Reimagining impact

This has been an exciting week as I wrap up three days at The Clinton Global Initiative’s 2014 Annual Meeting in New York City. Along with my fellow delegates, I had the opportunity to learn from colleagues around the world about innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges and discuss how we as a community impact the world. This year’s theme, Reimagining Impact, hits close to home for Pact. We have long been focused on better measuring and assessing the outcomes of our work and rethinking how we create value through new approaches to complex global challenges. Our work must transform lives and make them measurably better. At Pact, we believe the only way to achieve this kind of transformational change is through partnerships with local communities and those that serve them to identify solutions to the problems they face. Ensuring they can lead a healthy life, earn a decent living and benefit from the natural environment around them. But we also need an environment that allows for that change to take place—robust local organizations, access to business and markets and strong government-citizen interaction. We need an integrated approach. On Tuesday, I had the privilege of participating in a panel hosted by FHI 360 on integrated development where we discussed everything from what “integrated development” means to whether it is the best approach to development and if so, why. At the end of the conversation, it was clear that more development organizations are moving toward integration—internally and externally, within and across sectors, at the systems level. We know integration works. Better education can lead to better health outcomes. Girls’ education leads to healthier families. Secure livelihoods leads to more investment in health and nutrition. This year, Pact’s first-ever Commitment to Action employs the same holistic approach to improving lives in Myanmar. In partnership with Chevron and Coca-Cola, we commit to empower 66,800 women through health, livelihoods and mobile technology support. Building the financial capacity of local women to start and grow businesses and save money, while providing them with health education and resources, empowers women to become confident leaders in their families and communities. As Pact continues to implement integrated programming and measure the impact of our work, I look forward to sharing those results with the international development community and furthering the integrated development discussion. And, of course, look forward to updating everyone on our progress in Myanmar at CGI 2015!