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Sixty-ninth Session Second Committee Dialogue with Regional Commissions

Wednesday, 05 November 2014
Location: 
New York

Mr. Chairman,

 

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the member countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and we would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for organizing this dialogue and giving us the opportunity to engage with UN Regional Commissions on the relevant issues of this Committee.

The support of Regional Commissions will be particularly important in the current processes associated with the establishment of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the III Conference on Financing for Development to take place in Addis Ababa in July 2015.

In that regard, we would like to recognize the hard work carried out by ECLAC and its Executive Secretary, Mrs. Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, during the previous phases of the establishment of the new Development Agenda and for advancing relevant regional issues, especially those related to inequality, gender, financing for development, as well as social and financial inclusion.

CELAC Member States also recognize the need to intensify coordination with Regional Commissions in order to properly address all sustainable development needs of developing countries. For this reason, we highlight the role of the UN Regional Commissions and other relevant regional entities, as important contributors of the UN System for the follow-up of the Post 2015 Development Agenda, including to the meetings of the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development both under the auspices of the General Assembly and ECOSOC by identifying synergies and cross-cutting needs and opportunities for a strong political leadership, guidance and recommendations to achieve sustainable development.

Financing for development is another central element where UN Regional Commissions will have a central role. There we will need to work towards the establishment of regional strategies for resource mobilization, the establishment of an enabling and conductive policy environment to address systemic issues, and partnerships with the private sector and civil society. They should support Member States in coordinating regional efforts related to the establishment of a truly global partnership for development, building upon Monterrey Consensus, the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development and the Rio+20 outcome, which integrates all development agenda issues that will be galvanized during the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. In that context, we recognize the importance of the CELAC preparatory meeting taking place in March 2015, in Santiago de Chile, with the intention to contribute to the regional dimension of the process.

We therefore encourage ECLAC to provide support in order to identify the priorities of the region in the preparation of the Conference. We also appreciate in that regard, all the technical support given to the Permanent Missions to the United Nations in New York.

It will be necessary to coordinate efforts between national Governments and the Regional Commissions to implement the internationally agreed development goals, including the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Therefore, we believe that Regional Commissions will play a central role in the following stages of the establishment and implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The Commissions’ expertise will be critical for fostering a regional dimension to the Development Agenda.

In the case of Latin-America and the Caribbean, this expertise will help integrate the regional perspective; support an integrated implementation of the three dimensions of the sustainable development that reflects the Latin-American and Caribbean concerns; take into account all development needs of Latin-American and Caribbean middle-income countries and Small Ilands Developing States; support the advancement of measurements to evaluate the progress on sustainable development that complement gross domestic product with the intention to better understand the multidimensional nature of poverty and support statistical capacity-building on developing countries; support the establishment of relevant means of implementation for each goal and across goals; work on the establishment of multi-stakeholder partnerships; strengthen south-south and triangular cooperation; support the establishment of national and regional accountability, data monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; and help build the new sustainable development paradigm.

 

Thank you.