Push for Universal Education at Clinton Global Initiative Summit

Sept. 22, 2008 - PRLog -- NEW YORK-Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization, has high hopes for
this week’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) summit (Sept. 23-26). Along with NGOs from around the world, Concern will
join the fray at the annual top-level mixer with leading companies and foundations, as well as government leaders and
opinion-makers from around the world.

In response to the UN’s call for “Education for All by 2015,” Concern CEO Tom Arnold will make his case for his
organization’s unique approach to providing primary education to the world’s poorest children. Arnold will lay out the
NGO’s “Program for Education Attainment in Conflict Environments,” or PEACE, to the funding arms of corporate giants
like the Coca Cola Co., Procter & Gamble and Dell Inc., as well as a host of foundations.

“Universal education—the foundation of lasting social advancement and economic progress—is definitely within reach,”
says Arnold, but it requires “the active participation of NGOs, governments and the private sector, and the crucial partnerships
among these players forged at events like this week’s CGI summit.” “The crucial ingredient, of course, is sustained commitment,”
insists Concern’s chief, a former member of the European Commission as well as the Irish government. He currently chairs the
European Food Security Group, a network of 25 NGOs.

Concern’s vision goes well beyond the simple building of schools, important as this infrastructure is. Success for the PEACE
initiative depends on a three-pronged strategy, hinging on access, quality and equity:

•   Access means the inclusion of the very poorest children and relies on the participation of local communities as well
as national governments.

•   Quality ensures that teachers are properly trained and compensated, and that students have the materials they need
to succeed.

•   Equity insists on the inclusion of marginalized children, especially girls who in many cases suffer from mistreatment
and discrimination. For example, schools must offer girls separate sanitation facilities and curricula must be free of gender
stereotypes.


The PEACE plan commits Concern to providing some 460,000 children with quality education by 2012, at a cost of nearly $50M, an
amount the organization will work tirelessly to achieve, regardless of the outcome of its fundraising efforts at the CGI. For example,
90,000 children in Angola will benefit at a cost of $4.7M; and 130,000 youngsters in Burundi at a cost of $3.7M.

Wherever it fights poverty, hunger and malnutrition, Concern insists on a holistic approach to issues on the ground. The NGO does
not merely dispense aid, but encourages and enables families to become active participants in developing and sustaining programs.

Concern—whose mission is the “ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries” and currently reaches
12 million people in 28 nations across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean with emergency relief and programs tackling health, HIV/AIDS,
education and what it calls “livelihoods”—will host the international “Fighting Hunger Conference” in Dublin, Ireland, Oct. 16. Former
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will be the keynote speaker, alongside appearances by, among other distinguished guests, former
Irish President Mary Robinson and Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Arnold will be available for interviews Sept. 23-26, by phone or in person, to give reporters an insider’s glimpse of the high-stakes
proceedings at the CGI summit and the exciting if volatile world of international humanitarian assistance.

To arrange an appointment with Tom Arnold or to learn more about the “Fighting Hunger Conference,” please contact:
joop koopman
Joop.Koopman@concern.net