Italy, Spain and Turkey

ELEVENTH SESSION OF THE OPEN WORKING GROUP ON
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York, 5-9 May 2014

JOINT STATEMENT FROM ITALY – SPAIN – TURKEY

Cluster 2: Health and population dynamics; Education and life-long learning
Monday 5th May – Afternoon session
FINAL VERSION

I have the honour to speak on behalf of Italy and Turkey.

Mister Co-Chair,

Education and Health are both, enablers and outcomes of sustainable development to fight against inequalities.

In this regard, our team strongly supports an ambitious standalone goal on Health: ensuring universal quality health coverage for all, and realizing the right to the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health. This goal must be built on the basis of the achievements of the current MDGs. We are glad to see that the Co-Chairs´ proposed document takes into account most of our considerations, especially in what refers to:
- Achievement of universal health coverage (d), although it should specifically mention women and children living in slums, migrant workers and minority groups as marginalized groups.
- Reduction of maternity and neonatal mortality (a)
- Reduction of non-communicable diseases and the promotion of mental health (c), referring to the need to reduce the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases.
- We remain committed to the promotion, protection and fulfillment of all human rights and to the full and effective implementation of the Beijing Platform for action and the program of action of the international conference on population and development. In this context, we support the reference to the access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (f).
A specific target on access to new technology (ICT) for connecting hospitals should also be added.

Moreover, we also support a standalone goal on Quality Education for all, as a basic human right, in order to promote universal access to lifelong quality education, as a means to acquire skills and knowledge, access to opportunities and reduce inequalities.
We agree on the points suggested by the Co-Chairs under focus area 4, but we would like to make the following comments:
- We do support a target to improve quality education by improving professional training for competent teachers, committed with society and socially recognized.
- Item (a) includes two crucial issues: one is about access and the other is quality and learning outcomes. We prefer to see these two issues as separate targets.
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- We do also support a target that reflects the linkages between education and access to the job market, as numerous evidences and global data reflect these interconexions and provide valuable foreseeable knowledge for educational policies.
- We support a target on social participation on planning and management of educative services.
- In item (d) we do support the idea but availability of disaggrated data for marginalized groups is under question.
- Item (f) includes the crucial issues above the education curricula and we proposed to add inclusion of gender equality, non-violence and peace subjects in the curriculum.
- The Focus Area could be further strengthened by introducing the idea of learning values promoting the principles of global citizenship and sustainability.
- A specific mention should also be made to the transformative role of education in building the foundations of the future - as promoted by the Education First Initiative and the UN Decade on ESD and its follow up (DESD Conference in November 2014) - and to educational specific needs and potentialities of migrants communities



Thank you very much Mr. Co-Chair