Actor Jeffrey Wright is new UNDEF Board member

UNDEF is delighted that Jeffrey Wright has accepted the UN Secretary-General’s invitation to serve on the UNDEF Advisory Board for 2012-13. An award-winning film, television, and stage actor acclaimed for his versatility, with roles in productions ranging from James Bond movies and Angels in America to the recent electoral thriller Ides of March and the Academy Award-nominated Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Mr. Wright is also the co-founder and chair of Taia Peace Foundation, which works to empower rural communities in Africa, especially in Sierra Leone. Mr. Wright has raised considerable awareness of the importance of community empowerment as a basis for lasting peace in post-conflict environments.

As community development constitutes a leading share of UNDEF projects, Mr. Wright is well-positioned to support and advise UNDEF’s work. “I value the Fund’s mandate as it relates to linking local or traditional rural civil society into the wider democratic process,” said Mr. Wright on his appointment. “My work in Sierra Leone through Taia has sensitized me to challenges around achieving the measurable ground-level impact requisite to stabilization and democratization. As UNDEF recognizes those challenges too, it is my intent to help bolster its capacity to address them and also to achieve other of the Fund’s objectives.”