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.
Excellencies,
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:
- reform of the international financial architecture;
- improvements in international tax cooperation;
- promoting international development assistance; and
- domestic resource mobilisation.
Excellencies,
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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Strengthening the Office of the President of the General Assembly at the Ad Hoc Working Group on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly on 23 January:
It is my pleasure to address the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly.
Given my role as President and my experience over the past five months, I consider this process of the utmost importance.
As the most representative body of the United Nations, the improved functioning of the General Assembly is critical for the Organization as a whole.
And for that reason, I consider the work of this Group to be critical as well.
Of the four clusters of the revitalization agenda, General Assembly resolution 77/335 covered the role and authority of the General Assembly as well as its working methods and I commend my predecessor for having delivered on many of the important mandates contained therein.
Today, however, our focus is on strengthening the accountability, transparency and institutional memory of the Office of the President of the General Assembly.
As we tackle today’s global challenges, it is vital that the United Nations remains a beacon of credibility, efficiency and responsibility.
The General Assembly plays a central role in this regard, and the Office of the President must reflect the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.
The process of General Assembly revitalization offers a valuable opportunity for the Office to become stronger, more effective and more sustainable.
I hope today’s discussions will lead to fruitful results, with the negotiation of a draft resolution during this session.
The last resolution on General Assembly revitalization, adopted in 2023, strengthened the Office of the President in a tangible and practical manner, including through the provision of additional human and financial resources.
The three new positions provided by the General Assembly through the regular budget have allowed for the recruitment of much needed expertise.
Moreover, the funding for meeting services, such as webcast and teleprompter support, are now covered by the regular budget, freeing the resources in the Trust Fund for other uses.
Thanks to the support of Member States, the continuity and sustainability of this Office have been enhanced, and I hope that support continues.
Over the years, the Ad Hoc Working Group has made many recommendations related to the accountability, transparency and institutional memory of the Office of the President.
I would like to highlight some of the ways we have responded to these requests in establishing the Office at this session.
Prior to taking Office, I shared my vision statement and participated in an interactive dialogue with Member states. As you heard in my presentation on priorities last week, that vision is now being executed in a bold and forward-thinking manner.
My vision integrates key elements of the revitalization agenda, which have been encouraged by the Assembly. This includes the promotion of gender equality, interaction with civil society organizations, and the continuation of informal discussions with Permanent Representatives on issues of relevance to us all.
In this session, these dialogues will be known as “Palaver Tree” Dialogues drawing on the long-standing African tradition of gathering under a tree (in the late hours of the day) to discuss the issues affecting the community with a view to resolving them in an inclusive and open manner.
Also in this session, I have continued the practice -encouraged by the Assembly - of conducting regular meetings with the Presidents of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council as well as the Secretary-General, thereby enhancing coordination among principal organs of the United Nations.
As you know, the Assembly has called for gender parity in the President’s appointments. In my own Cabinet, women represent more than 50 per cent of my team, including in leadership positions. And we are working to ensure that there is gender balance in our selection of panelists and speakers at the many mandated high-level meetings that we will convene this session.
Geographical balance in the Office is also important. All five regional groups are well-represented among the Office staff. To ensure transparency in the staffing of the Office, the staff profile is published on the PGA website.
Institutional memory has been strengthened. Almost half of my team members were maintained from the previous session’s Office of the President and measures have been put in place to reinforce information and knowledge management. We continue to benefit from the induction programme coordinated by DGACM which takes place at the beginning of each session. All members of the team also undertake training at the start of the session, including on ethics and gender.
In response to the request to emphasize the multilingual nature of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, I am proud to report that multilingualism is being actively pursued. It is in fact, at the core of my priorities.
For that reason, I have established a Task Force on Multilingualism in the Office and I will be working with Under-Secretary-General Abelian, as Secretariat-wide Coordinator for Multilingualism. I have launched an Action Plan to identify concrete steps to improve multilingualism in our work. As I mentioned in my “Priorities Speech” last week, I strongly encourage Member States to support the work of this Task Force, including financially. Further details will be announced in early February.
I am proud of these achievements and hope to see similar efforts in future Offices of the President.
Distinguished delegates,
Finally, let me touch upon a few practical challenges faced by our Office, for your consideration.
The biggest challenge is, as always, the question of resources, financial resources.
The Office’s few regular budget posts available are the sole source of stability and continuity for the work of the President of the General Assembly but – as you know – they are insufficient, and time bound.
We therefore have a critical dependency on gratis personnel and extrabudgetary resources which are inherently discretionary and not guaranteed.
The lack of guaranteed funding at the start of each session, thus, is a very practical problem often undermining the critical activities of the Office during one of the busiest times in the year and compromising the continuity of mandates of the Assembly, most of which straddle various sessions.
With the High-Level segment approaching and the urgency for staffing and recruitment at its peak, it is essential that funds are available as soon as feasible in the Trust Fund at the start of the session.
Equally challenging is the turnover of staff.
While the sole source of stability, the few regular budget posts available to the Office expire every session leading to a change in the composition of its members.
This poses serious difficulties in terms of continuity and consistency of the work affecting not only the institutional memory but also hindering the overall effectiveness of the work of the Office.
I appeal to Member States to further support the strengthening of the continuity and stability of the work of the Office by considering changes to the resources available for staffing.
Also challenging is the question of office space.
The physical division of the Office between the second and third floors of the Conference Building poses logistical challenges as well as obstacles to the flow of information and interaction among the members of the team.
While this might seem a minor aspect of our work, consolidating the Office into a single location would significantly improve communication and consultation between the President, the Chef de Cabinet and the wider team, thereby increasing overall efficiency.
This would also be consistent with the greater importance that the Office plays in the context of ever-increasing levels of activity and a renewed focus on the Assembly’s potential for the maintenance of international peace and security.
In sum, to continue doing more and doing it well, we need predictable resources, stable resources and an adequate space.
Our Office is ready to elaborate further on the examples of the challenges we face as the Assembly continues to task this Office with an increasing number of mandates for meetings and processes.
In closing, as we work together to address the complex issues facing the global community, we must commit to taking concrete measures to build a more accountable, transparent and resilient institution; one that is equipped not only to address the challenges of today but also to work towards a better tomorrow.