Former US President Bill Clinton announced 250 Commitments to Action, worth $8 bn (£4.5 bn), at the fourth Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting.

In total, the commitments have the potential to improve 158m lives. Examples of the potential impact include first-time access to health care, or access to improved health care, for 75m people and access to mobile financial services for 50m people.

Commitments included the largest ever European donation to development research. The Rory and Elizabeth Brooks Foundation will give £1.4m over three years to the University of Manchester’s Brooks World Poverty Institute (BWPI). The donation will support the work of leading development experts and fund partnerships between BWPI and those who work with the poor.  Brooks said, “I hope we can deliver a genuine step change in how poverty research and research into action is delivered.”

Another commitment, of $1.5m (£860,000), by Acumen Fund will create a Portfolio Data Management System (PDMS) that aims to set the standard for social and financial reporting in the development sector.  Users will be able to measure impact by tracking financial, operational and social metrics from other grant-makers, alongside their own. The web-based software is being developed by The Acumen Fund, in partnership with Google and the Salesforce.com foundation. It uses a set of benchmarks developed by the Aspen Institute’s Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has announced several projects as part of its 10,000 Women Initiative, which includes establishing a new partnership in Liberia, working with CHF International to train 300 underserved Liberian women in business and management in order to create a larger pool of potential loan recipients for the Liberian Enterprise Development Company announced at CGI in 2006.  The company will also provide business education to an additional 100 women in Africa through a project with Forum for African Women Educationalists.

Over 1,000 leaders from business, government and non-governmental organisations attended the CGI meeting. CGI members have made 1,200 commitments, valued at $46 bn (£26 bn), that have improved more than 200m lives in the past four years.  CGI will hold its first meeting overseas at CGI Asia in Hong Kong this December.

Clinton said, “Each year I am more impressed by our members’ dedication to take action, think innovatively, and form partnerships to address the most critical global problems.”