UN Regional Economic Commissions Share Perspectives On SDGs Progress and Implementation

19 July 2017
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)

14 July New York, During a panel on SDGs "implementation at the regional and subregional levels" at the ongoing High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development,UN Regional Economic Commissions shared perspectives on informed by their institutional focus and priorities. Panelists included Shamshad Aktar, Executive Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); Alicia Barcena, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Mohamed Ali Alhakim, Executive Secretary, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA); Olga Algayerova, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Europe (ECE); and Aida Opoku-Mensah, Special Adviser to the Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Opening the discussion, Mr. Frederic Shava, President of Economic and Social Council, lauded the regional commissions for being at the forefront of helping Member States, as well as regional and subregional organizations, articulate and align their efforts. Their analytical work, capacity building and inclusive platforms were proving to be highly valuable.

Ms. Aktar said that in the Asia and Pacific region, although poverty rates had dropped in the region, 400 million people continued to suffer from income poverty. Trends towards gender equality were not as strong as desired due to low and declining women's participation in the labour market, which she described as a lost opportunity.

Ms. Barcena noted that progress on poverty reduction and inequality trends was threatened in Latin America and the Caribeean region, while there had been steady but uneven progress on ending hunger. She expressed worries about the lack of progress on gender equality, while also expressing concern over the threats to coastal areas.

Mr. Alhakim spoke about the political and humanitarian crises that had pushed countries in the Western Asia region to the breaking point. To move forward on the Sustainable Development Goals, he said, the region needed peace, political solutions and inclusive democratic structures.

Ms. Algayerova said that the SDGs, she said, represented an important opportunity for increased international cooperation.

For her part, Ms. Opoku-Mensah said that poverty reduction and eliminating extreme hunger were key policy challenges with implications for the realization of the other Goals. Discussions on Illicit Financial Flows must remain at the forefront, she urged, noting that African countries suffered from weakening public institutions and the depletion of resources. The lack of data was another critical challenge, as was the timeliness of the acquisition of any existing data.

Asked about the key drivers to achieving the objectives laid out in the 2030 Agenda, Mr. Alhakim stressed the need for a fundamental shift with regard to gender. Ms. Algayerova pointed out that the overall policy and regulatory frameworks should encourage behaviours that would support the achievement of the Goals, while also underscoring the roles of civil society and public-private partnerships. Ms. Opoku-Mensah stressed the need for evidence-based policy making and the management of resources, while Ms. Barcena highlighted the need to end the "culture of privilege" in Latin America and the Caribbean, which included tax evasion and corruption. For her part, Ms. Aktar underlined the importance of the global economy, while also noting that Asia had become the principle collaborator of South-South collaboration and the need for importance of new funding revenues.

On the means of implementation for the development agenda, Ms. Aktar noted the importance of statistics as a dimension of the 2030 Agenda and that tax, trade and investment all had a role to play. Ms. Barcena said that the Latin and Caribbean region was simply not growing fast enough and it continued to be plagued by tax evasion totaling some $340 million annually. Mr. Alhakim stressed the need for technology and innovation, particularly in the absence of strong financing for development while Ms. Algayerova pointed to the role of the private sector, as well as the need to strengthen international cooperation to mobilize investment through which effective change would take place.

For her part, Ms. Opoku-Mensah said that, in Africa, the lack of infrastructure was not only hurting development, but was also an impediment to the achievement of the Goals.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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