Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley was sworn in on June 18 as the Department of State’s first Special Representative for Global Partnerships. She leads the Department of State’s Global Partnership Initiative, a new office positioned at the Secretary’s level to meet the world’s 21st century’s shared, global challenges through a shared, global response from all sectors. In her swearing-in remarks today, Ambassador Bagley described this approach as “Ubuntu Diplomacy: where all sectors belong as partners, where we all participate as stakeholders, and where we all succeed together, not incrementally but exponentially.” Specifically, Ambassador Bagley highlighted several key partnership initiatives, including the Department’s efforts to bring together the most forward-thinking US companies at the Shanghai Expo’s U.S. Pavilion.

In a statement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that “Encouraging collaborative governance and creating systems that empower a more dynamic, more responsive Foreign Service and Civil Service are vital to our success now and in the coming decades. Ambassador Bagley’s capacity for outreach – for bringing people together in partnership – will be essential as we instill a new culture of inclusiveness and accessibility in our work with businesses, NGOs, foundations, faith communities, and universities. With Ambassador Bagley as the champion of this effort, we will make public-private partnerships a core component of diplomacy.”

Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from 1997 – 2001, where she established and headed the Office of Media Programming Acquisition for the newly independent Balkan states. She also served as a Senate liaison for NATO Enlargement. Prior to this position at the State Department, Ambassador Bagley served as the U.S. Ambassador to Portugal from 1994 to 1997.

The Global Partnership Initiative was launched on April 22, 2009, when the Secretary of State addressed the Global Philanthropy Forum by saying that "the State Department is opening its doors to a new generation of public-private partnerships" with foundations, businesses, non-governmental organizations, universities, and faith communities.

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