Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by Gennady M. Gatilov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, at the High-Level Segment of 2014 ECOSOC Substantive Session

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are arriving at a pivotal moment for international development. The countdown to the MDGs implementation has begun. The international community is about to take stock and report on their deliverables. We shall also adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda to build upon and follow-up to the MDGs.

The MDGs have served as a true transformative factor. We witnessed visible social evolution and economic progress. Thanks to the MDGs a clear focus on fight against poverty and hunger was made. They established a solid ground for eradication of these long aged companions and intolerable challenges of civilization. Tangible changes occurred across different sectors and led to the empowerment of vulnerable populations, ease of social tensions, gains in economic productivity, introduction of programs to lessen environmental footprint.

We have a good reason to be proud of and confident in building a more prosperous and fair world. However, current social and economic threats and challenges and environmental risks demand our watchful attention and decisive actions. Improvements due to MDGs often lack qualitative characteristics, tend to be reversible and vary at regional and national levels. The global financial crisis, erosion of energy and food security, instability at major commodities markets and negative trends in environment and climate change emphasize the need for better institutions and mechanisms to promote international cooperation.

We strongly believe that the Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals at its core should be built upon the MDGs and be strictly based on the concept of sustainable development that stands for a balanced combination of economic, social and environmental factors. We welcome the globally established consensus that our future efforts should retain the focus on poverty eradication and lead to creation of basic conditions for a decent life and unleashing of a human potential.

Post-2015 Agenda should offer universal and comprehensive set of priorities that will cope with key problems and catalyze large-scale cross-sectoral reforms. It should result in strengthened national productive capacities, unleashed human potential, elimination of all forms of inequalities between different populations, countries and regions. Among key areas in this regard are macroeconomic stability, full employment, food security, energy, transport, health, education.

We call for expanded international cooperation on such pressing issues as combating non-communicable decreases and promotion of road safety that should find their proper place as self-standing indicators in the SDGs. The Russian side has also been tirelessly advocating the need to commit ourselves to counteract drugs as a part of our effort to improve human health and combat criminal activities.

We strongly oppose artificial politicization of the Post-2015 Agenda by including items that do not belong to the sustainable development concept. Such separate broad areas as peace-building, rule of law and human rights have their own well-established intergovernmental processes. These categories do not have universally agreed interpretation and clear evaluation criteria. Bringing them into the concept of sustainable development will inevitably duplicate the ongoing work in more appropriate formats and cause fierce political controversies.

Successful implementation of the Post-2015 will depend on the efficient and effective institutions and strong international partnerships for the sake of development. We take it with great satisfaction that the UN Economic and Social Council was reaffirmed as a principal body for review and coordination of developmental processes and that the High-Level Political Forum will serve in accordance with the UNGA resolutions 68/1 and 67/290 as a special platform under the ECOSOC aegis for this purpose.

Difference in scale, nature and underlying causes of most acute social and economic challenges in different geographical reasons requires to adapt the SDGs to certain specific conditions. In this regard we count on substantive contribution of the UN regional commissions to the work of the HLPF that was established by the Rio+20 Conference and their leading role in facilitating agreements to support intergovernmental processes in the field of sustainable development as it is spelled out in the Article 100 of the outcome document The Future We Want.

Russia aims at further strengthening and developing of all forms of international partnership for development. We call upon traditional donors to fully honor their ODA commitments and see it essential to encourage private sector investments, to widen the use of trade instruments and technology transfer and other means of large-scale assistance and solidarity with countries in special situations. We are convinced that the Post-2015 Agenda should properly address the needs of least developed countries, land-locked countries and small island states.

Russia has been continuously strengthening its position as a donor, increases the volume and enhances the forms of its financial aid provision to countries in need. Last year the Russian ODA surpassed 600 mln. USD. We had a radical overhaul of our national ODA strategy and relevant institutional structures.

Mr. Chairman,

My country is one of persistent champions of international development. We have made a significant substantial contribution into shaping the Post-2015 Agenda and the SDGs. We are ready for further close and constructive cooperation with Member States, the UN Secretariat, international organizations, non-governmental sector and other stakeholders in order to finalize and adopt at the 2015 summit a comprehensive, realistic and balanced strategy to eradicate poverty and ensure the path to sustainable development.