Campaign Honors American Innovations Making a Difference at Home and Abroad

WASHINGTON, DC – American entrepreneurship is alive and well as businesses and non-profits, large and small, are partnering with the federal government to develop innovative products and programs to tackle some of the world’s toughest global development issues.  The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Innovations in Smart Power is highlighting 28 of the best approaches in a new report showing the impact of incredible innovations both at home and abroad.

“From food and water security, to disease prevention to educating the next generation of world leaders, things are getting done in partnership,” said USGLC co-chairs Bill Lane of Caterpillar and Carolyn Miles of Save the Children.  “Over the past year, we have traveled across the country to find some of the most effective programs making a difference not just overseas, but here at home in collaboration with international affairs agencies.”

Innovations highlighted include backpacks that purify water, mobile technology to plug small farmers in Africa into the global economy, pouches the size of a ketchup packet delivering lifesaving HIV/AIDS medication, and harnessing the power of the sun to generate electricity where there is none.

These partnerships between the private sector and government agencies like the U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), and the Export-Import Bank are saving and changing lives around the world, but also creating jobs in places like Fitzgerald, Georgia, Vashon Island, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio.

Using a “smart power” approach to address current and future challenges, these powerful public-private collaborations are revolutionizing every-day life for millions of people around the world. With 95 percent of the world’s consumers living outside the U.S. and the developing world growing three times faster than our traditional trading partners, these cutting edge innovations are central to America’s advancement on the global stage.

With generous support from Carlson, The Coca-Cola Company, Land O’Lakes, and PYXERA Global, the USGLC will continue to showcase the impact America’s most forward-thinking businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are having as they work with the federal government to do well by doing good.  Investing in development and diplomacy is not just the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do.

The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (www.usglc.org) is a broad-based influential network of 400 businesses and NGOs; national security and foreign policy experts; and business, faith-based, academic and community leaders in all 50 states who support a smart power approach of elevating development and diplomacy alongside defense in order to build a better, safer world.

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