UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Financial Health

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands was appointed the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA) by UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in 2024. Forty percent of the world’s adults—2 billion people—struggle to get by without the basic financial services they need to protect themselves against hardship and inves

t in their futures. With access to such tools as savings, insurance, payments, and credit, families can move out of poverty, small businesses can expand into larger ones, and societies and economies can grow stronger and more inclusive. As the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands is a leading global voice advancing universal access to affordable, effective, and safe financial services. By engaging with national and international leaders and people from all walks of life, she identifies which financial services, policies, and strategies can really make a difference for financial inclusion—including among women and other marginalized groups. She discusses how to carry those forward, country by country, and helps facilitate new collaborations that can further those goals. Since 2011 she has also served as honorary patron of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion, which has allowed her to advocate for financial inclusion within the largest economic bloc in the world.