UN appoints Salceda, 3 others as new MDG spokespersons

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations has appointed Albay Gov. Joey Salceda and three others as its new batch of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) advocates’ spokespersons on various sectoral concerns.

The new MDG spokespersons have joined international beauty titlist Venus Raj, also a Bicolana, whom the UN earlier appointed as such. The names of the newly appointed MDG spokespersons were announced during the recent solidarity concert at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

Aside from Salceda, the three other appointees were Filipino-Australian television host-actress Iya Villaniya, youth leader Bam Aquino and women’s NGO director Iza Abeja. Their advocacies range from climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction to youth employment and migration, improving access to water, and food security and nutrition.

Gov. Salceda is popularly known as the “green economist” who pioneered the advocacy for climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) as leverage strategies to outsmart natural calamities and propel the economy forward despite them.

For his pioneering initiatives and consistent advocacy in these fields, the UN earlier declared him as its “senior global champion” on CCA and DRR, and adopted Albay as its pilot area.

The government and many other local government units have already adopted Salceda’s “Zero Casualty” through preemptive evacuation and pro-active disaster mitigation strategies during calamities.