SANTO DOMINGO, March 30 -- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has appointed Dominican swimmer Marcos Diaz as Goodwill Ambassador for the Millennium Development Goals, the UNDP said on Wednesday.

"We constantly need more hands to help us spread and remember the importance of these goals," said Valeria Julliand, UNDP representative to the Dominican Republic.

In 2010, Diaz swam on five continents urging countries to do as much as they can in order to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals, which was established in 2000 when world leaders agreed to reduce world poverty in half by 2017, fight hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and women's rights.

Diaz joins a long list of Goodwill Ambassadors which includes the world's number one woman soccer player Marta Vieira da Silva in addition to soccer players Ronaldo de Lima, Zinedine Zidane, Iker Casillas, Didier Droga, tennis player Maria Sharapova, Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, Japanese actress Misako Konno and Norway's Crown Prince Haakon.

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