Queen Mathilde, The Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib (Francophone liberal), the Federal Development Aid Minister Caroline Gennez (Flemish socialist) and the Federal Economy Minister Pierre-Yves Dermagne (Francophone socialist) are currently in New York for the UN conference on sustainable development. The wife of Belgian monarch has long been involved in promoting sustainable development. She opened the conference at the United Nations building in Manhattan on Monday.
Queen Mathilde and three Belgian ministers at the UN conference on sustainable development in New York
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On the agenda at the conference are the 17 so-called “SDGs" (Sustainable Development Goals). The 17 SDGs are intended to make the world more sustainable by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015. They primarily cover areas such as poverty reduction, education and peace. Little progress has been made on any of them since 2015.
The hope is that this will change at the conference. Belgium's Queen Mathilde has been supporting global sustainable development and the relevant UN agenda on the issue since 2016 and has been promoting it on all her foreign trips since then. Queen Mathilde is particularly dedicated to improving the plight of women and girls.
In Belgium the regional associations of city and municipal authorities have drawn up handbook showing how the SDG goals can be implemented at the municipal level here.