UN chief Ban Ki-moon has named a queen, a former president, a Nobel Peace prize winner and a corporate mogul to a 26-strong panel to recommend new global social and environment goals.
Ban has given the panel a year to draw up what he called "a bold" new development vision to put to the 193 UN member states, to replace the Millennium Development Goals after 2015.
Presidents Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain have already been appointed to head the search.
Ban on Tuesday named personalities ranging from Queen Rania of Jordan and German former president Horst Kohler, to Tawakel Karman, the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her activism in the uprising in Yemen, and the mayor of Istanbul Kadir Topbas.
Japan's former prime minister Naoto Kan, Grace Machel, wife of South Africa's legendary leader Nelson Mandela, three serving foreign ministers - Kim Sung-Hwan of South Korea, Patricia Espinosa of Mexico and Maria Angela Holguin of Colombia - and finance ministers Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Emilia Pires of East Timor are also on the panel.
The corporate world is represented by Paul Polman, the Dutch chief executive of Unilever and Betty Maina, chief executive of Kenya's Association of Manufacturers.
"I look forward to the panel's recommendations on a global post-2015 agenda, with shared responsibilities for all countries and with the fight against poverty and sustainable development at its core," Ban said.
The Millennium Development Goals aimed to halve extreme poverty and eradicate many preventable diseases and stop the spread of AIDS by 2015, however, many of the eight targets will not be achieved.
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