Sandy Berger and Hernando de Soto hold up Legal Empowerment's Commitment certificate at the announcement ceremony in New York.

New York, September 20, 2006

Co-Chairs Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto announced the launch of a Working Group on entrepreneurship at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative in New York. The Working Group will generate recommendations to empower small business owners in the developing world trapped in the informal economy.  

These entrepreneurs - whether they manage micro, small or medium-sized businesses - cannot access the legal business protections, opportunities or capital that entrepreneurs in the developed world take for granted.

Legal Empowerment is actively
seeking partners to contribute to the work of this group, on the ground
and around the world.      
      

       

     
    
   
   
     

     Speaking on one of the panels alongside former    
     president Bill Clinton, Dr. de Soto said that the keys        to lasting, sustainable change for the better can be        found in law.  

     "We need law - not prohibitive law but facilitating    
     law" de Soto said. "Trade and development require        concrete things to nail agreements and commitments      between people - the legal tools to do so. People      
     need an address which means they need property   
                                              rights which requires law. How do you put a company together, issues shares, again laws and the instruments gives by law. "
Legal Empowerment was also represented at CGI by Commission members Dr. F. H. Abed, Founder and Chairperson of BRAC; Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the UK; and former Presidents Fernando Cardoso of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Mary Robinson of Ireland.
 
Read Legal Empowerment’s proposal to the CGI.