Clinton Global Initiative in New York

CGI was established by President Bill Clinton in 2005. The theme of this year’s conference is “Mobilising for Impact”, and focused on involving the right people and resources needed to take effective action on global challenges.

Norwegian Yara recognised

In the afternoon, the Crown Princess met with Jørgen Ole Haslestad, President and CEO of Yara International, a Norwegian fertiliser and chemical company.

Just prior to this, Mr Haslestad had participated in a CGI small group discussion entitled “Making the Shared Value Case to Investors”. He discussed Yara’s revised business strategy, which focuses on creating value not just for investors and customers, but also for society at large. Among other things, the company strives to help farmers to obtain larger yields with more targeted fertilising, which is better for the environment and helps reduce deforestation. 

The Norwegian company is one of a few selected as a “featured commitment” at the conference. Yara has received recognition from CGI for its commitment to alleviating the global food shortage in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner.

The fight against HIV/AIDS is not over

The Crown Princess is in New York City as part of her ongoing efforts to promote global women’s health in general and her work on behalf of UNAIDS, a UN programme for combatting HIV/AIDS, in particular.

On Sunday she gave the opening remarks at the Social Good Summit. Earlier that same day she attended a dialogue meeting with 50 innovators in technology and new media, whom she challenged to come up with good ideas as to how UNAIDS can use these tools to convey its message to a new generation of young people. While great strides have been made to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic over the past 30 years, the fight is far from over.

On Monday, UNAIDS presented new figures showing that the number of new infections among children has dropped by 52 per cent since 2001. 

The CGI Annual Meeting will continue through Thursday, 26 September.