Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) on occasion of this General Debate at the opening session of the Second Committee of the General Assembly. I would like first to congratulate you and the members of the Bureau for your election. We are sure that under your leadership we will complete our work successfully.

This new session of the Second Committee takes place under a complex international scenario. The world still faces difficulties related to the global economic and financial crisis and despite important advances, poverty, inequality as well as increasing economic, social and environmental challenges need to be addressed in order to help developing countries, including the most vulnerable countries, in particular Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States, Landlocked Developing Countries as well as the specific challenges of Middle-Income Countries, in achieving sustainable development. For that reason, CELAC countries strongly believe in the need to engage in effective and transparent intergovernmental negotiation processes during this session of the II Committee that allow us to achieving agreements on these relevant issues.

With just few months left before the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we stress the need to accelerate our efforts to properly address the pending agenda of MDGs and build on that experience the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We also stress the need to properly integrate the proposal of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals in the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The Open Working Group Report must be the basis for integrating SDGs in the new development agenda and it should not be re-opened nor even re-negotiated.

CELAC countries would like to reaffirm their commitment to engage in an active and constructive manner to the next phases of the elaboration of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In that sense, we highlight the importance of a strong and comprehensive intergovernmental effort to generate the necessary inputs to fulfill that objective. It is therefore critical for the process and subsequent implementation and monitoring that, among other efforts,  the HLPF, both under the auspices of the ECOSOC and the General Assembly, goes beyond the academic discussion of topics. The Forum should provide political recommendations and guidance for Member States and de UN System.

 

In that endeavor, while recognizing the importance of the regional dimension of sustainable development, we highlight the need to strengthen the cooperation between the HLPF, the United Nations regional commissions and other relevant regional entities, in order to contribute with the work of the Forum.

We have the opportunity of achieving a truly balanced, holistic and cross-sectoral integration at all levels for the follow up and implementation of major conferences and summits in the social, economic and environmental fields and the Post 2015 Development Agenda, including the set of sustainable development goals and targets agreed upon within the Open Working Group on SDGs.

We reaffirm the intergovernmental nature of the negotiations of the Post 2015 Development Agenda and at the same time we recognize the importance of the contribution of the major groups, social movements, and the civil society in this process through the sharing of their expectations, challenges, and successful experiences, engaging in consultations at national and international levels, and in accordance with the visions, strategies and national policies of development.

Financing for development is another central element in this path to implement the internationally agreed development goals, including the SDGs and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We express our strong interest on 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, that integrates all the development agenda issues to be galvanized through the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in July 2015. And in that context, we recognize the importance of the CELAC preparatory meeting to take place in March 2015, in Santiago de Chile, with the intention to contribute to the regional dimension of the process.

We further recognize the importance of having a strong, transparent, and comprehensive process which should start as soon as possible and the need for this process to be based on Monterrey and Doha in order to reinvigorate the financing for development process and support the implementation of the new development agenda.

While we recognize that an effective strategy of financing for sustainable development will require the mobilization and effective use of new and additional financial resources, public and private, domestic and international; we underscore the central role of ODA in achieving international agreed development goals. In the post-2015 development agenda we also see ODA as leveraging and sustaining financing for development in developing countries.

CELAC acknowledges the Presidency of Chile of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development and reiterates that such financing, which could make a contribution in assisting developing countries to mobilize additional resources for development, is based in a voluntary and complementary nature and should neither substitute nor negatively affect the level of traditional sources of development financing, including ODA.

CELAC holds the view that current and future international agreed development goals should be linked to a strengthened and genuine global partnership for development with effective means of implementation. The notion of means of implementation consists of, among others, a mix of financial resources, technology development and transfer, as well as capacity-building. These means of implementation must be supported by concrete actions from developed countries, including through quantitative time-bound financial targets besides those established for ODA, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the universal scope of the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

The international cooperation must take into account the different development stages, priorities, circumstances and capabilities of developing countries, as well as the multidimensional nature of all developing processes. This also will require, the establishment of an enabling international environment to support national efforts. We believe this is the best way to achieve the overarching international goal of poverty eradication.

Mr. Presdient,

It is time for the international community to realize that technology cooperation is the linchpin for promoting sustainable development in the post-2015 context and to start working on an effective mechanism to improve the flow of knowledge, capacities and resources to where they would make the difference.

 

CELAC believes that a Technology Facilitation Mechanism is essential for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Technology cooperation in support of sustainable development should match social inclusion, environmental protection and economic growth. The summary of the Structured Dialogues on Technology Facilitation Mechanism and the recommendations presented therein reflect existing points of consensus, allowing us to achieving concrete results on such a relevant issue.

 

We further recognize the importance of a timely, effective, comprehensive and durable solution to debt problems and underscore that significant progress has been made through debt relief programmes to poor countries, including through the highly indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative and the multilateral debt relief initiative (MDRI). However, we also recognize that more effective work needs to be done in order to address the highly speculative activities of the so-called “vulture funds”, which  pose a risk to all future debt restructuring processes, and to create, with the participation of all relevant stakeholders, a multilateral legal framework for the orderly and predictable restructuring of sovereign debt with a view, inter alia, to increasing the efficiency, stability, transparency and predictability of the international financial system. We therefore welcome the adoption of Resolution A/68/304 “Towards the establishment of a multilateral legal framework for sovereign debt restructuring processes”.

It is critical, as well, to enhance transparency, supervision, regulation and good governance of the international financial system, in order to assure international stability. This is particularly relevant on the performance, management and competition of risk-rating agencies and mechanisms. Effectiveness and competition among such agencies need to be improved and we need to develop alternative instruments and frameworks to measure the quality of credit, financial services and financial products, in order to diversify and expand the market and build national capacities.

Celac countries welcome the outcome of the Third International Conference of the Small Islands Developing Countries, held in September 1-4 and would like to congratulate the Government of Samoa for organizing the meeting and for adopting the innovative outcome document “Samoa Pathway”. We highlight the fact that many CELAC  Member States had an active participation during that Conference.

We would also like to give our active support to the preparatory processes of the Second International Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries and will continue undertaking efforts towards the establishment of a comprehensive Plan of Action for cooperation with Middle-Income Countries.

CELAC stresses that all activities undertaken under the global partnerships for sustainable development should fully respect the intergovernmental nature of the Organization, the UN Charter principles and UN programme priorities for the biennium as stated in the corresponding General Assembly resolution on the proposed programme budget outline. Moreover, partnerships activities must be based on a milestone principle for development assistance provision in total respect for national-set priorities and be Member State driven.

A responsible approach needs to be adopted on the question of partnerships involving the United Nations, particularly as regards to participation of the private sector, philanthropic entities, academia and civil society. For this purpose, it is necessary to take into consideration different elements such as transparency, coherence, ownership, intergovernmental oversight by the General Assembly or ECOSOC, impact, monitoring and accountability, among others.

While recognizing the contribution and complementarity of the private sector in financing for sustainable development, private engagement in partnerships should not replace the historical commitments of developed countries in providing official development assistance.

We express our support to all national and regional initiatives aimed at ending hunger, improve agriculture development, food security and nutrition in our region, as well as to ensure that every man, woman and child enjoy their Right to Adequate Food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and regional food systems are sustainable and resilient.

CELAC would like to congratulate the Secretary-General for organizing the Climate Summit 2014 that took place on September 23. We stress, after this Summit, a general call to support the multilateral formal negotiations, and to achieve concrete progress and commitments in Lima in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology transfer as essential components of a legally binding agreement in 2015 in Paris. It is also crucial to capitalize the Green Climate Fund and guarantee direct access of the world’s most vulnerable countries to its funds. We stress our strong support to the Government of Peru, that will chair this year the "Conference of the Parties on Climate Change" from 1-12 of December, 2014. The Group also reiterates its support for constructive discussions at the Social Pre-COP meeting to take place in Venezuela in November 4-7, 2014.

We also would lke to express our support to Ecuador for its proposal to host of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, to take place in 2016.

Mr. President,

To finalize, I would like to inform you that CELAC will intervene in the following agenda items:

• Item 16: Information and communication technologies for development
• Item 17: Macroenomic policy questions
• Item 19: Sustainable development
• Item 20: Implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II)
• Item 21: Globalization and interdependence
• Item 22: Group of countries in special situation

We will express the position of the Group during the consideration of those items.

You can count on the firm and active support of CELAC Member States in the common goal to guarantee the success of this Committee, as well as in strengthening the central role of the General Assembly in the global economic governance.

Thank you