2025 ECOSOC retreat, “From the Summit of the Future towards the 2025 global milestones: Turbocharging SDG achievement.”

Our gathering today reaffirms the strong collaboration between the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, just 3 days after our Joint Briefing this past Monday.

As emphasized during that briefing, collaboration between our two organs is vital in addressing the immense challenges confronting the world today. 

Consider that with only 5 years remaining to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, less than 20% percent of the targets are on track.

While moderate or minimal progress has been made on nearly half the targets, progress on over one-third of them has either stalled or regressed. 

Meanwhile, poverty, hunger, and inequality have worsened, leaving millions of people in an increasingly precarious state.

In these urgent circumstances, we must focus on critical priority areas. These include eradicating poverty, ensuring food security, expanding energy access, advancing digital transformation, and mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will also require substantial and sustained investment.

At the start of the seventy-ninth session, the General Assembly adopted the Pact for the Future. 

This Pact holds the transformative potential to truly catalyse progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals through multilateralism.

While it is not an end in itself, the Pact provides a framework   for reinvigorating  global efforts towards the achievement of the SDGs

To foster the implementation of the Pact and as part of my priorities for the 79th General Assembly Session I will facilitate the mainstreaming of the Pact’s commitments into existing intergovernmental processes as well as organize interact dialogues Member States. I will also hold a town hall meeting with civil society organizations.

It is important to note that the Pact underscores clear support for a Sustainable Development Goal Stimulus aimed at closing the financing gap – an ever-wideninggap which currently stands at approximately $4 trillion.

To close this gap, it is important that  donors  fulfil their commitments and that we encourage the private sector to invest in sustainable development. 

Moreover, I urge all delegations to use the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development to address the financing gap.  This will ultimately ensure that the needs of developing countries are better served.

Critical discussions on reforming the international financial architecture need to take place.
In this regard, I will convene one of my priority meetings in collaboration with the International Parliamentary Union focused on scaling up action for the Sustainable Development Goals which I hope will provide the opportunity to explore further areas of advancement on the following:

1. reform of the international financial architecture; 
2. improvements in international tax cooperation;
3. promoting international development assistance; and
4. domestic resource mobilisation.

It is with great pride that I join the President of the Economic and Social Council in advocating for the peace and development nexus. 

I am happy to share that we will convene a joint meeting on small arms and light weapons. This, as a natural follow up, to the Economic and Social Council’s Special Meeting –Haiti’s Children Cannot Wait,  in which I was pleased to participate.

Furthermore, during our joint briefing on Monday, the President of the Economic and Social Council and I emphasized the importance of collaboration and reaffirmed our mutual commitment to use every opportunity to work together on matters related to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is one such opportunity. 

In fact, it is important that this year, we  focus, amongst others, on Sustainable Development Goal 14. 

The Third United Nations Ocean Conference presents an opportunity to advance action on Goal 14: conserving and sustainably using the ocean, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.

As we discuss these critical priorities today, I thank the President of the Economic and Social Council once again for the opportunity to address this retreat. 

I look forward to hearing the outcomes of these deliberations and to working together to turbocharge progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

I thank you. 

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