Next month: Secretary Hillary Clinton in Bulgaria to advance CGI’s work on women’s empowerment

Next month, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Bulgaria for a special meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The meeting, on May 18, 2024in Sofia, will bring together leaders from the public and private sectors to identify ways to support women’s advancement globally.

CGI is a community of established and emerging leaders who work together to create and implement Commitments to Action — new, specific, and measurable solutions to pressing global challenges. The meeting in Sofia is part of CGI’s “Road to September” – year-round convenings to establish new partnerships and identify ways to take action, leading up to the CGI 2024 Meeting in New York City, September 23-24.

Next month’s meeting will be held in partnership with Kiril Domuschiev, Co-Founder of Domuschiev Impact and member of the CGI Advisory Council. Domuschiev Impact served as a presenting sponsor for the CGI 2022 and 2023 Meetings in New York City. The meeting on May 18 will convene more than 200 leaders, who will work together:

• Identifying ways public and private leaders can support women in leadership, and create more equitable access to capital, employment, and advancement;
• Sharing stories of programs that are successfully supporting women entrepreneurship and finding ways to expand these efforts; and
• Hearing updates on CGI Commitments that are currently driving progress on gender parity and representation in the workforce.

The 2024 meeting in Sofia follows President Clinton’s visit in May 2023. Last year’s Bulgaria meeting helped drive action on Commitments launched at CGI 2023 in September in New York City – including projects around food security and Domuschiev Impact’s launch of a new Global Anti-Malaria Center focused on bringing a competitive, no-profit-no-loss treatment for malaria to market. Read more about the 2023 convening in Bulgaria here.

More details on the meeting will be available in the coming weeks.

Background on Secretary Clinton’s Work in Bulgaria

Secretary Clinton first visited Bulgaria more than 25 years ago, when she visited Sofia in October 1998 as First Lady. On the trip, she opened the Women in the 21st Century Conference in Sofia, lifting up the voices of women in Bulgaria and across Southeast Europe to advocate for equal rights and full participation. In addition, she called for Bulgaria’s support for an international coalition to stop the persecution of Kosovo Albanians, as Bulgaria the following year supported air strikes that led to Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.

As a U.S. Senator, she was a leading supporter of Bulgaria’s efforts to join NATO, voting in 2003 to approve Bulgaria’s entry into the alliance. As Secretary of State, in 2012 she visited Sofia again to meet with Bulgarian government officials, and expressed support for the country’s energy security and independence.