First meeting of the Preparatory Committee, Inter-Parliamentary Union

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be with you - welcome to Geneva, and thank you to the Inter-Parliamentary Union for your kind invitation.

Secretary-General Guterres sends his best regards: himself a former Member of Parliament, he is a strong believer in the promise and power of parliaments and parliamentarism.

The links between the IPU and the United Nations go back all the way to 1946, and they have only grown stronger since - from the landmark Universal Declaration on Democracy to our 2016 cooperation agreement.

Today, the breadth of our cooperation is remarkable: UNDP alone works with over 60 parliaments around the world to strengthen institutional capacities, enhance equal participation, and promote the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Our partnership is a win-win in the best sense of the word. And it’s never been more important than today:
̶ with global cooperation under strain and multilateralism under attack;
̶ with trust in institutions near record lows; and
̶ with time to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ticking away fast.

In everything we do, the work of parliamentarians - your work - is vital:
̶ You are the bridge between the local, national, and international.
̶ You have your finger on the pulse of people’s concerns and the ear of decision-makers in government.
̶ You can make or break the success of multilateral initiatives: put bluntly, our actions are meaningless if they are not followed through at the national level by parliaments through ratification, legislation, and budget allocation.
̶ And we have only recently seen how difficult it can become to get public buy-in for global initiatives without strong, sustained and meaningful parliamentary deliberations.

Much as we at the UN need parliaments, it is not however a one-way street.

The challenges we face are global in scope and demand long-term solutions. Short-term election cycles and national structures can at times constrain horizons - against which the UN can help to integrate actions globally, and, crucially, work for the long-term.

Succinctly put: you can help us “domesticate” the international agenda; and in turn, we can together “internationalize” the domestic agenda.

Take, for example, gender equality. It’s a global priority to achieve meaningful change, and to achieve it quickly - in structure, in culture, and in attitude. But it’s just as much a national priority. And we can start with ourselves. After all, only 24 per cent of all national parliamentarians are female.
Where do we go from here?

The Speakers’ Conferences are obviously well-established standout opportunities for dialogue and cooperation between parliaments and the UN at the highest level.

But in the meantime, we should not wait to seek closer collaboration through every avenue open to us:
̶ Through Member States, who could more systematically include legislators as members of national delegations to major UN meetings.
̶ Through UN country teams, who could build more direct relationships with national parliaments on the ground.
̶ And finally of course, by deepening and broadening our interaction between the UN system and the IPU.

I look forward to developing these ideas further in our discussion, and I’m particularly happy that we have high-level representatives from different international organizations with us. I am sure their views on specific issues will enrich our debate.

In closing, let me say this: the 2030 Agenda offers a huge potential for parliaments to assume a more substantial and meaningful role in a major exercise of global governance. We have no time to lose. And the closer we work together, the likelier we all are to succeed.

Thank you