Roundtable on “SDGs implementation among OIC Member States”, organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

[Remarks delivered by Mr. David Chikvaidze, UNOG]

Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a privilege to represent the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Michael Møller, who regrets that he could not join you today.

My congratulations on your anniversary.

The Director-General has asked me to deliver the following remarks on his behalf:

“The magnitude and complexity of today’s global and regional challenges are simply too big for any one country or organization to tackle alone. Great efforts have been made by the international community to collectively achieve the vision set forth by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

While the United Nations continues to be a convenor and to support its Member States in the implementation phase of the 2030 Agenda, national governments, in partnership with local and international actors, are in the lead to meet targets and drive the implementation of the SDGs.

Yet policymakers at the National levels face many challenges in the implementation process: be it in integrating the SDGs and their targets into national policies, in bridging the silos at national level, in formulating inclusive policies with the participation of various stakeholders or in building monitoring capacities, just to name a few challenges.

Adopting new collaborative approaches, breaking down silos and working from the bottom up will be crucial for the success of the 2030 Agenda. Let me stress the importance of bottom up activities, because ultimately the work carried out on the ground and close to the people in need will be decisive.

At your gathering today, you discussed in depth your organization’s role in aiding your Member States to realize the 2030 Agenda and strengthened your commitments to wellbeing and sustainable development for all.

The OIC-2025 Program of Action had already put forward some priorities similar to those embodied in the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, the complementarities between the OIC-2025 and the 2030 Agenda are self-evident. Both frameworks have similar strategic priorities such as regional socioeconomic cooperation and integration. Both share a vision towards inclusive economic growth that benefits everyone and both strive to effectively address poverty and marginalization.

And both provide their Member States with a blueprint to follow.

As an intergovernmental body of a regional nature, comprising almost 60 countries and a quarter of the world’s population, your organization plays a key role in coordinating the implementation and follow-up process of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Your wide reach across several continents can be directed towards facilitating the uptake of new policies, sharing best practices and expertise, follow-up, and review of the SDGs.

And your existing institutional set-up provides both a mechanism for capacity building, and a platform for sharing best practices and challenges. Not only among your Member States, but also with the wider international community.

The promising projects already being implemented in some of your Member States demonstrate that political will combined with the necessary funding and expertise can indeed lead to significant progress in economic, social and environmental development.

Over the years, the United Nations has worked together with the OIC in various places around the globe – our work focuses on similar objectives in many aspects, and we have been able to scale up progress together.

Our Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, regularly highlights the important role of regional and intergovernmental organizations in implementing and monitoring of the SDGs.

In practice this means working together, learning from each other’s experiences, sharing best practices, as well as failures, all of which is essential to creating development policies, programmes and projects that will continue to yield tangible results in order to not leave anyone behind.

The United Nations, UN Geneva and in particular our SDG Lab are at your disposal to exchange experiences and expertise and to support you and your Member States in the implementation of the SDGs.

I wish you every success in the future. Thank you.”

These were the words of the Director-General. Thank you very much.