Opening remarks by H.E. Ms Dessima Williams, Special Adviser to the President of the 71st Session of the General Assembly on Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, on behalf of Peter Thomson, President of the 71st Session of the General Assembly, at global flagship event at the World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings: “One Year of Sustainable Development Goals: Country Action and Progress”
7 October 2016 , Washington, DC
Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honor to be here this morning representing the President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson.
The PGA regrets that he is unable to join you for these Annual Meetings, due to ongoing responsibilities relating to the selection and appointment process for the Secretary-General.
The PGA was particularly keen to speak with you all because of his deep commitment to translating the historic promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and the Paris Climate Agreement into action.
In fact, the principle objective of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly is driving implementation across all 17 of the SDGs.
One year since the adoption of the SDGs, we at the United Nations, have seen progress on a number of fronts:-
- Two weeks ago, world leaders addressed the General Assembly, and all raised their efforts at national levels to implement the 2030 Agenda;
- In July, 22 countries presented at the UN voluntary reviews on their progress towards SDG implementation;
- The UN has operationalized follow-up and monitoring mechanisms and is continuing discussion on adapting the UN agenda to meet the needs of the 2030 Agenda;
- On climate change, the Paris Agreement will enter into force on 4 November, and it is time to speed up implementation. Entities such as UNEP – along with the G20 – have been working to drive a transformation on this towards sustainable finance.
Clearly, however, much more needs to be done, including by:-
- harnessing political leadership;
- promoting strategic partnerships, including between governments, the UN, World Bank, IMF, WTO, UNCTAD, multilateral development banks, and key stakeholders; and
- making best use of existing platforms, such as the UN’s High Level Political Forum, ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development, and the World Bank Annual meetings.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Leveraging the expertise across our respective organizations will be fundamental to scaling up financing, push implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, and ultimately, the success of the 2030 Agenda.
We are therefore particularly happy to be invited to be here at the World Bank today. Scaling up and catalyzing financing of the SDGs is key to this endeavor, and the PGA and his Office look forward to exploring what role the PGA can and should play to achieve this.
We have 14 years to go, and every moment counts.
Thank you.