New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be honoured later this month with the prestigious ‘Global Goalkeeper Award’ by the ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’ for his leadership and commitment to the ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan’.
Prime Minister Modi will also address global leaders and corporate executives at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum during his visit here for the high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) session.
Sources told this agency Monday that Narendra Modi will be presented with the award which according to the Foundation is a ‘special recognition’ that celebrates a political leader who has ‘demonstrated their commitment to the ‘Global Goals’ through impactful work in their country and/or globally. It should be stated that Modi had launched the ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ October 2, 2014.
The ambitious mission aims at accelerating the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in the country by this year as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
Ninety million toilets will be built to eliminate open defecation by October 2, 2019 and currently 98 per cent of India’s villages have rural sanitation coverage instead of 38 per cent four years ago.
The Foundation will host September 24 the fourth annual ‘Global Goals Awards’.
The annual awards, in five categories, are presented to leaders and individuals for their efforts in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The categories are ‘Progress, Changemaker, Campaign, Goalkeepers Voice and the Global Goalkeeper’.
“These Awards tell the extraordinary stories of remarkable individuals taking action to bring the Global Goals to life and help achieve them by 2030,” the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said in a statement and added that this year, ‘Goalkeepers’ will focus on the challenge of fighting global inequality to ensure that no one is left behind.
In previous years, speakers at the Goalkeepers event have included former US president Barack Obama, French President Emmanuel Macron, Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and Nobel Peace Prize winners like Malala Yousafzai and Nadia Murad.
PTI
