‘Vast Majority’ of Clinton Global Initiative Conference Attendees Made, Kept Commitments, Former President Clinton Says in NPR Interview
The "vast majority" of attendees at the annual Clinton Global Initiative Conference this week made a commitment to address social and humanitarian issues, such as HIV/AIDS, or kept commitments made at the 2005 conference, former President Clinton said on Thursday in an interview on NPR's "Morning Edition." Clinton said that many CGI conference attendees are "tired of going to meetings and talking. They want to come to a meeting where they can learn some things and then do something." Clinton at the conference discussed a plan to impose an airline ticket tax to fund an international drug purchase facility and HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria treatment and prevention programs (Inskeep, "Morning Edition," NPR, 9/21). Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom on Tuesday at the 61st session of the U.N. General Assembly announced the plan. The five countries through the Geneva-based organization UNITAID, an international drug purchase facility, plan to pool purchasing power and have asked the Clinton Foundation to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for bulk discounts on antiretroviral drugs. The tax is expected to raise about $248 million for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria programs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/19).
The NPR story is available online. The complete NPR segment is available online in RealPlayer. In addition, CNN's "Larry King Live" on Wednesday included an interview with Clinton about several issues, including the airline ticket fee and Clinton's thoughts about the likelihood of success for global health campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria (King, "Larry King Live," CNN, 9/20). The complete transcript of the program is available online.
Kaisernetwork.org will be webcasting the CGI annual meeting live from Sept. 20 through Sept. 22.