empowerment

Its last day of the Better World Campaign's On Day One project and there is still time to vote for the idea you think President-Elect Barak Obama should prioritize on the first day of the next administration for improving the United State's image in the world.  When blogger Mark Goldberg of the UN Foundation came to New America in the spring of 2008 soliciting ideas for policy proposals, I thought it was little more than a fun experiment in the use of new media to express opinions. I had no idea the Campaign would face the ideas off against each other in November, narrowing 81 selected ideas down to 9 for '09 (9 big ideas for the incoming president to consider upon taking office). Or that my idea to reform foreign assistance (to focus the allocation of funds more squarely on the social and economic empowerment of poor people) would win the Global Poverty category. Or that there would be a Round 2 to the contest in which the 9 for '09 would face off yet again.

I want to flag today's global launch of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor's timely and important report, "Making the Law Work for Everyone." Co-chairs Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto briefly discussed the Commission's findings and this report this morning at a press conference at the United Nations as well as in their recent Time op-ed. As eloquently as they both discussed the foundations and findings of the report in a few short minutes, the full report is brilliant, powerful and well worth the read for anyone in the asset-building community.