Yunus made Member of SDG Advocacy Group by Ban Ki Moon
The members of the just announced UN SDG Advocates Group with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in Davos on January 21. From left to right, British filmmaker and activist Richard Curtis, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, HM Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Libyan activist Alaa Murabit, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, President Mahama of Ghana, Ambassador Dho from South Korea
January 21, Davos
The UN Secretary General made nobel laureate Professor Yunus as a member of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG ) Advocacy Group for the promotion and implementation of the Sustainabile Development Goals. These goals were adopted last September during the UN General Assembly.
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon announced the formation of the Advocacy Group at Davos Open Forum. This Group has been entrusted with the responsibility to advise him and work with him to make sure SDGs become a household term all over the world, and that ordinary people can implement the decisions in their everyday lives.
The UN secretary general announced that the group will be co chaired by Prime minister of Ghana Mahama and the Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg. Professor Muhammad Yunus, Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Ambassador Dho of Korea were already working as MDG Advocates and were invited by the Secretary General to become SDG advocates for their powerful advocacy efforts. The new advocates invited by UN SG to join are Chinese businessman Jack Ma, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, CEO of Unilever Paul Polman Argentinian football Lionel Messi, pop singer Shakira, actor Forest Whittaker, British filmmaker and activist Richard Curtis.
In his remarks during the announcement Professor Yunus said that the world had to rethink and recreate the economic framework and institutions that had created poverty and other social problems that these problems could be resolved permanently, and that it was necessary to involve the youth in order to achieve this.
Earlier in the day Professor Yunus participated in a Panel on "Regions in Transformation : South Asia" with the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan, Ranil Wickremesinghe Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and President of Asian Development Bank.
He also participated in a special breakfast panel on women's empowerment organized by Seneca women and met with Ouided Bouchamaoui Nobel Peace Prize winner from Tunisia to discuss Yunus social business programs in that country.
