The Statement of Mr. OLA ALMGREN
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Country Representative
on the Formulation Process of the Sustainable Development Goals and UN Support
delivered during the press briefing on the UN Assembly and the Sustainable Development Goals
at the BSA Twin Towers, Ortigas Center, Pasig City
23 October 2015, 10 am
Good morning all. Thank you to
Secretary Balisacan for the invitation and opportunity to say a few words about
the world’s new development agenda; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Agenda, and its 17 sustainable
development goals with 169 targets, was formally adopted by Member States one
month ago tomorrow, at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New
York. The Philippine delegation was led by
Secretary Balisacan.
It is a bold, ambitious, and
transformational agenda. It is also a
universal agenda applying to all countries, and in an extension to each one of
us as individuals.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals
are an agreed vision to put people and planet on a sustainable path by 2030. In
the words of United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, the Global Goals
represent a “universal, transformative and integrated agenda that heralds a
historic turning point for our world.”
17 goals with 169 targets can be
seen as an immense agenda and it is of course.
But these are the essential component parts to shift the world to a path
of sustainable development - to deliver on economic development, social
inclusion and environmental sustainability.
In a very simple message; the Sustainable
Development Goals - SDGs - aim to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and
injustice, and take action against climate change.
They aim to improve living
conditions in the present while safeguarding the resources of our planet for
future generations.
The SDGs bring together several
strands of international work in one common agenda for sustainable development,
and these are:
o
the Sendai Framework for Disaster
Reduction;
o
the International Conference on
Financing for Development and, we hope;
o
the agreement on climate change we
are expecting from Member States at the COP 21 in Paris in December this year.
The Agenda 2030 follows the United
Nations Millennium Declaration of 2000 and its Millennium Development Goals
that come to an end this year, 2015.
Much progress has been made. More
work remains.
It has been said, when MDGs were
introduced they came as a surprise and it took five years to understand them
and five years to work them into national development plans, leaving only five
years to actually implement them. True
or false, this time there has been very careful preparation in the lead-up to
the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Already in 2010, UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon took the initiative to establish a Post-2015 Development Agenda aimed
not only at accelerating progress towards achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) but also at advancing the United Nations development agenda beyond
2015, the end-year as we know of the MDGs.
This work entailed national and
local consultations which identified thematic concerns for each of the Member
States, including with the Philippines.
In June 2012, during the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Rio de Janeiro, UN
Member States unanimously called for a process to develop a set of sustainable
development goals.
These two tracks came together in
September 2014, with a new intergovernmental process bringing the Post-2015 development agenda and the SDGs together
– leading to its unanimous adoption in September.
In the lead up to the launch of the
SDGs, the United Nations and partners ran MY World, a global survey which
captured people’s voices, priorities and views, for global leaders to listen to
when they began the process of defining the new development agenda for the
world.
Almost 8.5 million people across the
globe – including more than 100,000 Filipinos – have voted for the issues which
are the most important to them and their families – from good education to
better healthcare, better job opportunities to an honest and responsive
government and affordable and nutritious food.
The SDGs are the result of a five–year–long
transparent, participatory process inclusive of all stakeholders and of
people’s voices. They represent an unprecedented agreement around sustainable
development priorities among 193 Member States. Governments, civil society organizations, the private
sector, academic and research institutions, NGOs, and multilateral
organizations mobilized their networks and got involved.
Apart from the process, how else are
they different from the MDGs?
o
The SDGs take on a whole of planet,
whole of humanity approach;
o
They broaden the scope, and raise
the ambition;
o
The SDGs are universal, there is no
longer a North and South;
o
The SDGs recognize the
interconnects: no peace no development, no development no peace; people,
prosperity and planet, and
o
Partnerships must bring together the strengths and resources of government,
the private sector, civil society, the youth.
The SDGs are far more than
inspirations or words of good intent.
They provide a guide for action in the key areas where countries,
including the Philippines, will have to invest in order to move forward. These SDGs need to be backed up by national
policies, and will play a major role in shaping where and how resources are
used.
On behalf of the United Nations system
in the Philippines, I congratulate the Philippine Government, National Economic
and Development Authority Secretary Balisacan and the Philippine delegation for
being one of the 193 member states who have worked tirelessly in the numerous
intergovernmental negotiations and experts meetings leading towards the
adoption of Agenda 2030 last month.
The United Nations system in
the Philippines welcomes the commitment of the Philippines in pushing this
agenda forward, as highlighted by Secretary Balisacan in the Philippine
Statement at the UN General Assembly, and I quote, “To move forward and achieve
the overarching goal of eradicating poverty, we must now develop our national
plans and budgets for its implementation and monitoring. In doing so, we will
collaborate with civil society and all stakeholders in line with the principle
of inclusiveness and accountability.”
The United Nations stands
ready to assist the Philippine Government reflect the SDGs in national and
local development plans and policies. Sustainable development requires
governments to take a “whole of government” approach to decision-making across
the economic, social, and environmental spheres. Similarly, the UN must take a
whole-of-system approach to supporting countries with SDG implementation. This common approach is called ‘MAPS’ which stands for Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy
Support.
o
Mainstreaming refers to the support we can give governments as they
incorporate the agenda in their national and local strategies, plans, and
budgets, and strengthen their data systems.
o
On acceleration, we can help identify the obstacles and bottlenecks
in the way of making progress on goals and targets, and to identify actions
which could speed up progress on multiple targets at the same time. We draw on
many successful examples from the use of a specific MDG acceleration tool in
more than fifty countries in recent years.
o
On policy support, we can provide coordinated and
demand-driven advice and technical assistance across many Goals, drawing on the
great depth and breadth of knowledge and programme experience gained by the UN
over many decades.
Across the three components
of MAPS, we will seek to build and facilitate partnerships, improve data, and deepen accountability.
The sheer breadth of the
agenda, plus the welcome call to leave no one behind, means that we will have
to change the way we work with governments and other partners to produce, make
available, and analyze data. We hear the call of Secretary Balisacan in his
UNGA statement “for official statistics to be more disaggregated, frequent,
timely, and accessible”. We need the
information to avoid the risk of leaving the most vulnerable behind and not
properly addressing new challenges that impede development and harm our planet.
The Philippines is privileged
to have Statistician Dr. Lisa Bersales who co-chairs the Inter-agency and
Experts Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDG), and we are confident that, under
her able leadership and with the invaluable inputs of all participants, the
outcome of this work will be satisfactory leading to the SDG Indicator
Framework in March 2016.
In his statement at the UN GA,
Secretary Balisacan underscored the Philippines’ commitment to the SDGs – “The
Philippines pledges to make the 2030 Agenda a reality and to leave no one
behind. It is our sacred responsibility to our children and to future
generations, and our solemn duty as members of the United Nations.”
On behalf of the United
Nations System in the Philippines, we offer our full support and commitment to
a strong partnership with the Philippine Government, and all development actors
and stakeholders to implement and achieve the SDGs by 2030 and leave no
Filipino behind.
Maraming
salamat. Thank you
Reference:
Jaclyn “Jing” Damaso-Grey Communications Associate United Nations Development Programme Philippines 30th Floor, Yuchengco Tower, RCBC Plaza
6819 Ayala Avenue corner Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue 1226 Makati City Philippines Email: jaclyn.grey@undp.org
Phone: +63 2 901 0238 Mobile: +63 917 581 0495
