9 May 2017, New York; Speaking at the 2017 Integration Segment hosted by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) H.E. Mr. Ahmed Sareer, Ambassador of Maldives, shared specific issues of Maldives and SIDS on the topic of moving forward to integrate poverty eradication into policy, with panelists providing examples fromnational experience.
Serving as a panelist, Ambassador Sareer highlighted numerous successes of Maldives and other SIDS in addressing poverty eradication in a way that recognizes its many interlinkages across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One such example includes the SIDS Partnership Framework, an initiative SIDS are using to engage with governments, as well as private and civil sectors. Maldives has also made significant national efforts to map the SDGs against existing strategies and is taking specific action in a number of areas within the poverty nexus, including mainstreaming climate change mitigation efforts by expanding renewable energy access, and education and training support, particularly for the youth population.
Ambassador Sareer also shared information on the national dialogue process that Maldives began in 2016 towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), involving relevant sectors of the government and development partners.
In terms of challenges moving forward for SIDS, the Maldives highlighted the "need for increased human resource and technical capacities, particularly around data collection and analysis." This point on the importance of support for data capacity was echoed by many other speakers, reiterating the continued need for all countries to improve their data management around both around informing the creation of new policies, and tracking progress of implementation.
Other distinguished Ambassadors and representatives on the panel spoke to their national and regional initiatives and policies to address the 2030 Agenda and poverty eradication, delving into specific examples of social investments and services that countries are considering social protections such as basic income, as well as national planning efforts to implement the sustainable development goals. There was valuable attention placed on balancing recognition of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of poverty, and Ambassador Sareer ended by emphasizing the relationship between climate change and poverty.
