Cultural Collaborators Bring the Sustainable Development Goals to Life
Find out more about the cultural collaborators behind the 17 cabinets at the UN's SDG Pavilion
By Project Everyone
In partnership with the UN Office for Partnerships
Helene D. Gayle
is an American global development and health expert who is the current President of Spelman College. Under her leadership as president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, a new strategic focus was adopted on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region.
Pierre Thiam
is a Senegalese chef, author, and social activist best known for bringing West African cuisine to the global fine dining world. He advocates for the empowerment of smallholder farmers in the Sahel by opening new markets for crops grown in Africa.
Yagazie Emezi
is a Nigerian artist and self-taught photojournalist. She focuses on stories surrounding African women and the on stories surrounding African women and their health, sexuality, education and human rights.
Samar Minallah Khan
is a Pakistani anthropologist and a filmmaker, celebrated for her pioneering methods that drive policy and societal transformation. In 2020, Samar's impactful truck art campaign for Child Rights earned Silver and Bronze honors at the Cannes Lions Festival.
Elif Shafak
is an award-winning Turkish-British novelist, political speaker, essayist, political scientist & activist. She advocates for women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression.
Aïda Muluneh
is an Ethiopian photographer and contemporary artist based between Addis Ababa and Cote d'Ivoire. She founded Developing and Educating Societies Through the Arts, the Addis Foto Festival & the Africa Foto Fair, through which she continues to facilitate and the Africa Foto Fair.
Kalpona Akter
is a labour activist from Bangladesh. She is the founder and executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, through which she campaigns for fair wages, garment factory safety, and the right to form labor unions and collectively bargain.
Manu Chopra
is an Indian technologist and lecturer, and the founder of several tech-for-good programmes and initiatives. His work helps people in rural India escape extreme poverty by giving them access to dignified digital work.
Eddie Ndopu
is a humanitarian and multi-award-winning advocate from South Africa. He has made it his life’s work to not only raise awareness about the issues affecting people with disabilities, but to completely reframe the way we all relate to disability—on a global level.
Yun Hye Hwang
is an award winning landscape architect and Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. Her research, teaching, and professional activities speculate on emerging demands in high-density Asian cities by exploring socio-ecological design and management.
Susana Mejía
is a Colombian artist and researcher. She advocates for the preservation of the environment and vindication of indigenous knowledge through her work.
Gonzalo Padilla Valmillar
is a Venezuelan artist and architect based in London, UK. His work is inspired by recent landmark victories to stop extraction in critical areas for biodiversity and Indigenous communities.
Hamad Al Jailani
is a marine scientist with the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi. He leads the region’s largest coral restoration programme, with the aim to return 1 million coral fragments back to degraded reefs.
Juliano Salgado
is a filmmaker and activist. He heads up Instituto Terra which restores and protects forest in the the Doce River Watershed region in Brazil.
Salimata Fofana
is a young Malian poet. Through her Poem for Peace, she shares the harsh reality of a childhood defined by war.
Es Devlin
is an English artist and stage designer who works in a range of media, often mapping light and projected film onto kinetic sculptural forms.
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