Yunus urges UN chief to lead SDG movement

Yunus urges UN chief to lead SDG movement

Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus along with fellow Sustainable Development Goals Advocates met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, at the United Nations headquarters on September 23.

Launched on January 21, 2016 on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the SDG Advocates consist of 17 eminent persons who assist the UN secretary general in the campaign to achieve the SDGs that world leaders unanimously adopted in September 2015.

The SDG Advocates have the mandate to support the secretary general in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030, Yunus Centre said in a statement yesterday.

The Advocates have been working to promote the universal sustainable development agenda, to raise awareness of the integrated nature of the SDGs, and to foster the engagement of new stakeholders in the implementation of the goals.

SDG Advocates Group is co-chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Ghana President John Dramani Mahama.

Besides Yunus, other members of SDG are Queen Mathilde of Belgium; Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden; Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group; Argentine footballer Lionel Messi; Colombian singer Shakira; Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, co-founder of Qatar Foundation; Alaa Murabit, founder of the Voice of Libyan Women, and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.

This meeting is the last one chaired by Ban Ki-moon as UN secretary general. During the meeting, Yunus urged Ban to continue “leading the world” even after leaving the UN position.

Yunus said the UN as well as the world will miss Ban after his departure as the UN secretary general.

He will be remembered for crafting the SDGs and steering them through the UN decision-making process to build a global consensus around them, Yunus said.

Ban will have a permanent place in the history for bringing all nations of the world to sign the Paris agreements to protect the world from global warming and adopting binding targets, the Nobel laureate said.

Yunus proposed that he lead a civil society movement to make sure SDGs are implemented with full vigour and commitment.

This civil society movement may organise two SDG summits every year, one for all civil society organisations and the other for the youths of the world.

Source Link: https://goo.gl/7k6qEl

Source: Dhaka Tribune

Updated Date: 15th January, 2017