Atlas Group President Dr Duško Knežević participated at the ninth 2013 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting which was held in New York on September 23-26.

President Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton convened more than 1,000 global leaders from business, government, top NGOs, and philanthropy. The subject of this year’s meeting was ’Mobilizing for Impact’.

The four-day working meeting convened the CGI members to discuss new, specific and measurable plans to address major global challenges and try to create solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Clinton Global Initiative members announced over 160 plans valued at nearly 11 billion dollars which will influence more than 22 million people. Thanks to the announced activities around 27 million tons of carbon-dioxide will not be released into the atmosphere, over 2 million girls will get the opportunity for education, more than 11 and a half million children will have better education, around 4 million people will have access to medical services and more than 7 billion dollars will be invested into small and medium enterprises.

The Clinton Global Initiative Meeting was also attended by Atlas Group President Duško Knežević. Knežević has been a member of the Clinton Global Initiative since 2010, and the concept at the centre of the Clinton Global Initiative was also promoted in Montenegro in May 2011 when, at the invitation of  Knežević as a CGI member, President Clinton visited Montenegro where he participated at the inaugural conference "Balkan Networking for Social Empowerment of South-East Europe", organised by the Government of Montenegro and the Atlas Foundation.

During his stay, Knežević talked to President Bill Clinton, his wife Hillary and the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. In addition to them, the Atlas Group President also met the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić and former Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov, President of the Centre for Global Dialogue and Cooperation headquartered in Vienna.

CGI Annual Meeting participants also included: President Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States; Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook;  Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund; Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman and CEO,  The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco; Margaret Chan, Director-general, World Health Organization; Shelly Esque, President, Intel Foundation; Bill Gates, Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Melinda Gates, Co-chair and Trustee, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Bono, U2 lead singer, co-founder of ONE Foundation. At the invitation of President Bill Clinton, the closing session of the Clinton Global Initiative was also attended by Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović.

This year’s Meeting also featured the awarding of the Clinton Global Citizen Awards. There were seven award winners, outstanding individuals from the public, private and non-governmental sector, who have earned the awards for their vision and leadership in encouraging discussions on global issues. The awards winners include Malala Yousafzai, the girl who was shot by the Taliban for going to school, as well as the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, for his contribution to sustainable development, public health but also for New York’s response to Hurricane Sandy. 

Clinton Global Initiative Members will meet in Rio de Janeiro in December, in order to establish new partnerships in Latin America and come up with efficient solutions to social and ecological challenges.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) brings together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media.