33rd Plenary Meeting of Economic and Social Council 2018 Session

Special meeting on “Towards sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies through participation of all”.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Economic and Social Council
• Video Length: 01:38:14
• Production Date: 23 May 2018
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: AMINA J. MOHAMMED; MARIE CHATARDOVÁ
• Subject Topical: 2030 AGENDA; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
• MAMS Id: 2160265
• Parent Id: 2159278

Description

Stakeholder Collaboration, Innovative Ways for Creating Inclusive Societies Key to Achieving 2030 Agenda, Economic and Social Council Hears.

Speakers called for stakeholder collaboration and innovative approaches to encouraging inclusion in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, as the Economic and Social Council held a special meeting on participation in development today.

“To build and maintain sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies, we need an interdisciplinary whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approach,” said Marie Chatardová (Czechia), President of the Economic and Social Council. The interconnected nature and scale of global challenges called for a paradigm shift in response, she added, noting that inclusivity lay at the heart of the 2030 Agenda.

Agreeing, Amina Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, emphasized that the international community must do more to ensure that women and girls were centrally involved in all efforts to realize the Sustainable Development Goals. Many times, it was the most vulnerable people that were excluded because of barriers in place, she noted, urging an enabling environment for participation.

Government representatives also added country perspectives on participation and sustainable development. Vladislav Smrz, Deputy Minister of Environment of Czechia, said that his Government had tried to make implementing the Goals as participatory as possible — a demanding process, but a worthwhile one that had helped spread the word about the 2030 Agenda.

Sergio Londoño Zurek, General Director of the Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia, said that his Government was examining the needs and challenges that the country faced in achieving sustainable development. In that context, it was necessary to address the structural causes of armed conflict and bridge socioeconomic gaps.

Panel discussions throughout the day focused on best practices and innovative policies to facilitate participation and inclusivity, also featuring dialogue with delegates and civil society.

During the first panel, titled “Global trends and emerging issues: Building sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies in a changing world,” Mahmoud Mohieldin of the World Bank Group emphasized the importance of information, noting that “data is the new oil.” Moreover, he called for leveraging and harnessing technology to build inclusivity, noting the impact seen in examples around the world.

However, lack of manpower was a challenge in that regard, noted Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. Only when national Governments gave space to different stakeholders was collaboration in terms of disaggregated data collection possible, she pointed out.

Similarly, local capacity-building was needed in order for technology to foster participation, said Aroon P. Manoharan of the University of Massachusetts in Boston during a second panel, titled “Innovative policy approaches and technologies to foster participation of all”. He also called for greater connectivity infrastructure and global cooperation, citing examples of best practices in the area of city “e-government.”

Also pointing out local examples, Francesco Tena of the Participatory Budgeting Project noted that participatory budgeting was the ideal vehicle to translate global goals to the local level and was the way to scale down the Sustainable Development Goals to make them relevant to the average person. It was important to train local actors so that they could institutionalize the process for themselves, he stressed.

A third panel, titled “Strengthening cooperation for sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies,” concluded the discussion. Nathalie Molina Niño, CEO of BRAVA Investments, said more investment was needed in businesses and solutions that benefited women, not just those with female founders. “Representation is important, but it’s not the only thing,” she emphasized, noting that her company chose sectors based on growth such as consumer products, health care and education sectors.

Liu Zhenmin, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and Ms. Chatardová made closing remarks.