Goodwill Ambassadors

Misako Konno

Actress wins fans' support for efforts against poverty

It's better to teach people to grow rice than to give them rice, says Misako Konno, well-known Japanese actress and television personality. This, she believes, "is the essence of development assistance." She has been putting across that message to a large segment of the Japanese viewing audience since she became a UNDP Global Goodwill Ambassador in October 1998, persuading her many fans to support UNDP worldwide efforts against poverty.

Travelling on behalf of UNDP, she has visited Bhutan, Cambodia, Ghana, Timor-Leste, the West Bank and Gaza, to see firsthand how the UN's global development network brings about change by connecting people to knowledge, experience and resources to help them to build a better life.

Despite its sad history, Cambodia gave her a sense of optimism. "I was happy to see the people's faces and came to learn the true meaning of sustainable human development," she said during her trip there in 1999. "Although I do not have expertise on development, I strongly feel that I can do something for poverty eradication. By reporting on the efforts being made at the grassroots level to people who are not development experts, I can eventually mobilize them to become involved in the fight against poverty."

In 2003, Ms. Konno offered her voice for a television spot to encourage people's participation and support to UNDP development efforts, thus enabling it to reach a wide Japanese audience. The spot, featuring two other UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors Ronaldo and Zidane and part of the UNDP Teams To End Poverty Campaign, appeared on 160 channels all over Japan.

Her trip to Ghana in August 2003 to see joint UNDP-Japan development projects gave her an opportunity to reach out to people from all walks of life, learn about their experiences, and let them know that the United Nations and the Japanese people cared about their well-being.

Ghanaian Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama commended her for "keeping track of progress" towards the Millennium Development Goals that world leaders endorsed at the UN Millennium Summit in 2000. These goals range from halting the spread of HIV/AIDS to putting all children in school, and aim to lift hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty by 2015.

Ms. Konno visited Ghana just before she took part in the third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III) in September 2003. The Conference focused on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the continent-wide development initiative formulated by African countries themselves and mandated by the African Union.

For more information on Ms. Konno's activities, please visit the Japan Liaison office Web site.