Intergovernmental Negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda
Stock-taking, 19 January 2015
Statement by Mr. Takeshi Osuga
Ambassador,
Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Global Issues
Mr. Co-facilitator,
At the outset, let me thank you and the Secretariat for preparing this and upcoming meetings. I assure you, Mr. Co-facilitators, my delegation will spare no effort in supporting you towards building consensus, based on the relevant discussions conducted so far but with further added-value.
For the sake of saving time, I will combine my statements for the morning and the afternoon sessions. I would also limit my statement to sharing Japan’s thoughts mainly on the process and refrain from going into the substance at this stage.
Japan believes that this process should be A) inclusive, engaging various stakeholders on the ground, B) efficient, by avoiding duplications with other related processes including the FfD process, and C) evidence-based, by inviting inputs from experts on technical issues. Not much time is left until the United Nations Summit in September. We cannot afford repeating the same argument. In order to ensure that our capitals are fully engaged in this process, I request the co-facilitators to provide information on the upcoming sessions well in advance.
Before starting a full-fledged negotiation based on the text, there are still many issues that require further discussion. First, we have had practically no discussion on the declaration that should set the political context for the post-2015 development goals. Secondly, monitoring, review and the global partnership have yet to be discussed thoroughly. Thirdly, on goals and targets, we should exchange our views in light of the progress since the completion of the report of the Open Working Group such as the ICESDF report, Secretary-General’s Synthesis Report and the possible technical inputs from the UN Statistical Commission and the Secretariat. The technical work on the indicators should be shared to the Member States in a transparent manner, while avoiding negotiation on indicators among the delegates who lack technical expertise. In these regards, I look forward to a fruitful discussion up till May.
Last but not least, I would like to emphasize the outcome document of the post-2015 development agenda should be at the same time concise and comprehensive, both ambitious and implementable. I will reserve concrete comments for later sessions, but wish to underscore that the post-2015 development agenda should be “people-centered” so that it will be effective and result-based. Every aspect of the new development agenda, including not only the goals and the targets but also the MOI, monitoring and review, should be able to withstand “people-centeredness” proofing.
Thank you very much.
