UNGA73/Second Committee General Debate Remarks by Sofya Simonyan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Armenia to UN

09 October, 2018

Mr. Chair,

We congratulate you and the distinguished members of the Bureau and we look forward to your leadership and guidance in advancing the agenda of the Committee and ensuring effective follow-up to the ongoing developmental processes.

Consistent monitoring and review of the conduct of developmental policies should provide tangible benchmarks for assessing due progress. Governments and institutions promoting inclusive, participatory policies for sustainable development are equipped to sustain peaceful societies where diversity is a source of strength. The efficiency of international development cooperation thus rests on considerations of the long-term sustainability aspect of inclusive development, whereby a mere generation of wealth without its equitable distribution is a primary source of injustice and inequalities.

The 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals set out a useful framework to evaluate past efforts and to understand the ways of improving the efficiency of development cooperation. Following our commitment to the process of nationalization of the SDGs, we have been setting up institutional frameworks to secure compatibility of Armenia’s national priorities and strategies with the sustainable development goals. This is complemented by ambitious reforms and the launch of a special platform of partnership between the Government and the UN Country Team to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs with a focus on the strong impact of innovation in advancing “smart development”.

Mr. Chair,

We are determined to mainstream the SDGs in all domains of governance, as duly reflected in the national strategies of Armenia defining the priorities for sustainable development. The Voluntary National Review process within the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development is instrumental in terms of sharing lessons learned, as well as challenges encountered. This year, we had an opportunity of presenting our first Voluntary National Review, at the HLPF in July, highlighting the role of partnerships for innovation, in support of socially and environmentally impactful projects. In addition to presenting a VNR, Armenia held a high-level panel on the sidelines of the High Level Political Forum, focusing on the role of innovation and social enterprise. The event was held as a follow-up to the Impact Investment for Development Summit held in Armenia and a stock-taking panel during the HLPF last year. One year on, Armenia has gone through a peaceful transformation and a change of government, launching comprehensive reform agenda with a strong focus on democratic governance.

The government of Armenia is fully committed to the creation and development of knowledge-based platforms that leverage impact, having embraced the innovation agenda as an important priority in our development cooperation. Today marks the opening of the works of the Economic Forum held on the sidelines of the 17th Summit of la Francophonie in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan. Tomorrow, the Forum will feature a keynote address on artificial intelligence by the first ever Innovation Champion of the UN Development Program, Sophia the Humanoid Robot.

We hope that the deliberations of this year’s session of the Committee will contribute to identifying new platforms and channels for partnerships and innovation in support of the SDGs. We look forward to engaging further on this matter, as we progress in our deliberations.

I thank you, Mr. Chair, and I assure you of our support to your work and that of the Bureau.

MFA RA
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