Виступ делегації України на засіданні високого рівня ГА ООН до 25-ї річниці прийняття Програми дій Міжнародної конференції з народонаселення та розвитку

Mr Chair,

The Delegation of Ukraine aligns itself with the statement delivered by the Delegation of the European Union and would like to make a statement in its national capacity.

The Programme of Action adopted in Cairo twenty-five years ago clearly articulated the strong connections between population, poverty alleviation, sustained economic growth, and environmental sustainability.

The principles accepted in Cairo - the rights, health, and well-being of individuals – continue to be the key priorities for the Government of Ukraine. The national programmes have been aimed at achieving economic development and improving social services for the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action.

Mr Chair,

There is a strong relationship between the SDGs and the Cairo commitments.

To accelerate their implementation, the Government of Ukraine assessed the degree of incorporation of these commitments into existing strategic and program documents.

As a result of this work, we have the following: 17 goals and 86 national sustainable development goals are incorporated into the system from 145 strategic and program documents of the Government of Ukraine, which provides 1052 tasks and 3465 measures aimed at achieving the SDGs.

We are currently working on creating a monitoring system and a strong disaggregated data system, which are the foundational elements for the successful implementation of the 2030 agenda.

The Ukrainian Government's efforts were aimed to respond to the main challenges for achieving the SDGs in my country. These consequences are the illegal annexation of the Crimean Autonomous Republic, the aggression of the Russian Federation in the East of Ukraine and preventing losses of economic and human potential.

Ukraine is grateful for the assistance provided by UNFPA and donors to Ukrainians for the fulfilment of the UN Recovery and Peacebuilding Program aimed at improving the living conditions of the civilian population in the conflict-affected areas of Donbas due to the foreign aggression.

Mr Chair,

The analysis conducted in Ukraine on the achievement of Goal 8 "Decent work and economic growth" has shown that for our country, the development and self-realization of youth is one of the social values.

In today's world of information technology, when knowledge is rapidly growing and the achievements of the last decades in terms of accumulated knowledge far exceed the amount of knowledge accumulated over the past hundreds of years, the creativity and activity of young people as the bearers of such knowledge is an important and necessary element of sustainable development.

At the same time, for Ukraine, which has a significant human resource potential among the population aged 15-24 with a high level of education, the inadequate involvement of young people in social processes is typical.

In pursuit of the goal of improving the future, one of the main priorities of the state policy of Ukraine is to change the existing situation by creating conditions for activating the participation of young people in the socio-economic life of the state, developing its scientific and labor potential and self-realization, and ensuring decent employment.

Now, our trend is to reduce unemployment among young people aged 15-24. At the same time, despite the positive dynamics, we understand that these segments of the population are in the zone of the constant risk of political and social exclusion.

Ukraine, together with UNFPA, is also actively implementing projects for promoting gender equality, information and services to gender-based violence survivors, combating gender stereotypes in society as well as creating conditions in which every young person can fulfill the potential.

Thank you.