President Bill Clinton In Africa

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton Friday jetted in Malawi for a second tour in a year to witness firsthand how a major rural development initiative that he is cosponsoring was taking shape.

Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malawian government last July to mark the start of a rural development project to be implemented in the impoverished Southern African country over the coming years.

The project would be implemented on a pilot phase in two African countries of Malawi and Rwanda and it is part of the 100 million U. S. dollars development initiative called the Clinton-Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) that the former American president and the Scottish philanthropist Sir Thom Hunter launched in September, 2005.

The initiative was set up with the aim of constructing a new model of poverty intervention in the world's poorest countries and enable people to define the right approach for their geopolitical circumstances whilst building the capacity to support self- sustainability over time while at the same time.

Clinton, who arrived in the impoverished Southern African country with Thom Hunter, proceeded to visit one of the beneficiary communities in Malawi's Neno district, located about 150 km south of the commercial capital Blantyre.

The CHDI has embarked on rural development projects in Malawi's three districts of Neno, Dowa and Chitipa.

Clinton disclosed last year that the CHDI would be prepared to fund the development work in Malawi for as long as a decade if necessary so that poor Malawians were provided the systems and opportunities to give people the future that they deserved.

About 90 percent of the 12 million Malawians live in the country 's rural areas where poverty is rampant.


***THE XINHUA NEWS