UN deputy secretary-general Amina Mohammed has thanked the crowd at New York’s Global Citizen Festival  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 the 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.”

She reiterated that 4.3 trillion dollars was needed every year to finance the Goals and leave no one behind.

“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 artificial intelligence 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 the Congo and to every corner of the world.”

Ms Mohammed exhorted those in attendance to see solutions where others see dead ends and to use their voice to “cut through the noise, demanding for everyone to do better and not accepting the globalisation of indifference”. 

(NAN)