Ma named UN Sustainable Development Goal advocate

Published originally in Asia Times

Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma is among the newly announced class of Sustainable Development Goals Advocates for the United Nations.

The SGDs, adopted by world leaders in 2015, aim to address some of the world’s biggest problems.

The new class of 17 SDG advocates are all committed to raising awareness, inspiring greater ambition and pushing for faster action, which includes the end of extreme hunger, poverty and quality healthcare for all, which UN member states aim to achieve by 2030.

Ma has been an SDG Advocate since 2016. Other SDG Advocates include Her Majesty Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, economist and author Jeffrey Sachs and actor Forest Whitaker, who is also a UNESCO Special Envoy.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for “more action, more ambition and more political will” to ensure SDGs would be met, urging advocates to use their leadership positions and platforms to rally the global community to take action.