High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, Ministerial
Segment, July, 7, 2015
Statement by Estonia, Delivered by Mr Margus Sarapuu, Director,
Strategy Unit, Government Office of Estonia
Honorable Delegates, Dear Colleagues,
Estonia fully aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European
Union. We would like to add some remarks in our national capacity.
Firstly, I would like to point out what Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said
yesterday that this year will be landmark for humanity. We are on the
road to adopt the universal sustainable development goals. The SDGs
are based on not only the successes of the MDGs, but also on their
shortcomings. They are designed to continue the vision of the MDGs by
honestly acknowledging and addressing the remaining caps and critical
factors.
One of these critical factors is agreeing on a comprehensive and effective
approach for accountability, monitoring and review of realizing the new
goals. This approach should be based on national ownership and
leadership, and implementation with an efficient framework at all levels –
national, regional and global; it should be inclusive and be based on
reliable data and statistics. The progress and outstanding issues arising
from the national and regional reviews should feed into the global review
level.
We agree with the proposal set out in the zero draft that the High Level
Political Forum would be the main platform for this purpose. The HLPF
should be a forum for informing of advancements, sharing States’
knowledge, best practices and challenges, and also for maintaining the
level of ambition and commitment of the post-2015 agenda. We support
the idea that States would volunteer to participate in this process at least
twice until 2030 or more, if possible.
The HLPF should increase the integration of the three dimensions of
sustainable development in a comprehensive and cross-sectorial manner
at all levels, ensuring the adequate consideration of emerging
sustainable development challenges. Thus, the thematic discussions are
also welcomed.
The monitoring, accountability and review of the financing for
development conference should be an integral part of the post-2015
monitoring, accountability and review and therefore feed into the HLPF.
In order to provide strong political guidance and follow-up to the Addis
outcome, appropriate consideration should be given to this subject
during the HLPF under the auspices of the General Assembly every four
years.
We also emphasize cohesion and avoiding redundancies by utilizing
existing institutional mechanisms, so as to conserve resources. As a
current member of ECOSOC, we believe that the HLPF should largely
rely on ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies; all the segments and the
Partnership Forum can play a supporting role in the global monitoring,
accountability and review process. However, the HLPF should also take
into account the work of relevant UN system bodies and other
international organizations such as the OECD.
Dear Colleagues,
Like many of the other States, Estonia is taking steps toward
implementing the sustainable development goals and integrating them
into our national sustainable development monitoring system. Our
national strategies and planning documents already cover post -2015
issues. However, we need to revise them in the context of new trends
and sustainable development goals.
We consider the coordination and cooperation of all levels across the
sectors to be an especially important aspect of the post-2015 agenda’s
success. What is more, continuous awareness building and effective
communication of sustainable development goals with the involvement of
private sector and civil society organizations remains essential for
mobilizing all available resources for reaching the global goals.
Thank you!
