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“Unity and Solidarity:
Strengthening the multilateral system for enhanced support, cooperation,
follow-up and review”
Eight years ago, at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, our countries
achieved an important milestone in international cooperation. For the first
time, we reached an agreement on a specific set of 17 targets covering all
three dimensions of sustainable development. By doing so, we committed
ourselves to implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with a
view to fundamentally transforming our societies and economies and aiming at
greater sustainability, opportunities and well-being of future generations.
However, despite our efforts
and determination, we are a long way from achieving the targets that we have
set. Admittedly, the past 8 years have not been easy. We are still dealing
with the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, the recent and continuing wars,
internal conflicts, and the ensuing food insecurity. With all these, the
urgency of the task that lies ahead becomes painfully apparent.
Nevertheless, we are fortunate
in that today we have a more diverse arsenal of tools at our disposal to
implement the SDGs. Advanced technologies, digital transition, as well as an
increased understanding of the problems we are facing. These tools can help
us ensure that the policy strategies we put in place today, are both targeted
and effective.
In the process of implementing
the 2030 Agenda, it has become clear that we need, in parallel, to
efficiently tackle the inequalities and distrust embedded in the multilateral
system.
As such, we need to take steps
so that all regain confidence in the multilateral system; a task that it is
not easy but possible. A multilateral system that is grounded in
international law, including the principles of the UN Charter and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as this is the only guarantee for
peace and security but also for pursuing the implementation of Agenda 2030. A
successful implementation of multilateralism on such a large-scale requires
unity and common ownership and this is what we should be aiming for.
We all know that unwavering
unity, ambition and inclusive action is key to success. We have a choice.
Either we rise to the occasion, mend our differences and prove our commitment
to the future generations, or we stand on the side-lines and allow all that
we worked for, to fall apart. The next seven years will be a litmus test. Our
decisiveness will be on display, our actions judged. Let us take a page from
the history of the great leaders that have come before us and demonstrate
once more, what mankind is capable of when it works in unison.
(RM/MV/ECHR)
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