Ambassador Ahmed Sareer, Chair of AOSIS,
Mr. Director-General, Jose Graziano,
Under-Secretary-General, Acharya,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to be here this afternoon to take part in this important discussion. We are in many ways continuing the conversation begun in Milan last month on food and nutrition challenges facing SIDS. I am enthusiastic about the progress made in the intervening weeks. The roadmap presented by the Director-General depicts a concrete and inclusive way forward. I offer the full support of my Department in its implementation.
Food security is fundamental to the quality of life and wellbeing of our human family. I am happy to say that the transformative 2030 Agenda recognizes this fact and makes explicit the link between food and all other aspects of sustainable development. A hungry child cannot learn, a malnourished adult cannot fully contribute to sustainable economic growth. And the connections go both ways. Food security will not be achieved without concurrent progress in other areas including education, gender equality, effective and sustainable cities, sustainable growth and infrastructure development, protecting terrestrial biodiversity and the preservation and sustainable use of the oceans among many others.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals clearly recognize these interlinkages; the integrated nature of the SDGs is one of their hallmarks. This integrated nature must be kept front and center in our mind as we embark on the next critical phase; implementation.
I know that for SIDS the integrated nature of development is old news. For generations you have been aware of the close links between environmental stewardship and social and economic development. The protection of oceans and seas, for instance, is not a purely ecological issue to be treated in isolation, but rather a matter that is essential for the future of your countries, your way of life and indeed, your food security. Likewise, many SIDS have rich agricultural histories and they have expertise combining traditional knowledge with scientific acumen and SIDS-specific technologies. Fostering this expertise will advance the sustainable development agenda as a whole—Goal Two on food security to be sure, but also many other goals simultaneously.
SIDS issues feature prominently not only in the 2030 Agenda but in other major outcomes of the last year and a half which will define our development trajectory well into the 21st century. The first of these important outcomes was the SAMOA Pathway itself; a document that pre-dates the 2030 Agenda yet is very much in harmony with it. The same integrated approach that characterizes the 2030 Agenda also defines the SAMOA Pathway. In fact, Samoa is leading the way in establishing the approaches to review and follow up. I believe this will have a positive and profound influence on the 2030 Agenda follow-up. I know that this year’s SIDS resolution, for instance, is hammering out the partnership framework mandated in Samoa. Once established, the framework will inform the approach we take in partnerships for the 2030 Agenda.
Other outcomes of last year, including those of Sendai and Addis Ababa, continue to explicitly shine a spotlight on SIDS issues. Next month in Paris, the spotlight will be especially bright. The SIDS are leaders in the climate change fight, making it perfectly and unequivocally clear that any truly sustainable development must address the scourge of climate change.
Excellencies,
The time for implementation is now. The roadmap, developed as a concrete outcome of the Milan meeting last month, is an essential tool to encourage action rooted in the knowledge and data coming from SIDS experts. The roadmap will lead us to the action program on food security and nutrition challenges in SIDS mandated specifically in the SAMOA Pathway. It benefits from the essential insights that were shared by you and your Ministers in Milan and it will guide us as we move forward.
Once again, I look forward to supporting this important work.
Thank you.