Keynote speech by the the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, Elena Panova, at the opening Session of the Arab Sustainable Development Week

Your Excellency, Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States,

Your Excellency, Ms. Hala El Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development of the Arab Republic of Egypt

Your Excellency, Mr. Christian Berger, Head of the EU Delegation to the Arab Republic of Egypt

Your Excellency, Ms. Ayat Suliman, World Bank Regional Director of Sustainable Development for MENA Region

Your Excellency, Ms. Rola Dashti, ESCWA’s Executive Secretary

Excellencies, dear colleagues, ladies, and gentlemen,

Allow me first to extend my gratitude to His Excellency, Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, for his kind invitation to participate in this important event.

I commend, in particular, the choice of the Sustainable Development Week’s theme “Together for a Sustainable Recovery”. This is highly relevant as we together continue to struggle with the impacts of COVID-19 even as we face other complex challenges.

Bringing together international, regional, and national partners to the League of Arab States is also a demonstration of multilateralism at work. Cooperation as a means to confront our mutual challenges is fundamental to the vision of the UN.

And before I focus on the main themes of the Sustainability Week, I would like to use the opportunity to appreciate the collaboration between the League of Arab States and UN aiming to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs in Egypt and in the region. The breadth and the depth of our cooperation is very encouraging and promising: it spreads from working together for the most vulnerable, such as refugees and migrants, to technical cooperation on sustainability challenges, such as women’s empowerment, water, urbanization, and trade.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,

In 2015, when the world rallied around 2030 Agenda for development, the ambition was great and hope for a better future while leaving no one behind, was at its highest, including in the Arab region.

More than six years into the 2030 Agenda, we all live in the shadow of uncertainty and exceptionally testing challenges for economies, for people and for the planet, compounded by the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, hard-won progress in advancing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, our common agenda, are under serious threat and recovery is slowing down significantly.

We are way behind in living up to our sustainable development agenda mantra: “leave no one behind”, be it countries or people.

The hopes that the 2030 Agenda brought for the future are being tested by deepening poverty and worsening inequality; unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines; climate commitments that fall short; ongoing conflict, division, and misinformation; and increasing digital divide.

The good news is that there is hope yet and we can, if there is will, address these challenges.  “Problems created by humanity can be solved by humanity”[1] as the UN Secretary General said. 

Last month, the UN Secretary General, addressing the UN General Assembly, urged the international community to “go into emergency mode and put out a 5-alarm fire”: by fighting the COVID-19 pandemic; reforming the global financial system to ensure a just recovery; tackling the climate crisis; putting humanity at the centre of the digital world and frontier technologies; and delivering sustainable peace.

The Secretary General’s report: Our Common Agenda can be a starting point to address these challenges, including as guidance to action anchored in solidarity and cooperation.

I would like this morning to focus especially on two aspects of this common agenda, both highly relevant to the collective “sustainable recovery” we aim for.

The first is the urgent need to protect our planet. Climate change remains at the top of the UN’s agenda. The Common Agenda lays out steps necessary to respond to this global emergency. This includes reducing emissions towards a 45 percent reduction by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050.

Necessary are also renewed commitments from countries to meet climate promises and increasing the ambition and urgency of actions. This includes stronger national climate plans and delivering on pledges. Tackling the climate emergency also requires follow through on promised financial and technical support from global institutions and wealthy countries.

Egypt will host the COP27 climate change summit this year. This represents an opportunity to strengthen its role as a global leader in climate action. The COP can also help boost priority climate issues, showcase globally Egypt’s flagship initiatives, and strengthen support for climate action at home.

UN agencies have already been partnering with Egypt to strengthen its climate resiliency. We look forward to enhancing these efforts this year and further supporting Egypt’s COP27 presidency to build momentum for critical global climate policies.

A second component of the joint recovery is ensuring sustainable financing. With this in mind, I very much look forward to the launch of the Financing Sustainable Development in Egypt report later today.

It is important to note that, globally, we have not been recovering together. We are seeing instead an uneven recovery. According to UN estimates, GDP per capita in Europe and North America will likely almost fully recover by 2023 while recovery will come later in other regions and for most middle-income countries.

A driver of this uneven recovery is access to finance. Differences in fiscal space at the outset of the pandemic led to gaps in national responses, with some countries constrained in their ability to finance stimulus and expand social protection.

Pandemic borrowing and higher debt service have further restricted the ability to finance recovery and invest in the SDGs.

The Common Agenda calls for both global and national level action.

Globally, meeting each partner’s ODA target of 0.7 percent of GNI would be an important contribution to financing the SDGs. Strengthening the global debt management architecture, including for middle-income countries and for engagement with private creditors, is another priority for the global agenda.

At the national level, many countries have been building Integrated National Financing Frameworks as an instrument to link financing to development strategies, strengthen national planning, and align investments with the SDGs.

The UN is proud to partner with the government of Egypt to help develop an Integrated National Financing Framework. This will produce a strategy for financing the SDGs and stress mobilizing and targeting expenditures for education, health, and social protection. It will also focus on ensuring gender-responsiveness in the budgeting process.

Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen,

The UN is committed to multilateralism and partnerships as essential tools for helping us confront our most pressing challenges.

As I noted at the beginning of my remarks, the theme for this week’s Arab Sustainable Development Week is very appropriate. As it is only through collective action and cooperation that we will recover sustainably, and with resilience to withstand the next shock or health crisis.

In conclusion, let me assure you that the United Nations System is ready to work ever closer with the League of Arab States and with the wide range of development partners, to unleash the full potential of this vital region, respond to the aspirations of its youth, and build a better future for all.

I thank you.

[1] Secretary-General's remarks to the General Assembly on his Priorities for 2022