Yunus made member by UN secy general

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus has been made a member of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group for the promotion and implementation of the SDGs.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the formation of the group on January 21 at Davos Open Forum in Switzerland, says a Yunus Centre press release.

The group will advise Ban Ki-moon and work with him to make sure SDGs become a household term all over the world, and that ordinary people can implement its decisions in their everyday lives.

It will be co-chaired by Prime Minister of Ghana Mahama and Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg.

Prof Yunus, Prof Jeffrey Sachs and Ambassador Dho of Korea have already been working as MDG advocates and were invited by the UN secretary general to become SDG advocates for their powerful advocacy efforts.

In his remarks during the announcement, Prof 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 the goal.

The new advocates invited by Ban Ki-moon to join are, among others, Chinese businessman Jack Ma, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, CEO of Unilever Paul Polman, Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi, pop singer Shakira, actor Forest Whittaker, British filmmaker and activist Richard Curtis.