Check Against Delivery
Thank you, co-chair,
Norway is pleased to partner and support the Mid-Term Review of the Samoa Pathway.
Norway salutes the SIDS-lead preparatory process, which we believe should form the basis for the work on the political declaration.
We welcome the Secretary General’s report, which cherishes the achievements made and identifies remaining challenges.
We congratulate the co-facilitators on their appointment and wish you success in your important work to help us deliver a declaration that is concise and action oriented.
Norway finds it important that the declaration adequately addresses all the main questions.
We must respond to what the General Assembly has decided about the declaration being concise and action oriented. How do we do this?
What should the zero draft be based on?
These are questions for the very capable co-chairs. Allow me to highlight a few more specific points from a Norwegian perspective.
First, let me reiterate that we would like to see an ambitious zero draft, based on SIDS priorities.
The declaration should reaffirm the SIDS particular vulnerabilities, recognize the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters, and strengthen our commitment to increased efforts to overcome these challenges and implement the Samoa Pathway.
As we all know, financing remains a weak point. We need more funds, and we need to increase the accessibility for SIDS.
We applaud the countries who manage to increase private investments and public-private partnerships.
The declaration should also acknowledge the innovative approach through for example blue bonds, green bonds and debt swaps.
At the same time, we should fully recognize the limitations most SIDS have when it comes to attracting private funds and mobilizing national resources.
The declaration should reflect that the required external factors for such financing are not there.
Therefore, financing from partner countries, directly or through international institutions, is pivotal.
The declaration could call for donors to increase funding contributions.
I wish to recall that Norway the last 10 years has spent 1 % of our gross national income on development assistance, and we will double our contribution to the Green Climate Fund to approximately 500 million USD over the next three years.
Linked to the question of financing, I would also like to stress the importance of alleviating negative effects of graduation.
Norway is consistently arguing that if hit by catastrophes, also graduated countries should be eligible for official development assistance when the economic base is more or less destroyed.
We would welcome text in the declaration calling for a mechanism for providing ODA in such cases for countries and territories that are most in need.
Speaking of catastrophes, the declaration should also reflect the special situation of the SIDS when it comes to disasters.
The declaration could call for an increase in our support to disaster risk reduction and adaptation.
Another element we would like to see in the declaration is monitoring and evaluation to keep track of the implementation of the Samoa Pathway. It should supplement the Sustainable Development Goals and their indicators.
The declaration could also call for the need to address the security implications of climate change, and express support for a new Special Representative for Climate and Security.
There are also many other aspects that should be reflected in the declaration: marine litter, youth unemployment, statistics, and gender equality, recognition of important processes and conferences etc.
Finally, Norway would like to stress the importance of genuine and durable partnerships, both between countries and within countries. I am confident there are good ways of reflecting this in the declaration.
I hope we can agree on a forward leaning declaration by the end of June, in order for it to be a reference during the HLPF and input to the High Level Meeting during UNGA.
Thank you, co-chair