19 April 2013: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim have jointly announced the names of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Advisory Board, whose members will provide strategic guidance and serve as global ambassadors for the initiative. Ban and Kim are co-chairing the Board, marking what the Secretary-General called “a new era in UN-World Bank relations.”

In the opening address of the First Meeting of the SE4All Advisory Board in Washington, DC, Ban welcomed the active leadership of the nearly three-dozen inaugural members, drawn from civil society, eminent personalities, financial institutions, governments, UN and international organizations, and the private sector.

Kim reiterated the goal of the Bank’s partnership with SE4All, saying that, “Delivering universal access to electricity and safe household fuels is a fundamental condition to end poverty. We have to meet this challenge in a sustainable way that also takes into consideration the battle against climate change.”

In a statement delivered on the same day at the SE4All Launch of the Energy and Women’s Health High Impact Opportunity, Lakshmi Puri, Acting Head of UN Women, emphasized the essential role for women in eliminating poverty and improving energy access. She noted that, “There can be no energy for all that is sustainable unless we tap into the energy, engagement and expertise of women,” highlighting as examples the work of UN Women in the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and training programs for rural women to become solar engineers. [World Bank Press Release] [Profiles of SE4ALL Advisory Board members] [Statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] [Statement by Acting Head of UN Women Lakshmi Puri] [UN Press Release]