Remarks by Sofya Simonyan, Deputy Permanent Representative of Armenia to UN at the UNGA73/Second Committee, Item 20: Sustainable Development

15 հոկտեմբերի, 2018

Mr. Chair,

Our delegation would like to thank you for your efforts in steering the deliberations of the Second Committee. We also thank the Secretary General for the reports presented under this agenda item and for the recommendations contained therein. We welcome the efforts to seek synergies and to align the work programs and priorities of the UN development system with the sustainable development goals, as well as the willingness to enhance coordination.

The UN and its development system have a key role to play in facilitating and accelerating opportunities and helping countries leap forward, beyond the traditional mainstream development cooperation. In doing so, forging effective partnerships and networks is and should be an important driver of impact, as we embark on the next stage of development cooperation, with a new generation of United Nations country teams.

In Armenia, we are gradually ripping the benefits of working with the United Nations and its country team, with the full use of the 2030Agenda as a comprehensive policy framework. Together with the UN Country team, we have been setting up a national platform to support the SDG acceleration, promote public sector innovation and leverage private capital through impact investment. The rapid process of nationalization of the SDGs in Armenia is being complemented by an ambitious reform agenda and the work of the national SDG Innovation Lab – a special form of partnership between the Government and the UN Country Team to accelerate SDGs with a focus on the strong impact of innovation.

Regional and international partnerships remain as important as ever, while the middle income countries require continued attention of the international financial institutions and of the UN development system. As a landlocked developing country, Armenia particularly emphasizes the importance of accessible and unimpeded transport and transit corridors and the inadmissibility of unilateral coercive measures and imposition of blockade and closed borders that add to the existing infrastructure deficit.

Mr. Chair,

Armenia’s standing as a middle-income country and a landlocked developing country, given also the vulnerabilities of its mountainous terrain and the ecosystems, requires prioritization of climate change as well as disaster risk reduction strategies. In defining our polices of climate change adaptation and mitigation, we have been guided by the ‘ecosystem approach’, in line with the principles of green economy, and with a special focus on the sectors of economy and public life that are most vulnerable to climate change. In doing so, we continue to work with our development partners in implementing programs for energy efficiency and climate smart technologies, towards a low-emission and climate-resilient pathway for sustainable development.

Last year, Armenia adopted its national Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, translating the commitments of the Sendai Framework and the relevant SDGs into tangible measures for sustainable, risk-informed, disaster resilient sectoral development. Armenia stands ready to offer a platform for regional dialogue and to contribute to exchange and cooperation towards better integration of disaster risk reduction into development policies. In June, Armenia hosted the Sub-Regional Platform for Central Asia and Caucasus for Disaster Risk Reduction, which tackled, among other priorities, the issues related to the economy of disasters and effective public-private partnerships for risk sensitive investments. Together with Colombia, Mongolia, Switzerland and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Armenia held a follow-up high-level interactive panel on the sidelines of the HLPF in July, which took stock of the outcomes of the regional platform meetings and identified the ways forward, towards sustainable and resilient societies.

Mr. Chair,

We understand that sustainable development is an evolving process and that considerable challenges still remain to achieve a better degree of effectiveness in development cooperation. This July, Armenia presented its first Voluntary National Review at the High-Level Forum for Sustainable Development, highlighting the added value of partnerships for innovation, creative education and social enterprise, as well as the synergies for inclusive and collaborative common action by the government, the civil society and the private sector, in advancing “smart development”. We are determined to continue to mainstream the SDGs in all domains of governance. With this in mind, we are looking forward to work hand in hand with all partners to achieve progress.

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