In Brief: New Global Citizen Australia board directors set their sights on the SDGs

The Australian arm of advocacy organization Global Citizen announced the appointment of two new board members on Feb. 4, joining a leadership team that will be refocusing attention on the Sustainable Development Goals in response to COVID-19. Terence Jeyaretnam, a partner at consultancy firm EY with expertise in climate change and sustainability services, will join the board of directors along with Anna Robson, co-founder and CEO of employment platform Refugee & Migrant Talent. What are the objectives? This year will see Global Citizen launching a new SDG campaign to respond to increasing global poverty and inequality. Specific to Australia, programs, campaigns, and events will seek local commitments toward ending extreme poverty, including for the ACT Accelerator and COVID-19 recovery efforts. The board in particular will focus on growing the Global Citizen movement in Australia. Challenges presented by COVID-19: Both Jeyaretnam and Robson recognize the challenges COVID-19 brings to the work of Global Citizen and the delivery of the SDGs. Continued widening of the inequality gap further stretched by COVID-19, including government debt and artificially inflated stock markets, as well as worsening impacts of climate change are the biggest risks according to Jeyaretnam. For Robson, inequality in vaccine rollout could see further impacts on economies and poverty. “An additional challenge will be shifting global consensus on capital being beyond just financial to include the well-being of people, as well as climate impacts and the displacement of people,” Robson told Devex. Strategies: To support Global Citizen in responding to development challenges including COVID-19, Jeyaretnam and Robson recommend closer collaboration and engagement with governments and the private sector. “My ideas in a COVID-impacted world center on working with our poorer neighbours to ensure that aid and trade allows them to minimise the impact of COVID-19,” Jeyaretnam said.