Partnerships and solidarity are meaningful ways to face the present and the future together
Partnerships and solidarity are meaningful ways to face the present and the future together
Speech by Liberato Bautista
ECOSOC PARTNERSHIP FORUM 2024
30 January 2024 | ECOSOC Chamber | UN Headquarters | New York
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen:
- Madam ECOSOC President, Ambassador Paula Narvaez, thank you for having the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, also called CoNGO, address this 2024 ECOSOC Partnership Forum.
- This Forum’s focus is timely if urgent. Any discussion of eradicating poverty, eliminating hunger, acting on climate change, achieving peace and justice, and growing partnerships for the goals must involve collaboration and partnerships among all peoples, nations, and institutions. Nothing less will work if we are to make progress with Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.
- At the Conference of NGOs, consultation, collaboration, and cooperation undergird our advocacy for meaningful access to the physical premises of the UN and to the substantive promises of sustainable development, peace and security, human dignity, and human rights, which are the very pillars of the UN System.
- Over the years, I have advocated for NGOs and civil society to be assured of time and space to address UN bodies, especially ECOSOC. Today, Madam President, you made it possible in a more meaningful way by interspersing our interventions between member state and UN entity speakers, ensuring time no longer runs out on us. This is part of a true partnership—indeed, of multilateralism—that I hope grows and continues.
- I hope the strong statements in support of civil society delivered here by many will be reflected better in the ongoing deliberations leading to the Summit of the Future and in the text of the Pact for the Future.
- Excellencies and colleagues, even as we address the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs, we recognize the poly-crises and intersecting pandemics- not just health but social pandemics—we face today under conditions of uneven economic development. Partnerships and solidarity are meaningful ways to face the present and the future together. Let’s muster the courage and resources to make them real.
- I thank you for your kind attention.
