H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of the Economic and Social Council
U N I T E D N A T I O N S N A T I O N S U N I E S
Statement by
His Excellency Mr. Martin Sajdik,
President of the Economic and Social Council
Stocktaking on the
Post-2015 development agenda
United Nations Headquarters, New York
19 January 2015
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Distinguished Co-facilitators,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to thank you, Mr. President of the General Assembly and distinguished Co-facilitators, for the opportunity to speak at the beginning of the process of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-20l5 agenda. I wish you every success in guiding us on this historic path and pledge to you my full support.
This meeting on stocktaking provides us with a platform to pause and reflect on what we have all achieved thus far, and what remains to be done in our preparations for a transformative post-2015 agenda.
Excellencies,
I concentrate my intervention on three aspects that will be at the centre of ECOSOC’ s contribution to the elaboration of Post 2015-Agenda up to July of this year:
- Implementation and the role of the ECOSOC system and the HLPF in the follow-up and review,
- The involvement of partners in the Post 2015-Agenda,
- Communication
At the global level, the ECOSOC system serves as the platform for collective action in the ongoing implementation of the United Nations development agenda.
The architecture built around the Economic and Social Council and the High-level Political Forum is to promote an integrated approach to the implementation of the post-2015 agenda.
As we know, ECOSOC is the United Nations’ principal organ for coordination and policy guidance on the UN development agenda. It provides a global platform for bringing together all stakeholders and for advancing an integrated approach to a unified and universal agenda.
The High-level Political Forum, convened under the auspices of the General Assembly and ECOSOC, will provide political leadership, follow-up and recommendations on sustainable development commitments, notably the Sustainable Development Goals, at the highest level.
This whole architecture, already in place, offers substantive guidance for the post-2015 agenda and its follow-up and implementation.
Arrangements for the follow-up and review of development results will be part of the emerging post-2015 agenda. The main emphasis will need to be at the national level. This is where governments are answerable to parliaments and accountable to people. This is where our shared global aspirations will gain life and be observed, measured, and evaluated by each country, in accordance with their national development priorities.
These national efforts will need to be intrinsically linked to effective global and regional frameworks, building on existing mechanisms and the lessons learned from the nine years of accumulated experience from the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Reviews. This year will be the last Annual Ministerial Review, an ideal opportunity for all to assess its effectiveness and to draw conclusions for the Post-2015 review mechanism. In this respect an assessment might also be made on whether the entire ECOSOC system has been fully utilized to support follow-up and review of the MDGs on the regional and global levels and how we can mobilize it -better mobilize it - to this end in the Post-2015 process.
Indeed, all relevant instruments should be put to best use to advance engagement and ownership of follow-up and review efforts. These include the HLPF, the Financing for Development follow-up process and the Development Cooperation Forum, each of which have distinct roles, as well as, as already mentioned, the whole ECOSOC system with its subsidiary bodies, regional commissions and the partnership forum.
Let’s not forget one undisputable fact: from January 1, 2016 it is all about implementation!!
Distinguished Delegates,
As I just used the word “partnership”, let me say that a renewed global partnership for sustainable development will be required to mobilize the unprecedented scale of financing and other means of implementation needed to realize the post-2015 agenda.
Such a partnership should reinforce existing commitments in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation. It should be driven by national leadership and ownership, while being inclusive of all stakeholders, transparent and based on genuine exchange and co-creation of solutions.
Such a partnership will need to fully reflect the changed realities on the ground and their interconnected nature. It should support and align the commitments on financing and other means of implementation coming out of the Monterrey and Rio tracks and promote policy coherence.
We know that South-South Cooperation functions as an ever more important complement to traditional development cooperation. With its focus on mutual benefits, capacity building and knowledge sharing, South-South cooperation will in reality be one of the cornerstones of the post-2015 agenda.
Partnerships of all kinds will become ever more critical. They will need to be effectively aligned with a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development, be well designed, well-funded and enjoy broad political support. Here, ECOSOC serves as an inclusive United Nations platform for fostering partnerships among all stakeholders.
ECOSOC is the partner for the partners.
Allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to single out one partner whose active and devoted cooperation in the implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda is absolutely essential – the private and more precisely the business sector. We have to do our utmost to have this sector on board, to convince its actors all around the globe of the necessity to be fully supportive of this process. That change can happen the global compact has shown us for ethical standards. Much has changed in fighting corruption in the past decade, much more will have to be done to this end, as we all know. But these undeniable behavioural changes from among a good number – among others - of multinational corporations nurture the hope that we will be able to extend these standards, encompassing sustainability.
To have success in the implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda we have also to give much thought to its communication. In this ever changing environment of communication we have to realize that it is up to us, the Government delegates, to produce an agenda that can be communicated and re-communicated over the whole 15 years’ cycle to the public, to the peoples of this world that we represent in this august body. Communication should be part of the follow up and review mechanism and should be one of the central topics of the HLPF, to be held under the auspices of ECOSOC.
One last observation as we speak about change so often:
In my view also the Secretariat will have to adapt - with lean, “fit for purpose”, “acting as one”- structures to the challenges ahead of us. The box ticking of each of the 169 targets will have to be left to other bodies and actors, specifically on the national level. What, instead, will be needed, is guidance and good advice for the policy decisions to be taken by the members states, on the one hand, and for the actors of the UN system how best they can concentrate their efforts to foster effective implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda, on the other.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This stocktaking is a true opportunity to draw from the different processes coming together in support of the post-2015 development agenda.
Let us be strategic and visionary, capturing all the right elements and fitting them together effectively to holistically advance the post-2015 development agenda. But let us also be realistic, building on what we already have and not trying to re-invent the wheel.
Thank you.
Statement by
His Excellency Mr. Martin Sajdik,
President of the Economic and Social Council
Stocktaking on the
Post-2015 development agenda
United Nations Headquarters, New York
19 January 2015
Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary-General,
Distinguished Co-facilitators,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I wish to thank you, Mr. President of the General Assembly and distinguished Co-facilitators, for the opportunity to speak at the beginning of the process of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-20l5 agenda. I wish you every success in guiding us on this historic path and pledge to you my full support.
This meeting on stocktaking provides us with a platform to pause and reflect on what we have all achieved thus far, and what remains to be done in our preparations for a transformative post-2015 agenda.
Excellencies,
I concentrate my intervention on three aspects that will be at the centre of ECOSOC’ s contribution to the elaboration of Post 2015-Agenda up to July of this year:
- Implementation and the role of the ECOSOC system and the HLPF in the follow-up and review,
- The involvement of partners in the Post 2015-Agenda,
- Communication
At the global level, the ECOSOC system serves as the platform for collective action in the ongoing implementation of the United Nations development agenda.
The architecture built around the Economic and Social Council and the High-level Political Forum is to promote an integrated approach to the implementation of the post-2015 agenda.
As we know, ECOSOC is the United Nations’ principal organ for coordination and policy guidance on the UN development agenda. It provides a global platform for bringing together all stakeholders and for advancing an integrated approach to a unified and universal agenda.
The High-level Political Forum, convened under the auspices of the General Assembly and ECOSOC, will provide political leadership, follow-up and recommendations on sustainable development commitments, notably the Sustainable Development Goals, at the highest level.
This whole architecture, already in place, offers substantive guidance for the post-2015 agenda and its follow-up and implementation.
Arrangements for the follow-up and review of development results will be part of the emerging post-2015 agenda. The main emphasis will need to be at the national level. This is where governments are answerable to parliaments and accountable to people. This is where our shared global aspirations will gain life and be observed, measured, and evaluated by each country, in accordance with their national development priorities.
These national efforts will need to be intrinsically linked to effective global and regional frameworks, building on existing mechanisms and the lessons learned from the nine years of accumulated experience from the ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Reviews. This year will be the last Annual Ministerial Review, an ideal opportunity for all to assess its effectiveness and to draw conclusions for the Post-2015 review mechanism. In this respect an assessment might also be made on whether the entire ECOSOC system has been fully utilized to support follow-up and review of the MDGs on the regional and global levels and how we can mobilize it -better mobilize it - to this end in the Post-2015 process.
Indeed, all relevant instruments should be put to best use to advance engagement and ownership of follow-up and review efforts. These include the HLPF, the Financing for Development follow-up process and the Development Cooperation Forum, each of which have distinct roles, as well as, as already mentioned, the whole ECOSOC system with its subsidiary bodies, regional commissions and the partnership forum.
Let’s not forget one undisputable fact: from January 1, 2016 it is all about implementation!!
Distinguished Delegates,
As I just used the word “partnership”, let me say that a renewed global partnership for sustainable development will be required to mobilize the unprecedented scale of financing and other means of implementation needed to realize the post-2015 agenda.
Such a partnership should reinforce existing commitments in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation. It should be driven by national leadership and ownership, while being inclusive of all stakeholders, transparent and based on genuine exchange and co-creation of solutions.
Such a partnership will need to fully reflect the changed realities on the ground and their interconnected nature. It should support and align the commitments on financing and other means of implementation coming out of the Monterrey and Rio tracks and promote policy coherence.
We know that South-South Cooperation functions as an ever more important complement to traditional development cooperation. With its focus on mutual benefits, capacity building and knowledge sharing, South-South cooperation will in reality be one of the cornerstones of the post-2015 agenda.
Partnerships of all kinds will become ever more critical. They will need to be effectively aligned with a revitalized global partnership for sustainable development, be well designed, well-funded and enjoy broad political support. Here, ECOSOC serves as an inclusive United Nations platform for fostering partnerships among all stakeholders.
ECOSOC is the partner for the partners.
Allow me, Ladies and Gentlemen, to single out one partner whose active and devoted cooperation in the implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda is absolutely essential – the private and more precisely the business sector. We have to do our utmost to have this sector on board, to convince its actors all around the globe of the necessity to be fully supportive of this process. That change can happen the global compact has shown us for ethical standards. Much has changed in fighting corruption in the past decade, much more will have to be done to this end, as we all know. But these undeniable behavioural changes from among a good number – among others - of multinational corporations nurture the hope that we will be able to extend these standards, encompassing sustainability.
To have success in the implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda we have also to give much thought to its communication. In this ever changing environment of communication we have to realize that it is up to us, the Government delegates, to produce an agenda that can be communicated and re-communicated over the whole 15 years’ cycle to the public, to the peoples of this world that we represent in this august body. Communication should be part of the follow up and review mechanism and should be one of the central topics of the HLPF, to be held under the auspices of ECOSOC.
One last observation as we speak about change so often:
In my view also the Secretariat will have to adapt - with lean, “fit for purpose”, “acting as one”- structures to the challenges ahead of us. The box ticking of each of the 169 targets will have to be left to other bodies and actors, specifically on the national level. What, instead, will be needed, is guidance and good advice for the policy decisions to be taken by the members states, on the one hand, and for the actors of the UN system how best they can concentrate their efforts to foster effective implementation of the Post 2015-Agenda, on the other.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This stocktaking is a true opportunity to draw from the different processes coming together in support of the post-2015 development agenda.
Let us be strategic and visionary, capturing all the right elements and fitting them together effectively to holistically advance the post-2015 development agenda. But let us also be realistic, building on what we already have and not trying to re-invent the wheel.
Thank you.