Antonio Banderas

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas was appointed UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for the fight against poverty on March 17, 2010. In his new role as an advocate for the poor, Antonio Banderas sets his sights on the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight globally agreed targets that seek to halve world poverty by 2015 by combating hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and discrimination against women.

“Poverty robs us of our potential as a people, preventing us from being all that we can be,” says Banderas. “This is why it is so important to mobilize all of our efforts to defeat it, especially if today we have the knowledge, the tools and the resources to do it.”

Banderas works with UNDP to spur action at all levels of society in pursuit of the MDGs with a particular focus on Africa and Latin America. He also raises awareness globally of the activities of the MDG Achievement Fund, an international cooperation mechanism supported by the Spanish Government whose aim is to accelerate progress on the MDGs.

Banderas was born in Màlaga, Spain, and is a much acclaimed actor, writer, singer and producer. His films include Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, the Mask of Zorro, and Mariachi. Banderas will soon appear with Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts and Freida Pinto in in a new Woody Allen film and is concurrently writing, directing and producing a film about Boabdil (Abu Abdullah Muhammad XII), the last Muslim ruler of Granada, Spain.