What Washington insider -- or aspiring insider, in my case -- doesn't relish the chance to be in the same room as Secretary Clinton, the Honorable Tom Ridge, NBC's Chuck Todd and World Bank President Bob Zoellick to talk policy? They were just a few from the lineup at Tuesday's annual meeting of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC), a network of 400 businesses and NGOs dedicated to pursuing "smart power" in foreign policy. Congratulations to their team for pulling off such an impressive forum in a moment of political uncertainty and distraction.
Population Action International (PAI) has long pursued the notion that investments in family planning improve development outcomes. Our work on security, climate change and aid effectiveness all show how it's a cornerstone for progress. So to have a coalition like USGLC, which stresses how investments in development and diplomacy go as far as (if not further than) larger investments in defense, is an incredibly powerful platform for a group like PAI.
That said, such a large and diverse coalition will sometimes leave a reproductive health advocate like me wanting more. Specifically, I mean more mention of women, and more acknowledgement of the world's best-kept little secret -- that family planning saves lives, boosts economic growth and makes for a safer world.
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