Chair,
We are at a critical juncture for UN80-reform, for the implementation of the Pact for the Future and the PBAR, and for the urgent need to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
These agendas converge on how we, collectively, can help societies address human needs for safe, dignified lives with aspirations and opportunities for the future.
Lessons from decades of the UN’s peacebuilding work are clear:
Inclusive and integrated approaches, rooted in fundamental human rights, lay the foundation for sustained peace and prosperity.
The challenges ahead are significant.
Global conflict levels are soaring, and employment opportunities are not adequate nor accessible to the 1 billion youth that will enter the workforce by 2030.
Chairs,
Let me emphasize two points,
First: we must prioritize and advance inclusive peacebuilding to enable job creation, public and private.
Armed conflict and violence impede equitable growth and bereave youth from opportunities.
Future generations deserve better.
We must invest in economic development and job creation and devote further efforts to include women and youth into the job market, and in peacebuilding – locally, nationally, regionally and internationally.
Only inclusive peacebuilding leads to durable peace.
Second: we must strengthen the UN system as an enabling platform to promote economic cooperation, job creation and prosperity in partnership with IFIs and private sector.
Together we must ensure that UN80 reforms concretely enable the UN to deliver better as one, both at country level and in its engagements with IFIs and other relevant private actors, as well as continuing to mobilize the PBF as a catalyst in strategic areas.
The private sector does not thrive in uncertainty. Businesses and investors need effective and robust institutions to thrive – and to create jobs.
Responsive and inclusive institutions foster job creation, and also trust and social cohesion, effectively contributing to peace.
Colleagues,
This annual meeting is an opportunity to recommit to the Pact for the Future, and especially to recognize peace as a precondition for sustainable development, economic growth and job creation.
Thank you.