Intergovernmental Negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda
Second meeting on the “Declaration”
17 February 2015
Statement by Mr. Takeshi Osuga, Ambassador,
Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Global Issues
Mr. Co-facilitator,
First of all, I would like to thank you for the elements paper which is a very good basis for this week’s discussion.
I wish to share my comments on three points 1) process, 2) general nature of the document, and 3) structure this time, and hope to come back later today or tomorrow on 4) substantive elements to be incorporated in each section.
(Process)
I believe the drafting of the Declaration should proceed hand in hand with that of the rest of the outcome. Both parts should have a complementary character, and the duplication should be avoided, with regard to the language as well as the negotiation process.
Agreed modality is to proceed to the drafting based on the zero-draft to be presented in May. Therefore, my preference is to have in-depth discussion this week, including the multi-stakeholder dialogue, than to have a text of the draft Declaration.
It might be useful, however, to have a revised elements paper which reflects our discussion. Member States should have plenty of time thereafter to consider the revised paper and submit comments in writing, taking also into account the discussions in March and April.
Furthermore, with regard to the overall process, I would appreciate it if the Co-facilitators could allocate some time during this week to share their thoughts on how to prepare and proceed to the March and April sessions. Japan is interested, in particular, in two issues; 1) the ongoing work of the Statistical Commission on the indicators and 2) the ways to create synergy between the FfD and the Post-2015 processes during the respective April sessions. If time allows, it would be useful to have some discussion among the Member States on these issues.
(General nature)
Mr. Co-facilitators, I entirely agree to what both of you stated at the opening today, that the Declaration should be visionary, based on the common vision as to what our world should look like in 2030, and couched in concise and easily understood terms. Ideally, the text should be limited to few pages.
The Declaration should have the political weight, expressing the transformative vision, worthy of Heads of States and Governments, and not be a mere compilation of agreed languages relevant to the well-known UN principles. A good Declaration should replace the chapeau of the OWG report. It should share the vision on the universal, integrated, holistic, inclusive and people-centered nature of the Post-2015 development agenda, its main features as compared to the MDGs.
At the same time, the Declaration should try to build on the “six essential elements” proposed in the SG’s Synthesis Report to come up with a good communicable language for the wide public on what the new goals and targets are. I believe there is a wide recognition, that the major weakness of the SDGs is the number of goals and targets proposed by the OWG.
(Structure)
Japan basically agrees to the overall structure proposed in the elements paper. However, it might be difficult to draw a line between what to put in “1. A collective vision of the road to 2030” and “5. Our commitment: global solidarity, common principles”. It might be better to bundle these “visions” and “principles” together to be front loaded in the text.
We support categorizing the substance thereafter into “what”, “how” and “follow-up and review”, while refraining from getting into details and technicality. “Follow-up and review” part may be integrated into the “Final call to action” depending on the volume of each section.
Lastly, I would recommend the third bullet point in the “How” part, namely, “Strengthening of the United Nations to respond to needs on the road to 2030” to be placed at the end of the Declaration under “Final call to action” part. This is the structure of the two landmark outcome documents of the UN Summit that has gone through the intergovernmental process; namely, the Millenium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome.
I thank you.
