Bangkok

28 March 2022

Deputy Secretary-General's remarks at the Session on System-Wide Results of the UN Development System at the Regional Level in Asia Pacific in support of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda [as prepared for delivery]

Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General

[His Excellency Ali Sabri, Minister of Justice, Sri Lanka
Your Excellency Ms. Ariunzaya  Ayush, Minister for Social protection and Labour, Mongolia
Your Excellency H.E. Mohamed Aslam, Minister of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, Maldives

Mr. Suriya Chindawongse, Vice-President of ECOSOC
Ms. Armida Salsiah Alishjahbana, Executive Secretary of ESCAP
Ms. Kanni Wignaraja, Regional Director, UNDP]

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants,

It is a great pleasure to be with you today to discuss how the regional United Nations development system has collectively supported Member States’ priorities for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the past year.

Our societies and economies were slowly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Now the war in Ukraine is causing food, energy and fertilizer prices to skyrocket. Our agencies are warning of hunger on an unprecedented scale. This can have devastating impact on the region – with many countries heavily reliant on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.

Transformative changes are urgently needed to get back on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The United Nations development system is fully behind governments and national stakeholders to enable such change, with the reform of the UN development system initiated in 2018 providing renewed impetus, improved agility and greater focus to our collective action.

At the country level, the Resident Coordinators and the new generation of UN Country teams are delivering improved leadership, strategic programming support and policy advice in response to countries’ priorities and needs. With stronger and more integrated regional and global support, the United Nations is moving as one and pulling together system-wide assets to respond to the pandemic and to accelerate SDG progress.

At the regional level, the Regional Collaborative Platform has been instrumental in reinforcing a culture of collaboration across the United Nations development system.

Issue-based coalitions are providing thought leadership, policy coherence and cross-UN support to UN country teams.

Ms. Armida Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of ESCAP and Ms. Kanni Wignaraja, Regional Director, UNDP, will outline the results achieved last year in greater detail. There is much we can be proud of.

Through the Regional Collaborative platforms, the UN development system supported countries in designing comprehensive social protection programmes.  It enabled country teams and governments to integrate gender equality and the protection of human rights in the finalization of Cooperation Frameworks, and supported countries efforts to reach a higher level of climate ambition in their Nationally Determined Contributions.

In a region where half the population has no social protection system to fall back on, with important setbacks on gender equality, and where the existence of entire nations is threatened by sea-level rise, these are significant achievements.

But there is also much more left to do if we want to reverse the trend in the region and get back on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030.

This year again, our Resident Coordinators and UN country teams will be tested to deliver scale, ambition, expertise and financing solutions.

Their teams will need to deliver seamlessly to support countries as they embark on a just transition in energy, food systems and digital connectivity, and support the SDG promise to leave no one behind.  They will need to do so as the socio-economic fallout of the Ukraine-Russia conflict bring a further strain on countries’ recovery prospects. 

In 2021, for the first time, more than half the 231 SDG indicators in the region have sufficient data to measure progress. It shows that the investments and efforts of countries, supported by the SDG Data and Statistics Working Group of the Regional Collaborative Platform, have started to bear fruit.

We are opening access to such expertise and knowledge assets through the Asia Pacific Knowledge Management Hub, with over 1,500 interactions a month.

We hope this gives Member States additional supportive evidence to orient their priorities on the 2030 Agenda

Excellencies,

The Regional Collaborative Platform started when the COVID-19 pandemic brought our world to a standstill.

But the pandemic also offered added impetus to unite our forces and assist you where you needed us the most.

This meeting is an important exercise of accountability and transparency.  It is an opportunity for our regional assets to hear from you how they can best serve your needs and priorities to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Together with my Co-Vice Chairs of the Regional Collaborative Platform, Ms. Alisjahbana and Ms. Wignaraja, we stand ready to support you in your efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

I thank you for the opportunity to discuss these issues with you today.