United States of America
SDG14 Conference Prep Meeting Partnership Dialogues
US Statement
Statement
Thank you co-facilitator. The United States remains a strong supporter of Sustainable Development Goal 14 and we view the UN Conference for the Implementation for Sustainable Development Goal 14 as one part of the overall global movement to promote the conservation and sustainable management of our ocean on the foreign policy agenda.
We are pleased to see the broad and growing interest in prioritizing concrete actions to protect and conserve our ocean, and I would like to thank our co-hosts Fiji and Sweden for bringing this conference together.
While we are supportive of the upcoming conference, we think it is important to avoid duplicative work and to instead focus on utilizing existing frameworks and conferences, both within and outside the UN system, to leverage synergies among SDG 14 focus areas.
The conference should be action oriented with a focus on identifying the tools, partnerships, and specific initiatives needed to drive Member State implementation of, and data sharing on, SDG 14 targets and indicators.
This focus should be driven by the “partnership dialogues”, which provide a crucial opportunity to fill a gap at the technical level to support implementation of Goal 14, while also ensuring the Conference does not duplicate the efforts of other fora, meetings, and conferences.
For example, target 14.1 calls for, “preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.” Implementing this target will require collaboration with the UN Environment Programme Global Programme of Action as well as new and creative ideas from a variety of stakeholders across a broad range of subjects, from innovative waste management to upcycling to waste-to-wealth initiatives, along with many others. The partnership dialogues are well positioned to leverage the expertise of stakeholders in sharing best practices and success stories, finding partners, and socializing ways to expand and apply those lessons.
In addition, observation networks and accurate marine geospatial information help Member States meet information needs for SDG 14 reporting and implementation. Raising awareness of existing efforts to provide and share this observational information would support not only SDG 14, but also many other SDGs as well.
The United States views the seven partnership themes identified in the Secretary General’s note as natural focal areas to encompass all SDG 14 targets, and we support focusing on successful technical approaches to meet the ambition of the SDG 14 targets.
We envision the partnership dialogues as a series of panels in which expert speakers from governments, academic institutions, NGOs, international organizations, and the private sector can share methods, scientific insight and technological advances, pilot programs and case studies, which can help Member States identify which approaches best meet their needs.
SDG14 Conference Prep Meeting Partnership Dialogues
US Statement
We recommend a panelist nomination process for the seven partnership dialogues similar to that used for the expert speaker nominations for the Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.
Our success rests on implementation of all SDGs and their targets. It will be important to ensure that all efforts and challenges, whether within the UN system or outside it, are captured in the data and reported in a way that that feeds into the High Level Political Forum. To this end, we encourage those making voluntary commitments at the conference to be meaningful and accountable.
We also note that efforts to meet SDG 14 will take place in a wide range of bodies, both within and outside of the UN system, and include diverse stakeholders, such as regional fisheries management organizations, scientists, the private sector, philanthropies, and non-governmental organizations.
The success of the conference and in particular the partnership dialogues is dependent upon it being a model for openness, inclusion, and transparency in the UN system, and we hope that the rules for participation will be completely open, without exception, allowing for robust participation from all interested stakeholders.
US Statement
Statement
Thank you co-facilitator. The United States remains a strong supporter of Sustainable Development Goal 14 and we view the UN Conference for the Implementation for Sustainable Development Goal 14 as one part of the overall global movement to promote the conservation and sustainable management of our ocean on the foreign policy agenda.
We are pleased to see the broad and growing interest in prioritizing concrete actions to protect and conserve our ocean, and I would like to thank our co-hosts Fiji and Sweden for bringing this conference together.
While we are supportive of the upcoming conference, we think it is important to avoid duplicative work and to instead focus on utilizing existing frameworks and conferences, both within and outside the UN system, to leverage synergies among SDG 14 focus areas.
The conference should be action oriented with a focus on identifying the tools, partnerships, and specific initiatives needed to drive Member State implementation of, and data sharing on, SDG 14 targets and indicators.
This focus should be driven by the “partnership dialogues”, which provide a crucial opportunity to fill a gap at the technical level to support implementation of Goal 14, while also ensuring the Conference does not duplicate the efforts of other fora, meetings, and conferences.
For example, target 14.1 calls for, “preventing and significantly reducing marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.” Implementing this target will require collaboration with the UN Environment Programme Global Programme of Action as well as new and creative ideas from a variety of stakeholders across a broad range of subjects, from innovative waste management to upcycling to waste-to-wealth initiatives, along with many others. The partnership dialogues are well positioned to leverage the expertise of stakeholders in sharing best practices and success stories, finding partners, and socializing ways to expand and apply those lessons.
In addition, observation networks and accurate marine geospatial information help Member States meet information needs for SDG 14 reporting and implementation. Raising awareness of existing efforts to provide and share this observational information would support not only SDG 14, but also many other SDGs as well.
The United States views the seven partnership themes identified in the Secretary General’s note as natural focal areas to encompass all SDG 14 targets, and we support focusing on successful technical approaches to meet the ambition of the SDG 14 targets.
We envision the partnership dialogues as a series of panels in which expert speakers from governments, academic institutions, NGOs, international organizations, and the private sector can share methods, scientific insight and technological advances, pilot programs and case studies, which can help Member States identify which approaches best meet their needs.
SDG14 Conference Prep Meeting Partnership Dialogues
US Statement
We recommend a panelist nomination process for the seven partnership dialogues similar to that used for the expert speaker nominations for the Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea.
Our success rests on implementation of all SDGs and their targets. It will be important to ensure that all efforts and challenges, whether within the UN system or outside it, are captured in the data and reported in a way that that feeds into the High Level Political Forum. To this end, we encourage those making voluntary commitments at the conference to be meaningful and accountable.
We also note that efforts to meet SDG 14 will take place in a wide range of bodies, both within and outside of the UN system, and include diverse stakeholders, such as regional fisheries management organizations, scientists, the private sector, philanthropies, and non-governmental organizations.
The success of the conference and in particular the partnership dialogues is dependent upon it being a model for openness, inclusion, and transparency in the UN system, and we hope that the rules for participation will be completely open, without exception, allowing for robust participation from all interested stakeholders.
Stakeholders