Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly
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Informal meeting of the General Assembly to hear a briefing from the Secretary-General on his Special Edition report on ‘Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals’
(As Delivered)
I thank the Secretary-General for his report and for his briefing. Before opening the floor for your interventions, please allow me to share with you some of my remarks, some of my impressions.
I fully agree with the Secretary-General’s assessment that there is a pressing need for a real, transformative change.
I am particularly glad to see that the conclusions of the Report have been based on scientific evidence and data.
What the Secretary-General is offering in his report are solutions – however, not to change the goals, rather to change the approach, to change “the game”.
I am also in agreement with the Secretary-General when he strongly builds on our joint responsibility as well as on the responsible implementation of commitments at national levels.
It has been clear so far but now it is absolutely visible that our traditional approach to the Voluntary National Reports and the conduct of the HLPF must be reevaluated.
We heard some suggestion that may not have been part of the traditional SDG conversation but are logically related to the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and rooted in it directly.
We must take these recommendations very seriously. All those recommendations that can underpin the credibility of the political commitment that the second half of the implementation period will be more impact-oriented than the first half was.
I was pleased to see that the report addressed “Beyond GDP”.
In my understanding, it can serve as a glue to bring together many of the necessary transformative elements that the Secretary-General spoke about.
This report and the following discussion will surely help our co-facilitators present the zero draft of the political declaration.
And so, I thank the Secretary-General for his report, and I ask all the Member States to lend their support to the true transformative process and work with the PRs of Qatar and Ireland to make sure that we can produce not only a document, but a real shift for people and planet.
