As delivered
Statement by H.E. Peter Thomson, President of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, on the Adoption of the Global Indicator Framework for SDGs
6 July 2017, New York
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
The draft resolution before us entitled “Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, tabled by the delegation of Brazil, is another critical milestone on the road to 2030.
The framework’s development was mandated by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a means of monitoring implementation of the Agenda’s 17 goals and 169 targets.
On behalf of you all, I commend the UN Statistical Commission, the Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators, and the Statistics Division of UN DESA, for their mammoth efforts preparing this framework.
Aided by international organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector, they have succeeded in developing a robust, comprehensive and flexible indicator framework. The framework was agreed to by the UN Statistical Commission in March, and was subsequently adopted by the Economic and Social Council in early June.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates,
This framework will greatly assist decision makers in understanding which interventions are working and which are falling short.
It will help the international communities determine which
countries or regions are pressing
ahead under the 2030 Agenda and those which require additional support.
And it will help all of us to measure what we truly value; to keep our promise to leave no one behind and, most importantly, to ensure accountability for the lofty commitments made in September 2015.
To be of maximum value, this framework will have to be accompanied by an ambitious programme of capacity building and by the embracing of new innovative tools to support data collection and dissemination. Let us set our minds and muscle to what lies ahead.
Excellencies, distinguished delegates,
With the adoption of this draft resolution; with the publication last week of the Secretary-General’s report on Reforming the UN Development System; with the ongoing consultations aimed at aligning the work of the General Assembly and ECOSOC with the SDGs; and with the holding next week of the High Level Political Forum, the global architecture required to support SDG implementation can be seen to be progressing in the right direction.
I commend this resolution for your adoption.
I thank you.