Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated virtually in a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Advocates group, convened by the Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres.
Prime Minister Trudeau and the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, co-chaired the meeting and welcomed four new SDG Advocates to the group, including the award-winning Canadian entertainer and founder of Unicorn Island Fund, Lilly Singh.
During the meeting, Secretary-General Guterres underscored the importance of taking collective action toward achieving the SDGs. The Advocates noted the challenges many countries around the globe are facing and exchanged ideas to increase momentum toward a more peaceful, equal, and healthy future.
The Prime Minister highlighted Canada’s commitment toward achieving the SDGs around the world, including as Co-Chair of the SDG Stimulus Leaders Group, which promotes increased access to financing for emerging economies and developing countries.
In line with the UN SDG Stimulus, the Prime Minister spoke about Canada’s inclusion of climate-resilient debt clauses to respond to the borrowing needs of emerging economies, Canada’s recent purchase of $274 million in hybrid capital from the World Bank to enable $1.8 billion in additional lending to developing countries, and Canada’s $720 million investment in FinDev Canada’s new concessional finance facility to help mobilize additional capital for development, including from the private sector. He also underscored the role that investments in gender equality and climate action have in accelerating progress toward all SDGs.
The Prime Minister and fellow SDG Advocates agreed on the importance of raising awareness of the SDGs and taking ambitious action to achieve them. They agreed to continue this work in the week ahead at the Summit of the Future and the UN General Assembly.