Statement by the delegation of Ukraine at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development
Mr. President,
It is well known fact that nowadays Ukraine is struggling to build stability and security in the country due to the ongoing foreign aggression and temporary occupation of parts of its territory.
In such hard circumstances, we remain fully committed to the implementation of SDGs. We embarked on the process of localizing SDGs and tailoring them to the national context.
To this end, in partnership with the UN Office in Ukraine, 17 expert sub-groups have been set up to adapt global SDGs indicators to the national context. This process has been steered by the Inter-Ministerial Working Group established by the Government.
The national consultations have been also held involving about 500 participants representing government institutions, UN Agencies, academia and civil society.
As an outcome of this process the National Report entitled “Sustainable Development Goals: Ukraine” was presented last September. The document contains 86 national development targets and 172 indicators for SDGs implementation in Ukraine.
Mr. President,
Implementation of SDGs is one of the main priorities for Ukraine’s international cooperation. We keep on working to fulfill our commitments on SDGs related to improving the quality of education, promoting gender equality and ensuring environmental sustainability.
Ukraine also welcomes the UN initiatives aimed at halving global hunger. We, like nobody, know the price of this tragedy. In November we will mark the Day of Holodomor Victims, artificially organized mass killings in Ukraine by communist regime, which took lives of millions in my country.
Therefore, today when more than 850 million people in the world are starving Ukraine cannot stand apart from this problem and is ready to offer the world its help in addressing the issue of food security.
Mr. President,
Two years ago, we have reached an important benchmark - the completion of the UN Action Plan on Chornobyl and of the Decade of Recovery and Sustainable Development of Chornobyl-Affected Regions. However, there is a clear need for a continuous effort to keep the issue of post-Chornobyl recovery high on the inter-agency and international agendas.
Mr. President,
We are convinced that no country can achieve sustainable development without sustainable peace and security. We, Ukrainians, know at first-hand what a conflict means. We consider it necessary to put all the universal goals of sustainable development together with the goals aimed at bringing peaceful resolution to conflicts.
We believe that a constructive multi-stakeholder dialogue may facilitate the widest possible cooperation to ensure the appropriate consideration of the emerging sustainable development challenges as well as guarantee the most appropriate mutually beneficial way of addressing them.
I thank you.