Subject: FW: EMINENT PERSONS' GROUP
From: Amitabh Desai <[email-masked]>
To: Bruce Lindsey <[email-masked]>, Laura Graham <[email-masked]>, Doug Band - PC <[email-masked]>, Justin Cooper - PC <[email-masked]>, "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "Cheryl Mills ([email-masked])" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 14:42:08 -0400

Nigerian President Jonathan is inviting WJC to join an "Eminent Persons Group" to help raise money for agriculture in Nigeria. While this is a topic and country of interest, I worry about WJC shouldering this responsibility alongside raising money for CF endowment, CF agriculture programs in Malawi/beyond, Haiti, etc. If you are comfortable, I can work with Jonathan's folks to explain that WJC can spotlight this via CGI to help them, and that CF could consider doing an agriculture program in Nigeria if the funding were identified by them in advance, but that WJC probably can't officially join their Group given his already full plate. Or should we send a memo to WJC to ask him? President Jonathan would like to speak with WJC about this, when WJC knows what he would like to do (or not do) on this. Thanks, Ami

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 4:59 AM
To: Amitabh Desai
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: EMINENT PERSONS' GROUP

Morning Ami and thanks again for the courtesy of yesterday.

As promised, President Jonathan is keen to speak with President Clinton to invite him to join an Eminent Persons' Group. This Group is expected to advocate and assist in mobilizing resources to facilitate the transformation  of the Agriculture sector in Nigeria - a key policy tenet of President Jonathan's Administration. This Group will meet no more than twice a year to provide advice on progress with the Transformation Agenda.

Some other expected invitees are:

Rt Honourable Tony Blair
President Olusegun Obasanjo
President, World Bank
President African Development Bank
President Islamic Development Bank
Prof Pedro Sanchez, World Food Prize Winner

I hope this helps and look forward to feedback/working with you to ensure success.

Best