After 15 years spent working with the United Nations as its Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, Queen Máxima is stepping into a new role to advocate and manage financial health worldwide.
Queen Máxima has been appointed the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health during a week of engagements in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly.
The Dutch queen has worked with the UN and traveled the world to talk about inclusive finance, with her work used to advance “access and usage of affordable, effective, and responsible financial services that lead to positive outcomes in people’s lives,” according to the UN’s website.
Now, Queen Máxima’s mandate has changed, and as the Special Advocate for Financial Health, she will “empower people with suitable financial products and tools to enhance their financial health, protect against hardships, and promote a better future, while ensuring the financial system is safe, inclusive, and sustainable,” according to the UN.
The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, said in a statement: “In a world of economic uncertainty, conflicts and climate upheaval, financial services are critical to help people control their lives and futures. As Special Advocate for Financial Health, Her Majesty Queen Máxima will build upon her vital work to ensure that financial systems can support the dreams, hopes and aspirations of people around the world.”
Queen Máxima was celebrated in New York earlier this week in the presence of her husband, King Willem-Alexander, the Dutch Prime Minister, and the Dutch UN delegation.
She handed in her final annual report as Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development and attended an event co-hosted by the Permanent Missions to the UN of India, Indonesia, Peru, The Philippines, and Tanzania, and joined in a panel discussion about her work.
“With 80 percent access to financial services, we have laid a solid foundation,” Queen Máxima said in a statement about her new role.
“We now want to ensure that people can use financial products and services that help them get a grip on their day-to-day income and expenses, that they can invest or save for long-term goals, that they can protect themselves from financial setbacks such as job loss or the effects of climate change, and that they have confidence in their financial future. These four elements together make up financial health.”
