13 October 2010
“Partners for a New Beginning” Builds Opportunities
Washington — An initiative joining American private sector and civil society leaders adds further support to President Obama’s vision of “a new beginning” for the United States and Muslim communities across the globe.
Speaking in Cairo in June 2009, Obama called for relationships based on “mutual interest and mutual respect,” and Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) seeks to build these bonds.
Chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, PNB is a nonpartisan, nonprofit collaboration among the U.S. Department of State, the Coca-Cola Company, the Aspen Institute, and 13 other leading American businesses and nongovernmental organizations. The partnership aims to strengthen opportunities in Muslim countries, touching as many as 500,000 lives over the next five years, Albright said in an interview with Politico.
“It’s not an aid program. It’s development,” she explained.
Using their expertise, global networks and access to resources, the prominent American leaders involved in PNB have committed to foster locally driven public-private partnerships that promote cultural, religious, academic and business exchanges as well as improve economies, science and technology, and education. The initial focus will be on Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, and the West Bank and Gaza as well as an emphasis on increasing economic opportunity in North Africa.
“This is a fabulous initiative. Secretary Albright called it ‘the arms and legs of the president’s Cairo speech,’ and I’m just really proud to be a part of it,” said Eboo Patel, founder and president of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), and a member of PNB’s steering committee.
Other steering committee members include top executives from major U.S. businesses, such as Cisco Systems Inc., ExxonMobil, Dow Chemical Company, Morgan Stanley, Intel Corporation and Hearst Magazines. Leaders from the Case Foundation, CARE USA, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Perella Weinberg Partners and Brown University complete the committee. They were announced September 22 at PNB’s official launch at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting.
“The other members of the group are hugely inspiring,” Patel said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton first announced the formation of PNB in a formal ceremony at the U.S. State Department on April 27, in conjunction with the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.
INSPIRING TOLERANCE
Among PNB’s initial projects, Patel’s IFYC will establish a global network of religious leaders to forge connections between the United States and Muslim countries.
“Our goal is to have 150 interfaith leaders across about 10 Muslim countries and the U.S. busy building bridges between religious communities,” said Patel. “Just as barriers between religious communities don’t drop from the sky … bridges between communities don’t drop from the sky. We need people to build those bridges.”
IFYC “trains and mobilizes” religious leaders to make these connections through work with U.S. embassies and businesses and civil societies in the target countries, Patel said.
Likewise, PNB will support the Tony Blair Faith Foundation U.S. in its work to foster religious understanding through student exchange. In his speech in Cairo, President Obama called for the development of technologies that would allow a teenager in Kansas to partner with a teenager in Cairo. Through PNB, the foundation will extend its “Face to Faith” global education program to the United States and create opportunities for students from 15 different countries to interact with each other.
ENCOURAGING INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT
PNB’s economic opportunity initiatives focus especially on supporting projects that celebrate entrepreneurship and invest in businesses that employ young people. One such example, the ImagineNations Network online platform, serves as a social networking site for young entrepreneurs and potential mentors. The network and its partners expect to affect 750,000 users during the next five years.
The Middle East Venture Capital Fund’s (MEVCF) project promotes technology innovation, another key PNB focus. MEVCF will help create export-oriented Palestinian businesses in the information and communication technology sector.
Other technology projects will support local labs and universities to enhance their capacities to meet their countries’ economic and ecological challenges. The Coca-Cola Company’s Replenish Africa Initiative, a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme, has committed more than $7.5 million to launch water projects in 2011 in Algeria, Egypt, Liberia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Tunisia.
Additionally, in line with PNB’s commitment to education as an avenue for economic development, the steering committee will encourage investment in education programs that offer English language training, vocational instruction and other job-skills courses.
Learn more about Partners for a New Beginning, the Interfaith Youth Core, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation U.S. and the Tony Blair Foundation’s “Face to Faith” global education program, ImagineNations, the Middle East Venture Capital Fund project, and the Coca-Cola Company’s Replenish Africa Initiative.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
