H.E. Mr Gary Quinlan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia, on behalf of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, to the United Nations informal meeting on the preparation of the 2010 High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals, delivered on 7 June 2010.
(as delivered)
Co-facilitators,
I am honoured to speak today on behalf of Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
CANZ appreciates the efforts of our colleagues, Ambassadors Badji and Staur, in putting together this first draft of the outcome document and in taking into account the contributions made by member states during our consultations to date. We also appreciate the comments made today by developing countries including small island developing states (SIDS), which we will take into account.
As CANZ has stressed throughout this process, and would like to reiterate today, it is important that we aim for a concise, high-level outcome document. The document will provide an influential framework for the collaboration needed from all partners in the effort to achieve the MDGs by 2015.
The tone of the document needs to be forward-looking, ambitious and honest, demonstrating the power of the UN to bring member states together in a genuinely active partnership which can produce actual development results on the ground. A document that is overly prescriptive and detailed, on the other hand, will only serve to detract from the strong and unambiguous message needed to galvanize both the political leadership and the citizens of developed and developing countries towards our common goals.
Delegations are now faced with a choice between a clear, strategic outcome document that provides the basis for our leaders to re-commit to the MDGs, or one with so much careful, negotiated text that it fails to deliver the sharp and positive messages needed to mobilize support.
We remain concerned about the MDG by MDG structure, which may lead to a poorly prioritised shopping list of actions. This structure also under-states the value of integrated approaches, and fails to reflect the fundamental importance of national ownership and leadership of development efforts, in addition to the vital role of international cooperation.
Turning to substance, we emphasize the importance of fully reflecting the changing development landscape over the last 10 years – one that has seen an increasing array of new development partners.
CANZ will also want to devote particular attention to those MDGs that are most off-track, including, in particular, MDG5 on maternal health. We welcome the Secretary-General’s initiative to focus attention on women’s and children’s health in the lead-up to the MDGs Summit.
With respect to the follow-up section of the text (i.e. paras 51 to 53), we have a number of concerns and would appreciate clarification on how these various review and reporting processes are envisaged to work in practice.
On process, to assist all member states in assessing the language in the current draft, we think it would be helpful if the co-facilitators could provide sources, where language has been previously agreed.
We would also like to repeat our call for the co-facilitators to keep control of the pen in this negotiation process and assist us in reaching consensus around a strong outcome for our leaders in September.
CANZ countries will try to keep ourselves disciplined in this process. And we would encourage all member states to use discipline also when considering putting forward new text. We need a concise, accessible, strategic outcome document that will resonate in our capitals and in our communities.
We thank the co-facilitators for setting out a schedule of negotiations, but we are concerned that the proposed schedule has us continuing negotiations through the ECOSOC High Level Segment. Given that many of us will have ministers in town that week, and all of us will want to engage fully in the Development Cooperation Forum and Annual Ministerial Review, we ask that consideration be given to deferring the sessions scheduled for that week.
We look forward to moving quickly to “informal informals” where we can have an interactive dialogue among member states.
Finally, we wish to reiterate that CANZ will continue to give the MDGs process the very top priority in the lead-up to the September summit. We look forward to a collaborative and positive outcome to the negotiations.