Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus has called upon Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations to continue to lead world even after he leaves the UN position.
The Bangladeshi social entrepreneur made the request while holding the UN SDG Advocates’ Meeting with the UN chief at UN head quarter on September 23, 2016.
Besides Professor Yunus, other members of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attended the last ever meeting chaired by the outgoing UN Secretary-General.
During the meeting Professor Yunus thanked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for contributing uniquely in changing the world to move in the right direction, says a press release issued by the Yunus Centre on Sunday.
Addressing Ban, the Bangladeshi Nobel laureate said the UN and the world would miss him after he leaves his position. “He'll [Ban] be remembered in the world history for crafting the SDGs and steering them through the UN decision-making process to build a global consensus around them despite many strong opposition to them.”
“He'll [Ban] have a permanent place in history for bringing all nations of the world to sign on the Paris Agreement to protect the world from global warming and adopting binding targets,” added the press note.
During the meeting, Professor Yunus also proposed that he “lead a civil society movement to make sure SDGs are implemented with full vigour and commitment.”
This civil society movement may organize two SDG summits every year, one for all civil society organizations, one for the youths of the world, added the note.
According to it, other members of the SDG Advocates group supported expressed their support to professor Yunus's proposal and congratulated the UN Secretary-General for securing the Paris Climate Agreements which he said is one of the historic milestone for human history.
Later, Professor Yunus met the Crown Princess of Sweden, Victoria, at the Swedish UN Mission Head Quarter at her invitation.
They discussed the proposal presented by Professor Yunus at the SDG group meeting.
During the meet, he briefed her about social business and its potential in addressing pressing global challenges like poverty, unemployment and climate issues.
They also talked about possibility of launching social business initiatives in Sweden. Professor Yunus will meet the Crown Princess, Mette-Marit, in Stockholm this year to follow up on the discussion held in New York.SDG Advocates GroupWith a mandate to support the Secretary-General in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030, the SDG 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 these Goals.
SDG Advocates Group is co-chaired by Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Ghana President John Dramani Mahama.
Besides Professor Yunus other members of SDG are Queen Mathilde of Belgium; Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden; Jack Ma, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Chinese Alibaba Group of Internet-based businesses; and Leo Messi, the world renowned Argentine-born footballer, who is also a UN Children’s Fund Goodwill Ambassador, Shakira, the famous singer, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Co-Founder of the Qatar Foundation; Alaa Murabit, Founder of The Voice of Libyan Women; Paul Polman, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever.
Thursday, June 04, 2026
