Statement by

Maldives on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)

at the Second Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

 

17-20 February 2015

Co-Facilitators,

 

Maldives has the honour to speak on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, a coalition of Small Island and coastal communities. We would like to associate ourselves with the statement delivered by the distinguished Permanent Representative of South Africa on behalf of G77 and China.

 

At the outset, I would like to express our appreciation for the substantive Elements Paper, which we believe provides a good basis for fruitful and constructive discussions this week on the declaration. We understand that this Elements paper is not intended to be a zero-draft, but a guiding document.

 

The Post-2015 development agenda is a source of hope for the billions of people around the world, and we must not fail them. The task before us is enormous and highly ambitious. We do believe, therefore, that this declaration should be concise, visionary, and ambitious to make the message meaningful and impactful. However, we have difficulty grasping the choice of the term “simple”. We need this declaration to motivate action and stress the complexity of this ambitious agenda.  

 

Building on previous commitments will give this call for action more legitimacy as captured in internationally agreed documents, in particular the Rio conference, JPOI, BPoA, MSI, SAMOA Pathway, MDGs and Rio+20. In that sense, co-facilitators, under Section 1, where you use “the Tomorrow we want”, allow me to suggest using the title of the outcome document of Rio+20, The Future We Want.

 

The declaration needs to give a vision of a post-2015 development agenda that is people-centred, eradicates poverty, achieves environmental sustainability[1], and improves the quality of life for our Peoples and Nations.  

 

Regarding section 2, we are mostly content with the elements highlighted here. We would like to stress that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, as they are contained in the Report of the Open Working Group, provide a basis for our agenda. Furthermore, the declaration should articulate the political commitment to achieve these Goals within a 15-year period.

 

We note your reference to the Secretary General’s synthesis report. We would, however, caution the dilution of important topics in such a clustering attempt.

 

We welcome the integration of the recognition of the needs of countries in special situations. Small Island Developing States are recognised as a special case for development by the UN system, and their inherent vulnerabilities, have been well documented. The need for special, targeted assistance is well established. SIDS remain constrained in meeting their sustainable development targets in all three dimensions of sustainable development. The declaration that precedes the development agenda must therefore, include specific references to these undeniable facts, as well as the internationally agreed outcome documents of Conferences that focused on those countries.

 

Furthermore, to get to our visionary objective, the declaration will need to emphasize the need to build resilience, including to environmental shocks and degradation, and towards building the productivity and resilience of oceans and marine ecosystems

 

In addition, we strongly reiterate that our mission will fail if we do not address the threat of climate change. Climate change does undermine our efforts to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication. It is not just a challenge to our development, but a real threat. This declaration needs to stress this truth and call for ambitious, urgent and concrete actions.  

 

Co-Facilitators,

 

On section 3, we need to mobilize AND deliver adequate, sufficient and predictable means of implementation. The lesson of the MDGs, and in particular MDG 8, teach us the importance of adjusting to the local specificities so as to be more impactful in our endeavor to reach sustainable development agenda.

 

Regarding partnerships, we support a multi-partner approach. We stress that the Global partnership can only be realized through an inclusive dialogue anchored in national ownership and empowered through partnerships based upon mutual collaboration and ownership, trust, alignment, harmonization, respect, results orientation, accountability and transparency.

 

These guiding principles for effective partnerships also apply to the UN systems. We believe that the UN system and the international community need to support developing countries, in particular SIDS, in strengthening their national institutions so that their national institutions can become implementing agencies. This may also suggest that the UN system be periodically reviewed to determine whether it is fit-for-purpose. 

 

Co-facilitators,

 

On Section 4, this is where we see a critical role for the High Level Political Forum. The HLPF must monitor and review the targets and indicators periodically, to ensure the success of the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

We would prefer a stronger verb than “recognizing”, such as “affirm” with regard to the review and follow-up. The lessons from the MDGs should, again, guide us.

 

Regarding the commitment section, we would suggest moving it to the vision section, as we believe it provides the guiding principles or ingredients for an inclusive agenda. We would also suggest inserting inclusivity, transparency, mutual respect, and accountability as principles.

 

Finally, this section should reaffirm existing and past commitments. We are not starting anew, but we are consolidating and building on existing foundations.

 

On a wider note on process, we look forward to these discussions providing an output that is tangible and will kick-start our discussions as we move forward.

 

We look forward to providing specific suggestions as we move forward.

 

Thank you.

Co-Facilitators

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS). The group aligns itself with the statement delivered by the distinguished representative of South Africa on behalf of the group of 77 and China.

At the outset, I would like to convey our appreciation to the co-Chairs for the substantive Elements Paper, which we believe provides a sound basis for our discussions on a Zero Draft of the Outcome Document of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development.

Co-Facilitators

AOSIS recognises that overcoming persistent development challenges to achieve sustainable development includes the eradication of poverty and overcoming inequality, and addressing climate change requires the investment in an enhanced global partnership for development, including strengthening cooperation at national, regional and international levels.

We recognise  the critical importance of financing from all sources: domestic and international, public and private. As important, is the development and transfer of reliable, affordable, modern technology on mutually agreed terms, as well as capacity building, and enabling institutional and policy environments at all levels.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will continue to make use of a wide range of financing mechanisms available to implement our priorities. At the same time, we recognise that States must remain in the drivers seat, that development assistance must adhere to national priorities, ensuring that development is nationally owned and nationally driven. There is no one-size-fits-all formula to guarantee development effectiveness. Each country should be assessed on its specific situation and needs.

The fulfilment of all ODA commitments to developing countries is more critical than ever, especially for SIDS as they continue to require substantial amounts of external finance.

The report of the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underscores that the global nature of climate change calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and includes climate change as a cross-cutting issue across all the goals as well as in a dedicated SDG. SIDS remain some of the most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change.

To address climate change, special commitment needs to be given to SIDS efforts to implement with provision of appropriate financial resources, in line with existing international commitments, within the framework of UNFCCC, climate change adaptation and mitigation projects. (SAMOA Pathway, para 106c)

 

On Trade, we note the importance of ensuring an inclusive, rules-based, representative trade regime, which takes into consideration existing special and differential treatment provisions for SIDS, including the extension of trade preferences and more flexible rules of origin, and strengthening SIDS capacity for effective participation.  Any such regime must take into account the inherent vulnerabilities of SIDS that inhibit their effective participation and integration into the world markets.

We note the inclusion of technology, innovation and capacity building as a key driver towards poverty eradication. We strongly believe that continued investment in education and children, while encouraging the retention of all forms of knowledge within SIDS, as well as investing in SIDS-appropriate, reliable, affordable, modern and environmentally sound technologies are essential enablers and drivers for sustainable development.

Debt sustainability remains an issue of concern for SIDS. AOSIS welcomes consideration of traditional and innovative approaches to promote debt sustainability, including continued eligibility for concessionary financing from international financial institutions as well as strengthening domestic revenue mobilisation.

AOSIS notes with concern the inability of SIDS to effectively take part in international economic decision-making and norm setting and agree that this needs to be addressed. Further, the framework we develop now must include important regulatory measures to protect small economies from future financial crises.

While we note the importance of an effective monitoring, data and follow-up mechanism to ensure the continued delivery of the political commitments of the Addis Ababa outcome document, we note that there is a need for further discussion on how the review processes for this process could be more effectively linked with that of the post-2015 development agenda and other UN bodies and processes. We also note the need to improve the collection of SIDS data, including through electronic submission and regional agencies.

Co-Chairs,

The outcome document of the FfD must be closely related to the post-2015 development agenda by ensuring that the discussions take place within the context of the report of the OWG. The Addis Ababa conference should deliver concrete means of implementation targets of the 16 goals, as well as the 19 targets of goal 17 of the framework. It should also have clear and effective linkages to other processes, including those under the UNFCCC, and reaffirm the existing commitments in the Monterrey and Doha documents in order to ensure effective and coherent implementation.

SIDS remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities associated with their small size, remoteness from markets and inability to achieve markets of scale. For an ambitious and transformative agenda, the FfD outcome document should provide catered attention to the particular diversity and unique sustainable development challenges of SIDS.

Thank you