Distinguished Co-facilitator,
Let us begin by taking note of the final draft of the outcome document for the UN Summit in September 2015 which will adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We thank you for your leadership and for a document that is inspirational, fair, concrete and cohesive. We welcomed the document, it is well structured and it engages and inspires people!
We certainly recognize the extraordinary capacity of you both as co-facilitators, in accommodating the suggestions, recommendations and inputs from Member States. We congratulate you both for this impressive achievement!!
Panama aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the G77 and China and would like to make some very precise comments in our national capacity:
1. We welcome the changes made to the preamble, its concise nature makes it ideal for communication purposes, as mentioned by Ambassador Donoghue. In this context, we like to contribute to a remark made yesterday, in regard to avoid the thought that the areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet, are independent or silos as such, we recommend that the missing word could be “ interconnected or inter linked or interdependent. Perhaps as Ambassador Kamau says, in order to give the right signal, you both can consider including it conveniently in the text. This will promote the inter-sectorial cooperation, a key ingredient for the success of the agenda.
2. We also agreed with the recommendation of the consistent use of certain terms like agenda vs new agenda.
3. And with the remark made by Colombia, as to include in the implementation section, the text concerning the need for a UN Development system fit for purpose, as well as the emphasis on the national policy space issue, and of common but differentiated responsibilities.
4. And with the reference on peace and security as it is deeply interlinked with sustainable development.
We welcome very much the insertion of the word ethics in the text. The inequalities that the world faces today are the result of a long history of policies that benefited the few rather than the whole. It is now our ethical responsibility to optimally improve the living conditions of those in conditions of vulnerability, the correct way to mentioned people referred to as “vulnerable” . Ethics is a transversal issue that encompasses the entirety of the sustainable development goals. We must commit to achieve not only what is necessary, but also what is right.
In regards to the targets, if we may we will like to suggest “language” for few. We support the establishment of peace, inclusive societies and justice as enablers and requisites for sustainable development. In that regard two targets of goal 16, specifically 16.6 and 16.7, could be clearer in terms of the target to achieve. We propose to change, on both targets, the expression of “at all levels” to “from the national to the local levels”.
Finally, seven decades or 25,550 days have gone by, since the UN Charter was signed. The UN made the world more peaceful and secure then…. We now have ahead of us 5,000 days for the SDG to truly galvanize the international cooperation, and transformatively improved the well-being of people by uplifting societies economically, socially and environmentally.
We are confident that the Declaration for the SDG( the document in our hands), which will be adopted during High-Level Summit in September will inspire action !!
I thank you, Mr. Co-facilitator.
