Crown Princess Victoria Of Sweden, Queen Mathilde And Shakira To Promote UN Initiative

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Queen Mathilde of Belgium and Shakira have been brought together by the United Nations to promote its global goals initiative. The trio will work together to raise awareness about issues like poverty, climate change, war and conflict and gender equality. Besides, the campaign has also roped in soccer star Leo Messi and actor Forest Whitaker to spread awareness.

The campaign also has other big names like international activist and widow of Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever PLC consumer goods company from business.

Check the list of new advocates here.

“We have to make the goals famous. Some of those people, they will listen to what Leo Messi has to say, and others will listen to what Crown Princess Victoria has to say… They speak to different parts of society,” said Thomas Gass, Assistant UN Secretary-General. He hoped that the women would be able to use their influence to shine a light on the organization’s 17 sustainable development goals.

Lots of concern has been raised that after much fanfare around the establishment of the goals in September 2015, attention on the programme has fallen out of spotlight. This new campaign hoped to reinvigorate enthusiasm, inspire goodwill and accelerate progress in order to meet the 2030 deadline set out by the 193-strong UN council.

Shakira has been using her superstar status and her voice to help promote critical causes. The mother of two was appointed a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 2014. She has been trying to help curb child poverty in developing countries.

The 38-year-old Colombian singer pleaded with world leaders to invest in early childhood development during a UN conference last year. Along with Shakira, Victoria and Mathilde who have kids of their own want children all over the world to get the same care and attention as their own little ones. Victoria has her own charity foundation that works towards disabled children and young people, while Mathilde works for the most vulnerable people in society.