Royalty At The Clinton Global Initiative

Queen Rania of Jordan and Dutch Crown Prince Willem Alexander attended the Clinton Global Initiative in New York this Wednesday, which coincides with the General Assembly meeting taking place at the United Nations.

Both had something to say about the state of the world’s needy.

First, Queen Rania. She is spending a busy four day trip to New York, and this meeting was one of them. She spoke at the opening panel which featured U2 frontman Bono, former Vice President Al Gore, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, and others.

The Queen spoke about her efforts to improve education in her country. She mentioned her work has made everyone in Jordan now feel they all have a stake in the education process. She has overseen in Jordan to renovate more than 500 schools in five years. “Education is not just the responsibility of the government,” she said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility.”

With global warming, being a major topic of the panel, Queen Rania was asked whether the Middle East would ever start tackling the issue.

Rania has been documenting her New York trip on Slate.com. Click here to read about it.

Later in the day, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of Holland, who is the Chairperson of the United Nations Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, gave a speech about improving water conditions around the world. He explained solving water and sanitation problems will in turn solve other global issues.

“You cannot really achieve major improvements in education, climate change, health or poverty without factoring in water and sanitation: two vital elements of human health, dignity and development!” said the Prince.

To read more about Willem-Alexander’s speech, click here