Statement by Mr. Shatrudhwan P S Pokharel, Second Secretary, Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations at the stock-taking session of the Inter-governmental negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
New York, 19 January 2015
(As delivered)
Distinguished Co-facilitators,
Happy New Year to you and, through you, to all delegations!
I welcome this opportunity to speak in my national capacity at this inaugural session of the inter-governmental process on the post-2015 Development Agenda. Today’s stock-taking session reminds us, once again, of the enormous workload before us. Nonetheless, my delegation has full confidence in your ability to steer the process towards a fruitful conclusion. And, once again, I wish to assure you of our full cooperation to that end.
I appreciate the commitments and sentiments expressed by the President of General Assembly and Economic and Social Council as well as Secretary General in support of this important process this morning.
I associate my statement with those of the Group of 77 and China, LDCs, and LLDCs, and wish to highlight some points from my national perspective.
Mr. Co-facilitators,
First: Time and efforts. We are now at the threshold of shaping our planet’s development agenda beyond 2015. The process of this must be holistic and the result must be sustainable because our choices here will have unprecedented impact on the quality of life of present as well as future generations. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to ensure swift progress in each of our sessions ahead for the final results envisaged for this inter-governmental process.
Second: MDGs as foundation. The MDGs process has revolutionized the way development is understood and approached—from generating awareness and willingness to mobilizing efforts and resources for development on all fronts and at all levels. The future agenda must therefore be built upon MDGs’ successes and lessons relating to all three (social, economic and environmental) pillars of sustainable development at the international, regional, national, and local levels.
Third: Common agenda. In the days and weeks ahead, we will be striving to find a single transformative and aspirational global agenda that works for all. In that zeal, let one fact stay on to inform all our discussions: that the countries are neither at the same level of development, nor are they on equal footing with regard to generating necessary resources to face challenges head on. The variations and inequalities among and within countries and regions are clear. The framework of new agenda must therefore acknowledge the specific needs and challenges of countries in special situations, such as LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS, and must provide them requisite support measures. In this context, the international community must integrate the Istanbul-POA, Vienna-POA, and Samoa Pathway into the new framework and implement them, with renewed commitment, in a full and speedy manner.
Fourth: bases of negotiation. The proposal of OWG on SDGs should form the main basis of our discussion. Other documents—such as the High Level Panel Report, Report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing, final report of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism and Synthesis Report of the Secretary General—serve as the reference for important inputs. The ongoing FfD process and the outcome of the Third Financing for Development Conference must provide important inputs for this process especially with regard to Means of Implementation.
Fifth: countries in special situation. The political declaration of the new development framework shall be based on the concept of universality and differentiation and must acknowledge the fact that countries in special situations deserve special attention and support. The political declaration, in order to achieve a vision for 2030 based on the Rio Principles, must guide other processes to ensure a level playing field for us all.
The Sustainable Development Goals and Targets for the new framework should be derived from the proposal of Open Working Group on SDGs. The indicators should be measurable and suited to the context of countries concerned rather than being impractical and imposed. The task of developing indicators is highly technical in nature, and it must be carried out in close consultation with the member states.
Sixth: means of implementation. The successful achievement of new goals and targets will depend upon renewed global partnership and enhanced level of resources as our future agenda is more comprehensive and complicated both in terms of its scope and nature. Apart from other resources, ODA remains the critical resource of financing especially for LDCs and LLDCs.
Mr. Co-facilitator,
Finally: graduation of LDCs and poverty eradication. When it comes to the countries in special situation, we see that many of the LLDCs and SIDS are also LDCs. Therefore, the implementation of IPOA, which aims at, among other things, graduating at least 50% of LDCs by 2020, directly relates to poverty eradication in those countries. Nepal believes that graduation must be holistic and irreversible, and that the issue of LDCs’ sustainable graduation should be a part of the post-2015 development agenda. While development is essentially a national responsibility, the international community should anchor its due attention and support to the rising number of LDCs announcing their plans to graduate. The ambition to graduate demands enhanced, predictable and continued international support in all possible areas.
In this connection, I am happy to mention here that, with Nepal’s own aim to graduate by 2022, and with a view to providing fellow Asia-Pacific LDCs a forum to share experiences at the political level regarding the graduation strategies in the context of the post-2015 development agenda, an Asia-Pacific LDCs Ministerial Meeting was held in Kathmandu from 16-18 December 2014. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the Kathmandu Declaration for Sustainable Graduation of Asia-Pacific LDCs and will be an important input with regard to the process of graduation of LDCs.
To conclude, Mr. Co-facilitators, the new agenda must center on poverty eradication. It should leave no country behind. To hear the voice of all stakeholders, the process must be open and transparent, but with States as the final actors. The countries in special situation deserve more attention, both in the process and in the final agenda. My delegation calls on all to work hard to ensure that no one is left behind in this historic journey.
I thank you.
