H.E SAVARIN CALLS FOR ACCELERATED IMPLEMENTATION OF 2030 AGENDA
President of Dominica, His Excellency Charles Savarin says the theme for this year’s United Nations General Assembly is in keeping with the goal of implementing the 2030 agenda.
The 78th Session of the United National General Assembly, which ran from September 18 to 21, was held under the theme “Rebuilding Trust And Re-Igniting Global Solidarity: Accelerating Action On The 2030 Agenda And Its Sustainable Development Goals Towards Peace, Prosperity, Progress And Sustainability For All.”
President Savarin says that all countries should be taking steps at all levels to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 agenda.
“This year’s theme for the General Assembly is in keeping with the strides we should all be making at the international and multilateral levels to achieve an accelerated and progressive implementation of the 2030 agenda. The challenges faced by SIDS in achieving this objective are considerable. Typically, the narrow fiscal space and the increase in economic and environmental losses attributable to changes in weather patterns and other climate related events, have served to increase our vulnerabilities exponentially,” President Savarin stated.
He says Dominica welcomes the High Level Dialogue and the Climate Ambition Summit and other initiatives necessary to initiate change.
“The evidence suggests that we live in an imperfect world by virtue of our inherent geophysical and socio-economic characteristics, and some countries, Dominica included, will always be disproportionately disadvantaged by the actions of others. In this regard, we welcome the high level dialogue on ‘Financing for Development’ and the call by the Secretary General for a Climate Ambition Summit. We are optimistic, that this forum will be a practical demonstration of a commitment to securing the necessary funding to initiate transformative change,” he explained.
President Savarin added that taking advantage of information communication technologies is important for the realization of the 2030 agenda.
“The key elements for accelerating realization of the 2030 agenda include the harnessing of Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s) and the role which science will play in ensuring effective decision making. ICTs can provide a platform to get more done within a shorter period of time and further, create an impetus to bridge the generational gap, allowing for innovation and creativity to emerge to the fore,” he noted.
He added that the youth must be engaged if they are to be successful in implementing the 2030 agenda.
“Our youth must be continually engaged, thereby engendering a sense of trust in their leaders and institutions. This is critical to ensuring that the significant gaps which currently exist between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ are addressed and drastically reduced. Access to quality education, clean water, food security, proper health care, decent work, proper housing and economic growth taken altogether, must be the foundation upon which we continue to ensure that no one is left behind,” President Savarin added.