Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
H.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock
at the Doha Solutions Forum for Social Development
3 November 2025
Doha, Qatar
[As delivered]
Dear Minister Buthaina Al Nuaimi,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
As this is the first day in Doha, allow me to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to His Highness the Emir, and to the Government and people of Qatar, for their warm hospitality and for hosting this very important World Social Summit.
I am extremely encouraged that we begin this week with a focus on solutions.
Too often we are either faced with situations where we have no clear solution, no answer to the suffering we see, and it is heartbreaking.
Or we have the solution – we know what has to be done – but we are either unable or unwilling to do what needs to be done, which is even more frustrating.
Today is different, and therefore, today is special.
We are here to avoid falling into those traps.
We’re here to learn from each other; to benefit from good ideas; to join forces; and to live up to our common principles.
On that note, I am grateful to all partners who have heeded that call and are here with newly resourced, scalable solutions.
These initiatives showcase what is possible when we actually work together and innovate together.
Take for example, a project in Sierra Leone focused on empowering persons with disabilities — not through charity, but through economic independence.
The government is dismantling systemic barriers to employment, constructing new facilities for counselling, training, and job placement, and working with financial institutions to provide micro-loans for budding entrepreneurs.
Or take the example in India, where the Aadhaar digital ID has helped close the digital divide in access to social services — connecting hundreds of millions of people to digital public goods such as online identification, e-payments, and remote education platforms.
As of today, they have helped open more than 300 million new bank accounts, unlocking resources and extending social benefits to those once excluded.
And take the example in Sri Lanka, where the EEGAI Innovation Hub — a civil-society-led initiative — is equipping young people with training and job opportunities.
Its digital platform, called ‘FindMe’, connects youth with real employment opportunities, reinvesting 10 percent of revenue back into further training.
They plan to train 50,000 young people, create 25,000 jobs, incubate 500 start-ups, and launch 1,500 micro-enterprises, all in the next few years.
Projects like these — whether policy-driven or technology-based — demonstrate that it’s possible to act when innovation, partnership, and resources come together.
So, the core question to all of us, to all of our solution-builders, investors, and especially policymakers — is this:
How do we take these solutions and bring them to scale?
How do we mobilize the resources, partnerships, and collaboration needed to deliver results at the level and pace required?
Because we all know the numbers: the global development financing gap now stands at 4 trillion US Dollars per year.
We also know that one of the biggest problems is not the money as such, but rather in connecting and matching projects with investors, who often shy away out of fear of stranded investments, or out of a lack of contextual knowledge, or because of concerns around price volatility.
If we want to address these concerns, and build trust, we need common financial frameworks, international funds, and the removal of unnecessary restrictions that stifle innovation, as outlined in the Sevilla Commitment.
We also need new financing tools — from catalytic seed funding to micro-loans — that can grow local pilots into programmes reaching millions.
And we know partnerships are key to this.
Whether we are expanding digital access, building infrastructure, or financing inclusion, solutions endure only when they are shared.
That means engaging the private sector — not only as financiers, but also as leaders and innovators.
It means fostering civil-society participation — not to “tick a box,” but to respond to real needs on the ground.
And it means aligning the priorities of Member States, UN agencies, local authorities, businesses, philanthropies, and development banks around what works.
To those partners here today with proven, investable ideas — the upcoming Civil Society Forum and Private Sector Forum are prime venues to expand your networks and meet investors.
And as we can see today, we need women.
But also not only women when we talk about social inclusion and social justice, we need women in all drivers seats, also in security debate, in economic debates, in investments.
Now is our moment to seize the opportunities — to invest where ideas are strong and the potential is immense.
Let us use the coming days to champion these solutions — and to discover new ones.
Let’s trade long speeches about setbacks for constructive, investable solutions.
Or as the old saying goes: “Don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions.”
I thank you.