’s record pledges to “Just Do It.”
By Elizabeth Ashbourne, PQMD Executive Director
Oprah was famous for her generous audience giveaways: washers and dryers, diamond watches, refrigerators, 3D flat-screen TVs, seven-day cruises, and trips to Australia. She even gave away brand-new homes after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For me, this fall felt a bit similar during the spate of international cooperation events that focus on progressing UNSDGs.
This year, there was a deluge of financial pledges and commitments. At the Clinton Global Initiative, 175 new Commitments to Action were launched, including more than $400 million to support historically excluded communities and businesses and more than $54 million of goods for humanitarian relief or disaster response. Nearly $1 billion was pledged at the WHO Summit in Berlin to advance climate and health initiatives, with nearly $700 million in new funding commitments and $300 million in reaffirmed commitments. At the 2024 Concordia Annual Summit, pledges were made for $1 billion toward Africa Parks conservation efforts, $800 million in private capital for Prosper Africa, and the World Bank vowed to get electricity to 300 million Africans on a partnering endeavor with the Africa Development Bank and The Rockefeller Foundation, among others. And these are but just a few examples from the generous, and sometimes jaw-dropping, pledges and commitments made.
In addition to this flurry of financial investments, there was also a great display of political and global will. From Prince Harry to Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank; from the Mayor of London, to the Prime Minister of Denmark and President Biden. From H.E. Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh to José Andrés of World Central Kitchen; Matt Damon, Co-founder of water.org and Bill Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were there; and Jane Goodall, of the Jane Goodall Institute as was Rajiv Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. This is just a fraction of the political, economic, corporate, philanthropic, and global heavy weights that were making statements and putting money on the table in support of the world’s most pressing challenges.
This swell of support in funding and will is encouraging and gives me hope for the future. And, I’d like see the international community be willing to chart a new path forward, instead of defaulting to ones well-trodden. As we act to leverage these resources, let’s not be held hostage by our preference for far-reaching consensus before taking action. Let’s not insist on having precisely mapped out strategies and plans for collaboration. With the world in the critical state that it’s in, we can’t wait another five years, another three COPS, or another five UN general assemblies to get things underway. You don’t need to be a scientist or a global leader to recognize the need to respond, now.
Whether it be to a disaster at your own front door, the conflicts in the Middle East, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and around the world, or to the multiple climate-driven crises in so many island nations—need is everywhere, it is obvious, and it is urgent.
I’m not alone in this call for action. As Javier Guzman, Director of Global Health at the Center for Global Development Director recently said, “Time is of the essence.” Delay is our biggest enemy. We don’t need to wait until we’ve identified the perfect strategy. We don’t have to wait for everybody to get every single duck in every single row. Like the young girl from The Starfish Story, who saved starfish by throwing them back into the ocean one at a time, we start making a difference as soon as we act.
With this fall’s international cooperation events, with the outpouring of financial pledges and commitments, and with the obvious and overwhelming political and global will, I say we take a cue from Nike and “JUST DO IT.”
The world can’t wait for us not to.
More about the blog series and the author
I started this monthly blog series to (hopefully) spark discussion around the challenges and opportunities to delivering global healthcare and access to medicines in our current environment. PQMD facilitates collaboration among its member organizations and seeks to continuously support the delivery of high-quality donations of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and services to communities in need. Members have the opportunity to exchange and share their knowledge and experience with providing medicines and medical services to the people who need them most, in the US and around the globe.
The series will be informed by my more than 25 years of experience in leading, planning, and implementing national and global programs in communities and countries worldwide. I’ve worked in the private sector, public / development sector, NGO, FBO and local organizations, along with living in countries during war time, peace time, in extreme poverty, and with great wealth. I’ve led CEO roundtables at global forums and community leadership circles sitting in the grass under a tree. I’ve managed large scale foundation relations, international and local corporate partnerships, organizational design, communications, outreach and education campaigns, and small- and large-scale coalition building around public and private sector management. My specialties include public-private partnerships in global health, environmental, education, and social development.
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