Виступ делегації України на засіданні високого рівня зі сталого розвитку

Statement by the delegation of Ukraine at the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development

(20 July 2016)

Mr. Chair,

Distinguished delegates,

Dear colleagues,

Ukraine wishes to fully align itself with this year’s defining pledge of the Forum that no one is left behind and shouldn’t be.

At the present High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, we raise a vital issue about where we stand in year one of the implementation of 2030 Agenda and what insights this pact for future generations brings us.

Due to the Sustainable Development Goals, we did not stop for a minute and by now, we have a unique opportunity to open new horizons, enhance international cooperation and to build a foundation for sustainable human development in terms of the 2030 Agenda. Sustainable development is a successful path that leads us on a right direction, inspires an uncompromising belief in the value of the human person, teaches understanding and unites us by a goal for progress.

Ukraine takes seriously its obligations under 2030 Agenda. We embarked on the process of localizing the SDGs and tailoring them to the national context. To this end, in partnership with the UN Office 17 expert sub-groups have been set up to adapt global SDGs indicators to the national circumstances. This process is steered by an inter-ministerial working group established by the Government of Ukraine. The nation-wide consultations were recently launched to raise awareness on the SDGs and define sustainable development priorities at the local level. It is supposed that these efforts will culminate in developing – by the end of 2016 – a National Report on Sustainable Development Goals which would offer a holistic and coherent framework for advancing and following up on SDGs in Ukraine.

Mr. Chair,

At the national level, we are implementing the ambitious reform projects in the field of social development. Internationally, we built a synergy of a long-term cooperation for the benefit of people and experience changing in mentioned areas.

17 ambitious and indivisible sustainable development goals towards inclusive, trustworthy, and prosperous society together with the strategy of sustainable development programme entitled “Ukraine - 2020” became a symbiosis of a national plan and the SDG’s amendments aiming to bring the Ukrainian society into new upgraded level by establishing a social cooperation between government, business and civil society, where each stakeholder has its own area of responsibility. European standards of living and decent place of Ukraine in the world are the prerequisites in this process.

For Ukraine, the elected democratic path is a driving force for active participation in changes concentrated on people’s wellbeing and peacekeeping. We are pretty much concerned that these aspects are related to each of us. The challenges facing us today can only be tackled through concerted efforts of international community, which is united by the common will to improve each country’s society with the help of the SDG’s.

Unfortunately, my country is going through one of the most difficult period of time in its modern history confronting Russian military aggression trying to break a democratic way chosen by a peaceful nation. We, Ukrainians, know at first-hand what a conflict means, its crucial consequences and life on the edge between ups and downs, happiness and sorrows. The problem of states facing armed conflicts stands in the heart for Ukraine. It is obvious that no country alone can achieve sustainable development without sustainable peace. My country considers it necessary to highlight the need to put all the universal goals of sustainable development like fighting hunger and climate change together with the goals aimed to bringing peaceful resolutions to the 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.