Joint Briefing of the Presidents of the General Assembly and the ECOSOC

– As delivered –

Statement by H.E. Mrs. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the 73^rd Session of the UN General Assembly

31 January 2019

Excellencies,                          

Dear President of the Economic and Social Council,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my true pleasure to welcome you all to this joint briefing of the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council – the first of its nature.

Today’s meeting is a groundbreaking moment to strengthen our efforts to ensure more coherence, coordination and efficiency on issues of common concern for the two Charter Bodies, as well as on overlapping mandates and processes.

This joint briefing should also contribute to the ongoing efforts to revitalize the work of the General Assembly, as mandated by the General Assembly Resolution 72/313.

I would like to seize this opportunity to sincerely thank President Rhonda King and her team for their continued availability and engagement with my Office on a range of important issues. Our monthly meetings provide a unique opportunity to go through substantive, as well as procedural and planning matters of interest to Member States.

Let me stress here the important roles of the General Assembly and the ECOSOC, as clearly defined by the UN Charter, as well as relevant GA resolutions, for making the United Nations relevant for all. The two main organs must play a mutually reinforcing role to enable the United Nations respond to the three overlapping pillars of the Charter: human rights, peace and security and development.

The General Assembly’s universal and equal membership reinforces its legitimacy and position as the chief deliberative authority. Its legitimacy and effectiveness must be constantly renewed by making its work of policy and norm-setting relevant to people all over the world.

The ECOSOC, for its part, provides a unique venue to focus on coordination, policy review, dialogue and recommendations on issues related to sustainable development. The General Assembly resolution 72/305, adopted during the previous session, strengthened further the Council’s role to better support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

It is unfortunate, however, that we have not been able to make progress in the past three sessions on this process, despite efforts of successive co-facilitators and Member States. I would like to acknowledge, in this regard, the efforts of all co-facilitators, including President Rhonda King, who made a contribution as a co-facilitator during the previous session.

The General Assembly resolution 72/313 mandates me to identify proposals aimed at addressing gaps and duplication, through consultations with all Member States, the President of the Economic and Social Council, as well as through the convening of the General Committee.

In response to this mandate, I convened a meeting of the General Committee on the 5th of December to solicit perspectives of Member States for the alignment process.

I also dedicated the first Morning Minga to the theme “Revitalization of the work of GA, the main Committees and the ECOSOC”.

At these meetings, Member States expressed full support for the process and shared many good ideas and proposals, to be further explored and discussed at the upcoming consultations.

In my monthly meetings with the President of ECOSOC, the alignment process figured prominently in our deliberations.

I hear from every Permanent Representative I speak to that improving the working methods of the Committees is essential to both the alignment and revitalization processes.  Let me commend the Chair of the Second Committee for his willingness to engage on streamlining the work of the Committee.

Moving forward, we must be audacious and creative in addressing this critical issue. While almost the whole membership agrees on the goal, we have yet to come up with an acceptable methodology and timeframe to address this matter. We definitely need to make a big push consistent with our ambitions. And that means achieving concrete outcomes by the end of this session.

Before concluding my first point, I would like to underscore the need to build on the work undertaken so far during previous sessions, including the report on the strategic alignment of future sessions of the Assembly and other relevant inputs.

We need also to come up with a clear timeframe as well as the nature of the outcome for the conclusion of this process. I urge you all to give every support to the Ambassadors of Timor Leste and the Czech Republic to ensure successful conclusion of the alignment process.

Second, I would like to touch upon the work of the High-Level Political Forum, which will be convened this year, for the first time, under the auspices of both the ECOSOC, in July, and the General Assembly, in September.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of ensuring that the two processes are closely coordinated to provide for mutually reinforcing linkages. This is even more necessary as the GA resolution 70/299 calls for only one negotiated political declaration to be adopted at the HLPF Summit at the General Assembly.

Coordination is also of strategic importance. We need a political declaration that is concise and action-oriented; a declaration that sends a strong political message on the urgent need to scale up action in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. And it has to mobilize the partnerships that are going to be key to securing a path towards a sustainable future.

Early coordination between the two main bodies is key for the success of this process. The HLPF under the auspices of ECOSOC will provide useful inputs for the September Summit. At the General Assembly, we will have an opportunity to undertake an overall overview of all the SDGs and raise political momentum at the highest political level, for their fulfillment within the agreed timeframe.

Beyond the content of the Political Declaration, which remains highly important, we need to reflect on how to make the HLPF a platform for demonstrating the relevance of the UN to all people, the relevance of the SDGs for all people and the relevance of multilateralism in a constantly changing world.

Excellencies,

I am conscious of the need for quality and timely inputs from the United Nations system, the major groups and other relevant stakeholders to support our processes. Ultimately, however, constructive engagement by all Member States is going to be key to reaching a meaningful and consensual outcome document.

Your support to the Ambassadors of Bahamas and Sweden, the co-facilitators, will be decisive both on the Political Declaration and the format, modalities and the scope of the September Summit.

Excellencies,

My next area of focus is related to financing for development. This year, the FFD process provides a great opportunity to move on the solid policy framework defined in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

If we are to make significant progress in the implementation of SDGs, we must undertake urgent and bold actions in the provision of the needed trillion US Dollars, the multiplication of investments and partnerships.

The General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council offer ample platform to explore concrete and innovative solutions in this regard, through the ECOSOC FFD Forum as well as the High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development.

These two processes, along with the HLPF, are expected to assess the quality and quantity of investments and financing to meet sustainable development goals. The outcome of the FFD Forum will form critical inputs for the HLPF political declaration. It should also help in the strategic focusing of the High-Level Dialogue on Financing, taking into account some key challenges such as high levels of debt of developing countries, building resilience of those countries to systemic shocks and climatic vulnerabilities, to name a few.

Through effective coordination of our efforts, we will ensure focus of energies on the desired action, coherence and innovative solutions. We need to avoid duplication of discussion and the renegotiation of already agreed issues and principles. Our time and resources are scarce; let’s use them smartly to deliver for the people.

I have shared with the Ambassadors of Canada and Ghana, co-facilitators of the FFD process, my view of the need to increase the level of ambition in the High-Level Dialogue, to be action-oriented and explore opportunities for engagement with the private sector and civil society. Their efforts would not deliver without your strong support and your constructive engagement.

The President of ECOSOC and I will closely collaborate with all the co-facilitators for the HLPF and FFD collectively to underscore the importance of coherence across these critical sustainable development processes. The first coordination meeting with all six co-facilitators will be convened on 5 February, to ensure proper coordination and coherence.

Dear colleagues,

The areas of collaboration between the ECOSOC President and my Office are multiple. Since the beginning of the session, we have explored the best ways to exploit existing mandated events and forums, to make our contributions and perspectives synergetic.

In this context, one of my strategic priorities for the 73rd Session, as you know, relates to Youth, Peace and Security, but I will not be convening a stand-alone event during this session. I will, rather, be joining forces with the ECOSOC President at the ECOSOC Youth Forum.

The Forum will, therefore, provide an opportunity to look at the synergies between issues related to Youth, Peace and Security, on one hand, and the attainment of the sustainable development goals on the other. I will participate in an Interactive Dialogue with participants in the Forum on my strategy on Youth, Peace and Security.

Furthermore, at the High-Level Event on “The Future of Work”, youth representatives will share their perspectives on Decent Work. That meeting, as you know, will mark the centennial of the International Labour Organization and will facilitate a global conversation around the report of the future of work, which will be launched today, in this house. Our goal is to gain a greater understanding of the changes we are witnessing in the world of work and to discuss effective policy response that shapes the future of work. This Event will be convened on 10 April in close collaboration with the ILO and the ECOSOC. The outcome would also make a contribution to the review of SDG 8 at the HLPF under the auspices of the ECOSOC.

I will appoint co-facilitators shortly to lead on modalities for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, which would constitute our collective commitment to the Organization and multilateralism.

Dear Friends,

2019 is a decisive year for the sustainable development agenda and multilateralism. We have a great deal of work ahead of us. The General Assembly is hosting many high-level events in September, dedicated to the sustainable development agenda.

The Climate Summit, HLPF, the FFD, the Universal Health Coverage, as well as the Samoa Pathway processes must be seen as opportunities for further engagement towards coherent and ambitious action.

We must send a strong message to the world that multilateralism constitutes the best and only way to confront and resolve the global challenges we are all facing.

We must take up our collective responsibility and commitment to deliver for a world hungry for transformative change.

I thank you for your attention.