United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced Wednesday the appointment of Egypt's Mahmoud Mohieldin as the Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He will focus on global, regional, and national issues related to public finance and support the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Strategy for Financing the 2030 Agenda across the United Nations system, in close collaboration with international financial institutions and the private sector.
Mohieldin shall also ensure that there is collective action by UN agencies, development partners, and the private sector to work with member countries in scaling up finance for 2030 Agenda in the Decade of Action to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address barriers and challenges that constrain public finance for sustainable development.
The Special Envoy will work closely with the Special Envoy for Climate Action and Climate Finance, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and other relevant UN agencies and departments.
Mohieldin, an economist, was Egypt’s former Minister for Investment from 2004 to 2010 and has most recently served as the World Bank Group Senior Vice-President for the 2030 Development Agenda and UN Relations and Partnerships.
His roles at the World Bank also included Managing Director, responsible for Human Development, Sustainable Development, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Finance and Private SectorDevelopment, and the World Bank Institute.
He was the World Bank President's Special Envoy on the Millennium Development Goals the Post-2015 Development Agenda (later, the Sustainable Development Goals), Financing for Development and Corporate Secretary, and Executive Secretary to the Development Committee of the World Bank Group's Board of Governors.
Guterres released his Strategy for Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2018 with 17 SDGs and 169 areas.
It mainly focuses on eliminating extreme poverty, which is the world's largest challenge to reach sustainable development.
Other goals aim at ending hunger, providing food security, good levels of health and physical safety, and quality education for all.
In addition to that, it targets ensuring access to clean water and clean energy for all, achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls, combating the consequences of climate change, protecting oceans and seas, and improving everyone’s lives and horizons everywhere.
Guterres has a clear vision for transforming the global financial systems and economic policies in line with the 2030 Agenda, enhancing sustainable financing strategies and investments at regional and country levels, and seizing the opportunities presented by financial innovations, new technologies, and digitalization to provide equitable access to finance.
