PGA Remarks at the World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden
Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the General Assembly
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High-Level Panel to Follow Up on the UN 2023 Water Conference in Stockholm, Sweden
22 August 2023
[As delivered]
Many, many thanks to all my friends and colleagues who have spoken and opened the open and frank conversation.
I would like to join and will respond similarly to Joachim to Henk and Sultan to what has been said.
But first, what might be the similarities and what might be the lessons learned from the World Conference to the SDG Summit?
And the SDG Summit will be one of the most important events in the United Nations of the year.
And it will have to be a transformative and non-conventional Summit meeting.
How can the SDG Summit benefit from the Water Conference?
In three ways, I think.
There will be similarities in format, content and strategy.
Let me mostly focus on the content and strategy.
Both events are about breakthroughs.
Both events are about transformation.
If we do not use this opportunity for transformation and breakthrough, then we are going to miss the opportunity to achieve the SDG goals.
So, there might be a couple of points I would like to offer to your kind attention.
What unites the two events?
First, realistic stock taking and addressing the knowledge gap.
We did it in March, we have to do it in September for the SDGs as well.
We know that in the case of water, about two-thirds of the SDG 6 targets have data, adequate data.
For the rest, we do not have enough data and our knowledge is just approximate.
In the case of the SDGs, we are probably in a more severe situation and the level of implementation of the targets are mostly off track.
About 12% of the targets are on track in the implementation.
So, there is a lot to be learned from the water experience and lot to be done.
The second, we need a renewed narrative, a new dynamic, and that could be also borrowed from the Water Conference.
At the Water Conference we understood how to manage better, value, and protect water.
We understood that we needed a new economics on water, and it is being developed.
And something similar must be developed during and after the SDG Summit for the new economics on sustainability.
Three, the role of commitments and game changers.
Commitments for the SDG Summit it will be about recommitting ourselves.
Those three minutes which will be allotted to a leader of a country, will not be enough to make political grand standings, will not be designed to make long, big speeches.
It will be just enough to make very factual commitments and that will be recorded.
That will be done in the form of a water action agenda.
And that what should be followed up now.
Game changers, because we know that if we are way off track and half of the time allotted for the implementation in SDGs is up already, it is not enough to do the same just a little bit faster.
We need to change speed, we need to change gear and we need to change direction.
In many cases, we need to change the game, and that is the main task of the SDG Summit.
Similarly, as we tried to do the game changers, which are a kind of derivative of the water action agenda, that we came up at the end of the Water Conference.
The most important outcome of the Water Conference was that we recommitted ourselves to a major transformation in a very short period of time.
Something similar must be done now in the case of the SDGs.
Let me give you some very concrete observations – of what needs to be looked at.
What we learned during the Water Conference, one of the most important issue was integration: how to integrate water and climate policies, how to integrate water, food, energy production.
The integration approach will be absolutely pivotal in the case of the SDG Summit.
Second, addressing the dependency of the food, energy and water consumption, if we can bring it together with health, with some other areas in the SDG Summit, we shall be much, much closer to the implementation of we have committed ourselves to.
Third, in the Water Conference, we understood that much of the implementation will have to be done at local, national and regional levels.
There are some issues that should be done at global levels.
These are mostly the game changers, but the bulk of the actions must be done at local level, and that will be reemphasized hopefully in September during the SDG Summit.
That also gives the possibility for the non-government actors to take a responsible role.
We also made a step forward during the Water Conference of redefining financing principles.
It is related to the rethinking of the new economics on water.
We need to do something similar in the case of the implementation of the SDGs.
The education system was given a major role in the water Conference and broadening our knowledge, broadening our understanding of the sustainability transformation will be key during the SDG Summit in September.
And last but not least, in the case of Water Conference, we emphasized that the validation of the implementation will be absolutely crucial.
We need to create a new system of validation of the implementation of SDGs based on scientific evidence in the United Nations.
Now, some final lessons learned, and here would be my response, joining what has been mentioned by Henk and Sultan.
I’m thrilled very much that I hear Tajikistan and the Netherlands saying that there is a need of urgency. I fully do.
I’m very, very much enthusiastic about hearing that there is no more day, no more year to be lost.
I share the sense of urgency.
Let me just reiterate.
Before the Water Conference, we agreed those leaders who were involved, including Tajikistan and the Netherlands, that the implementation would start on the day after the Water Conference.
And there were two countries who volunteered to lead the implementation.
It was Tajikistan and the Netherlands, and Senegal joined the third.
I agree that we have lost 150 days.
Please send the same message of urgency to your missions who are now leading the negotiations, drafting the resolution.
The resolution should not be about where and when the next water conference should be.
The resolution should be about implementation of what has been agreed upon in the Water Conference.
If we take these lessons learned for the SDG summit, it will be absolutely important because we have only seven and a half years remained for the implementation of the agenda 2030.
On the next day of the SDG summit, we have to start the implementation of what has been agreed upon.
So it’s not the place, not the year, not the next conference.
It is the action, it is the validation and it is the investment.
Thank you very much.