United Nations Foundation Announces Jennifer Lopez as Global Advocate for Girls and Women

Today, the United Nations Foundation announced Jennifer Lopez as the first-ever Global Advocate for Girls and Women at the UN Foundation. In this new role, Lopez will help to amplify the call for action to address the needs and rights of girls and women around the world.

“We are thrilled to work with Jennifer Lopez, who will lend her powerful voice to one of the most important causes of our generation – empowering girls and women,” said Kathy Calvin, President and CEO of the UN Foundation. “Today, not a single country in the world has achieved gender equality. This is unacceptable and everyone – including men and boys – has suffered because of it. As the world comes together around the new global goals for sustainable development this month, we have an unprecedented opportunity to effect the necessary change. We can – and must – put the needs and rights of girls and women on center stage – and we are honored to have Jennifer Lopez help us in our efforts.”

Lopez’s role will focus on mobilizing action to address major challenges for girls and women around the world, in support of the UN Secretary-General’s Every Woman, Every Child initiative. From supporting maternal health programs and ensuring access to education and health services around the world, to working to end gender-based violence, she will support the work of the UN Foundation and the UN agencies it supports.

“Becoming a mother has made me more aware of the struggles of women and children throughout the world. While some progress has been made, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done for gender equality and universal access to medical care. I am happy to be joining the UN Foundation and eager to lend my voice and ensure that all girls and women are safe, healthy, educated and empowered,” said Jennifer Lopez.

Lopez’s first event as the Global Advocate for Girls and Women at the UN Foundation will be Friday, September 25^th. She will speak at a high-level event focused on the business case for investing in girls, women, and gender equality.

A Golden Globe^® and Grammy Award^® nominated entertainer and entrepreneur, Lopez comes into the role building upon years of work helping to improve the health and well-being of women and children through the Lopez Family Foundation that she and her sister, Lynda Lopez, started in 2010. Their foundation is committed to increasing quality health care and health education for women and children and first began working with the UN Foundation in 2013 around the Global Moms Relay.

The UN Foundation’s work over the past 17 years has been guided by its focus to improve the lives of girls and women around the world. The foundation’s priorities include addressing the unique needs of adolescent girls, improving reproductive health and rights, and women’s economic empowerment. The Lopez Family Foundation is now partnering with the UN Foundation to jointly elevate programming to support girls and women. One of the first focus areas of the partnership will be to promote the work of the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA), which delivers vital health information to new and expecting moms via mobile phones.

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About The United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation builds public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the United Nations through advocacy and public outreach. Through innovative campaigns and initiatives, the Foundation connects people, ideas, and resources to help the UN solve global problems. The Foundation was created in 1998 as a U.S. public charity by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner and now is supported by global corporations, foundations, governments, and individuals. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org.

About the Lopez Family Foundation

The Lopez Family Foundation is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of women and children and increasing the medical care available to them. The organization advocates and invests in policies and programs that make a positive, measurable impact on communities and makes quality healthcare and health education available for underserved mothers and their children. The Lopez Family Foundation opened its first telemedicine center in Puerto Rico in 2010 and seven new centers in Panama last year. They also recently announced the Center for a Healthy Childhood, in partnership with the Montefiore Medical Center, which will aim to promote healthy eating, exercise and improve outcomes and access to care for women, children, and families in the Bronx.