UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday appointed a group of eminent persons from different countries to help promote the campaign to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that are adopted by UN member states last September.

Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma attends the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, Dec. 5, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

Among those advocates are Jack Ma from China, who is the founder and executive chairman of China's Alibaba Group, world renowned footballer Leo Messi, English film director Richard Curtis, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, and Jeffrey Sachs, director of Earth Institute at Colombia University, among others.

The newly named SDG Advocates are given a mandate to promote the universal sustainable development agenda, raise the public awareness, and foster the engagement of new stakeholders in the implementation of the goals.

Since the advocates include head of state and government, business leaders, prominent academia, as well as people who have shown outstanding leadership in their field, the UN hopes that they will engage with partners from civil society, academia, parliaments and the private sector to develop new ways to promote SDG implementation.

193 UN member states adopted the Sustainable Development Agenda last year at UN headquarters. The agenda with 17 goals aims to end poverty, achieve gender equality, fight inequalities and tackle climate change.

"The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people," said Ban. "They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success."

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