UN MDG comic book awarded prestigious prize

Six UN organizations were awarded last weekend with the prestigious Special Jury Prize at this year’s Peace and Sports Awards for their comic book project “Score the Goals – Teaming Up to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals”. The Prize was presented in Monaco at the 5th Peace and Sport International Forum in front of an audience of more than 500 prominent figures from politics, sport, the private sector, and civil society. The Jury awarded its Special Prize to the project “for having made peace and social cohesion a reality in 2011.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed pleasure that the UN has received the prize. 'By using the power of sport and the universal reach of football Goodwill Ambassadors, the UN organizations involved in 'Score the Goals' have succeeded in projecting the UN voice beyond its usual audiences, reaching the crucial constituency of children and youth.” The secretary-general added that 'this award is a welcome recognition of how the UN family is working creatively with a wide variety of partners to deliver its educational messages and fulfil its mission towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.” Zinédine Zidane, one of the ten football players featuring in the cartoon, joined his voice to the UN Chief’s: “No later than last Friday, I was distributing copies of the comic book to children in Mali during my visit to the country as a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador. I could exchange with them first-hand on their passion for football, on the Millennium Development Goals and how they can contribute to bettering their lives and the lives of their communities.” The 32-page educational comic book features 10 football stars who act as UN Goodwill Ambassadors (namely Emmanuel Adebayor, Roberto Baggio, Michael Ballack, Iker Casillas, Didier Drogba, Luis Figo, Raúl, Ronaldo, Patrick Vieira, and Zinédine Zidane) who become shipwrecked on an island with a group of ordinary people. The group is finally rescued thanks to their teamwork, their resourcefulness and their faculty to address key challenges such as discrimination, environmental degradation and sickness. The book is primarily aimed at 8-14 year old children and provides a fun interactive way to help them understand, familiarize and reflect about the MDGs as well as inviting them to take action through several activities provided in the adjoining educational guide. From the outset, the project has been carried out in the ‘One-UN’ spirit and is the result of successful inter-agency collaboration led by the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), in collaboration with the UN Development Program (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and the Stop TB Partnership. The book was officially launched on January 24, 2011 at the UN in Geneva by Spanish and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas and the UN secretary-general’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke. Currently the comic book is available in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, German and Korean. The wide dissemination, reproduction and use of the book is strongly encouraged.