Statement by Ambassador Hahn Choong-hee
Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations
Follow-up and Review Session, Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda
18 May 2015, New York
Thank you, Mr. Co-Facilitator.
Korea associates itself with the statement made by Norway on behalf of Group of 7 countries.
First of all, allow me to thank the Co-Facilitators for sharing the truly informative discussion paper. It provides us with valuable guidance on the challenging yet critical topic for our session this week. I look forward to spirited and meaty discussions throughout.
Mr. Co-Facilitator,
A robust follow-up and review framework is a sine qua non for the success of a universal and transformative post-2015 development agenda. Learning from the lessons of the accountability-deficient Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Republic of Korea would like to emphasize the importance of follow-up and review for effective implementation of the new global agenda.
Follow-up and review should help to chart progress by identifying both achievements and challenges with a view to ensuring that we are on the right track. In this vein, we support the set of key principles as put forward in the discussion paper. A follow-up and review framework should be universal, State-led, voluntary, inclusive, participatory, and evidence-based. To be efficient, the framework would also necessitate a multi-tiered structure with the national, regional, and global levels as well as thematic reviews.
National-level reviews will be at the core of the framework architecture, and all States should be encouraged to submit their national review reports on a regular basis, taking into account the four-year cycle of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) as well as different national capacities and realities. The reports should include progress assessment, key achievements, and challenges with participatory contributions from diverse development actors and stakeholders.
Regional reviews may build upon existing mechanisms that could strengthen national reviews through experience sharing and mutual learning. Countries in the same region often face similar challenges and share interests in terms of policy environment. Regional organizations should seek to reinforce or develop regional follow-up and review mechanisms. Such mechanisms should be transparent and open to all stakeholders.
At the global level, we recognize the central role of the HLPF in promoting knowledge exchange on the global implementation of the post-2015 agenda. States may volunteer to present their national review reports at the annual HLPF and share lessons learned. However, more work is needed to have a better picture of the global review. We should have further discussion on whether we need to have global targets that are distinct from national ones. In addition, more concrete ideas will be needed on what and how to monitor as well as the reporting mechanism.
Furthermore, thematic reviews could also be conducted on a regular basis under the HLPF. Existing UN regional and functional commissions and committees can track the progress of post-2015 implementation in their respective areas of expertise as a good global platform. For review purposes only, we may wish to consider grouping the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) into several clusters.
Another important aspect of the follow-up and review framework is to assess the quality of development cooperation supporting post-2015 implementation. In this regard, we would like to reiterate the potential role of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPEDC). Its key principles – national ownership, focus on results, inclusive partnership, and transparency and accountability – are already well aligned with most of the overarching principles for the follow-up and review framework we are discussing today. The Korean Government firmly believes that the well-established and existing global monitoring mechanism of the GPEDC can make a positive contribution to the post-2015 context as necessary.
Mr. Co-Facilitator,
All of these great ideas and efforts come down to the question of how best to incentivize voluntary participation by all stakeholders and orchestrate their diverse activities. In Korea’s view, the key is to institutionalize voluntary participation by further utilizing various multi-stakeholder platforms such as the UN Development Cooperation Forum (DCF) and the annual GPEDC Forum. We should endeavor to keep all development actors in the loop on the implementation of the new global agenda.
Finally, regarding the relationship between the financing for development (FfD) and post-2015 follow-up and review frameworks, Korea deems it desirable to seek an overarching and integrated monitoring mechanism in order to achieve coherence. It is important, therefore, to monitor progress on both SDGs and the means of implementation. Monitoring the Addis Ababa outcome should be an integral part of the post-2015 follow-up and review framework. Quality data is a must for an effective follow-up and review process. Data should be not only available but also useful. Disaggregated, reliable, and timely data, which is measurable, collectible, and comparable, will be extremely important, together with national capacity building.
This week, we will need to discuss the level of detail we wish to include in the September Summit outcome document. It is the view of the Republic of Korea that the outcome document should not be too prescriptive, and should present the core principles of the follow-up and review mechanism and the basic elements of its institutional design. After September, we could flesh out the detailed architecture of the mechanism through further discussion.
I thank you. /END/
