10th Session of the Open Working Group on SDGs
March 31- April 4, 2014
Intervention by Amit Narang, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India during Cluster 7 – Means of Implementation / Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
Mr. Co-Chair,
Thank you very much for giving the floor. It is actually quite beneficial to be coming at the end of such a high caliber discussion on means of implementation this morning. Some very concrete suggestions were made to you regarding means of implementation which, we are sure, will help you immensely in populating the placeholders on means of implementation under each of the goals as also under focus area 18.
Mr. Co-Chair,
We particularly commend the proposals made by the African Group in the statement made by the Permanent Representative of Tanzania. We feel that the African Group proposal provides an excellent template to craft the standalone global partnership / means of implementation goal. The statements made by AOSIS, PSIDS and LDCs have also included some very useful suggestions for our consideration. We are of course supportive of the suggestions made by Brazil, China, Egypt and others.
Mr. Co-Chair,
We recall that for a long time now we have maintained that there is an ‘ambition mismatch’ in our consideration of the SDGs where our high level of ambition for the substance is matched usually by a very low level of ambition for providing means of implementation. We feel that an expanded agenda that we are crafting under the SDGs will require an expanded and strengthened global partnership and enhanced means of implementation. The means of implementation which can be crafted based on the template of MDG 8 should include commitments which will have to be measurable, monitorable and have the same level of accountability.
Mr. Co-Chair,
We continue to support a standalone goal on means of implementation as well as mainstreaming means of implementation under each goal. We have listened carefully to those who perhaps are skeptical of this view, but we are not really convinced why this should be so. We expect that the placeholders on means of implementation that you have provided under each of the focus areas will now be populated as we go forward based on the concrete suggestions that you would have heard over the past week. In case in some areas you may not have heard specific ideas, we expect that you will maintain the placeholders and give the member states a little more time to engage in discussions like these and come up with concrete targets in the coming days.
Mr. Co-Chair,
In terms of specific targets, we see value in having specific deliverables on issues such as the urgent implementation of enhanced ODA by the developed countries; enhanced market access for developing countries in particular the LDCs; a development-oriented multilateral trade regime which is consistent with the SDGs; capacity building; debt sustainability; better regulation of international financial system; reform of the IPR regime to make it consistent with the SDGs; reform of global economic governance to give developing countries real voice and participation; affordable access to environmental-friendly technology for developing countries and in this regard the early operationalisation of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism under the UN.
Mr. Co-Chair,
Two additional points in terms of specific deliverables. We have heard calls for a data revolution and the need for disaggregated data and this was alluded to by the Ambassador of United States as well. We feel that this issue, i.e. data revolution and disaggregated data as an issue of capacity building under means of implementation. Secondly, we have also heard a lot of calls from many delegations regarding the role of the private sector and we expect that those who feel that the private sector will play an important role or a larger role will come forward with concrete commitments or targets, spelling out how to mobilize adequate and predictable financing from the private sector.
Some delegations have talked of a simple division between the North and South. Mr. Co-Chair, the distinction between the North and South is neither simple nor a division. It is a reality. It will be unfair on our part to gloss over this reality and we must craft an approach on SDGs which is based on the principle of differentiation under the Rio principles. This should first and foremost entail no additional burden on the developing countries under means of implementation. The delegation of Brazil earlier spoke of a ‘double distortion’ in the present context where the developing countries are not only supposed to commit to a much expanded agenda but are also expected to find the means to do this by themselves. In this context, Mr. Co-Chair, South-South Cooperation must be seen purely as complementary to the North-South aid.
Finally, Mr. Co-Chair and to digress slightly from the means of implementation, we are very happy that several developed countries today have acknowledged that the principle of CBDR will apply to the environmental dimension of the SDGs. We welcome this acknowledgement and we look forward to hearing from them concrete proposals on how this principle will be operationalized in the areas that they think it applies to.
I thank you, Mr.Co-Chair.
*****
