UN Deputy Chief: We Dont Believe in Giving Up'

The United Nations

Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed thanked the crowd at New York's Global Citizen Festival on Friday for using their voice for justice and "refusing to give up on a better world."

The music event, which took place in Central Park on the last weekend of high-level week of the General Assembly, is the flagship event from Global Citizen, the world's largest movement to end extreme poverty. This year's lineup included international stars such as Shakira, Cardi B and Rosé.

Ms. Mohammed took to the stage to thank the festival-goers and remind them that there are just five years left to make the Sustainable Development Goals - a blueprint for a fairer future for people and the planet - a reality. "We still have a ways to go," she told the crowd. "We're moving, but it's just not fast enough and the clock is ticking really loud."

As Special Advisor to then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Ms. Mohammed was instrumental in shepherding through the Goals and securing consensus from the UN Member States in 2015. Speaking on Friday, she reiterated that $4.3 trillion is need every year to finance the Goals and leave no one behind.

Give peace a chance

"What really matters is to give peace a chance for the women in Sudan, for the children. In Gaza, for the people in Ukraine. We need peace everywhere," she declared, calling for measures to ensure that technology and AI does not create new divides, for women to be included at every table where decisions are taken, for quality education and for the planet, "from the Amazon to Congo and to every corner of the world."

The deputy UN chief exhorted those in attendance to see solutions where others see dead ends and use their voice to "cut through the noise, demanding for everyone to do better and not accepting the globalisation of indifference."

The Global Citizen Festival

  • A crowd of 60,000 people enjoyed the 2025 Global Citizen Festival on the Great Lawn in Central Park, New York City.
  • The event mobilized $280 million in commitments to protect 25 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest; over $30 million raised for access to education and sports for children in over 200 communities worldwide through the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund; and clean energy access provided to 4.6 million homes across Africa.
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