His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations has said that “a renewed global partnership, a more action-oriented update of MDG8 is an imperative”, for the success of Sustainable Development Goals. He was commenting on the document containing preliminary focus areas for the SDGs at the 9th Session of the Open Working Group. Maldives stated that the SDG framework should be interdependent, cohesive and aspirational in nature and must include a clear means of implementation.
Outlining the Maldives' general position on the way forward, Ambassador Sareer said that the formulation of the SDGs should be guided by the Rio+20 Outcome document, the lessons learnt from the Millennium Development Goals and must avoid isolated sectoral approaches. He recognized poverty eradication as an underlying goal of the SDGs and said that other development gains are linked with this objective, especially food security, nutrition, health, sanitation, water, energy, education and employment.
Ambassador Sareer also highlighted several cross-cutting topics to be urgently addressed throughout the framework. Every SDG needs to be climate proof and must take into account the special situation of Small Island Developing States, he said. Ambassador Sareer also cautioned that environmentally or socially unsustainable short-term gains in any SDG should be avoided, especially that growth needs to be green, inclusive and that industrialization should only take place within planetary boundaries. He also emphasized the importance of rule of law, good governance, capable institutions and inclusive decision making at the national and international level as enablers for sustainable development.
During his statement, Ambassador Sareer reiterated Maldives' previous calls for stand-alone goals on gender equality and women empowerment as well as on Oceans and Marine Resources.
