President Clinton shares the stage with Dr. Helene Gayle during plenary session on “Investing in Girls and Women”

Diane Sawyer just wrapped up moderating a really engaging panel with Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women for Women International; Rex W. Tillerson, CEO of ExxonMobil Corporation; Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues in the State Department, and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group; and Edna Adan, Director and Founder, Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital.

Sawyer framed the discussion as “the river of what is right converging with the river of what is needed” which I think really captures the spirit of what I’ve seen so far at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting. President Clinton, while introducing the panel claimed that in many places in the world, no matter how hard and long women work they rarely get as many opportunities and choices as men do. The panel echoed this sentiment with most, if not all, of the participants agreeing that education is the key to achieving equality for all women. According to Ambassador Verveer– the first such Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues (something that drew a big round of applause from the audience)– framed education as key to confronting extremism.

A lot of the discussion centered around the fact that women account for such a large percentage of the workforce in developing countries yet are rarely compensated to the degree that men are. This, according to Zoellick emphasizes the need to train greater focus specifically on girls and women. As he put it, it’s not an issue of giving special advantages to women, but just helping them achieve a level playing field. Indeed, as was echoed at numerous points in the panel, saving one woman often means saving an entire family. This opportunity has drawn the attention of businesses such as Godman Sachs and ExxonMobil to invest in women and children. At one point, when discussing ExxonMobil’s efforts in developing countries, Tillerson suggested and funding in and of itself is not the whole solution. Salbi quickly retorted that while this may be true in part, girls and women still continue to receive an incredibly small percentage of development funding.

Also touched on during the panel was the role of technology and innovation in empowering women. Ambassador Verveer listed both mobile banking and cell phones as being on the front lines in creating positive change. Zoellick also emphasized the need for basic technology– such as electricity– in many developing countries.

-Chris Scott

UPDATE: Here’s the video of the panel on girls and women.