Deputy Secretary-General, at Millennium Goals Event, Says Agreed Agenda, Bolstered Efforts Essential to Ensure Sustainable Development for All
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Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York |
Deputy Secretary-General, at Millennium Goals Event, Says Agreed Agenda,
Bolstered Efforts Essential to Ensure Sustainable Development for All
Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s closing remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Millennium Development Goals Advocates event, in New York today:
This has been a very stimulating and inspiring discussion. There is no doubt that your work has been critical to intensifying efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As we enter this final stretch to 2015, we are also fully engaged in the next steps to a future sustainable development agenda.
In one year, we will hold a summit to launch a transformative development agenda for the post-2015 era. We must present to world leaders, and most importantly, to the world’s people, an agreed agenda that will make a difference in their lives and in our shared undertaking to achieve a sustainable future.
The new agenda must build on the success of the MDGs. The Goals helped us make a lot of progress in areas such as education, health and women’s rights. Of course, we have a long way to go in other areas. On sanitation, the most lagging of the MDG targets, we must urgently scale up our efforts. On behalf of the Secretary-General, I launched a Call to Action on Sanitation, and I followed up with a UN Campaign to End Open Defecation. We can and we must deal with the fact that 1 billion people lack adequate sanitation and toilets.
But, let’s be clear. Challenges to achieving a sustainable future are further compounded by ongoing and new and spreading crises. Sustainable development, in its three dimensions, is the only path to fully addressing the interwoven nature of our lives, economies and environment. We need integrated solutions.
There will be no peace without development, and no development without peace, and neither without human rights. The clock is ticking. We must work together in the days and months ahead to achieve the MDGs, so that we can fully embark on a sustainable development path.
I thank you for doing your part. With your continued efforts, we can truly build a better world for all. That is our opportunity and our obligation.
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For information media • not an official record