Malaysia CSO-SDG Forum 2023

Ladies and gentlemen

Today marks exactly two years since I landed in Malaysia for the first time, joining the UN family as the Resident Coordinator.

The past two years have meant a lot for me professionally and personally. Thank you for welcoming me and for shaping the remarkable accomplishments that fill me both with pride and gratitude.

It is both an honour and a privilege to stand before an audience of dear colleagues and friends. Special thanks to the CSO SDG Alliance for your trust in the UN as a partner in your successful journey.

Today’s gathering magnifies the profound impact of our collective commitment to sustainable development and the unwavering engagement of non-governmental actors in driving progress towards the SDGs.

We are meeting just four weeks before the SDG Summit, a critical milestone and center-stage event of the 78th UN General Assembly, with one main objective: putting the world back on track.

I was reviewing recent statements and calls by the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-general over the past few months. Off-track, lagging behind, slow progress, gains reversed, all describe the situation we are in today.

But probably the most troubling sentence I came across is that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is on its knees.

This universally shared vision of “the world we want” is now at risk.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The circumstances in which sustainable development efforts were and are still deployed are challenging.

The world is not perfect; it is made up of broken systems which have enhanced vulnerability rather than strengthened resilience. COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have pushed the reset button for many countries, with acute development losses, disruptions in global trade, and increased volatility food and energy prices.

From an SDG target lens, and we will hear more from my colleagues shortly, only around 15 targets our of roughly 140 targets for which data is available are on track globally.

For more than half the SDG targets, progress is insufficient.

For about one third, we see stagnation and on some critical ones, regression. This is happening on poverty alleviation, on achieving zero hunger and addressing the impacts of climate change.

The consequences of this are being felt and lived by billions of people around the globe.

We know for certain today that progress will require extraordinary efforts and investments, and that the international financial system is neither fair not fit for purpose. Dozens of countries are at risk of being left behind, torn between servicing their debt and meeting the basic services of their peoples.

While we appreciate that we live in an imperfect world with greater uncertainty, the past eight years were also marked by some progress, especially where bold policies were enacted and means of implementation mobilized.

The SDGs provided us not only with a roadmap for a sustainable future but also with a recipe on how to build dream teams that work and achieve together.

The leaders of 193 nations agreed that individuals, communities, governments and societies each has a unique and indispensable role in this journey.

We have seen how the SDGs have been embedded into the mainstream, into national development plans and monitoring frameworks. In Malaysia, the resounding voice of civil society has amplified the SDGs, rendering them accessible, actionable, and relevant to the daily lives of people across the globe.

We have witnessed how the 11th and 12th Malaysia plans identified and aligned national priorities with the SDGs. More recently, we have welcomed Malaysia’s new economic vision, detailed in Ekonomi Madani. While the document does not specifically refer to the SDGs, the principles and aspirations carry the SDGs’ echo and consolidate a transformative vision.

The Honourable Prime Minister says clearly that “We have to do things differently; we have to do difficult things.” That is the transformation at the core of 2030 Agenda.

Every element of “Raising the ceiling” or “Raising the floor” described in Ekonomi Madani can be linked to a 2030 agenda goal or target where Malaysia has the potential to do better.

While Malaysia has the ability to accelerate progress internally, it can also impact global outcomes. Raising national ambition and mobilizing political will to move the needle on key priorities will undeniably have spillover effects on countries in ASEAN, the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

To turbo charge implementation and rescue the SDGs globally, the Secretary-General has called on Member States to come to the Summit with commitments for national SDG transformation as part of a global Rescue Plan for People and Planet.

The SDG Summit is therefore about sharing what countries have implemented domestically, the challenges faced and the lessons that could save others time and effort.

We are delighted that Malaysia is gearing up to share its experience, achievements, challenges and ambitions with the world.

We commend the national SDG coordination architecture and the recently established SDG Centre as a step forward to reaffirming Malaysia’s profound recognition of the whole-of-government whole-of-society principles as powerful drivers of positive change.

As we embark on this morning’s session of shared insights, then two days for stocktaking, reflection, and concrete propositions, I congratulate the CSO SDG Alliance for leading this important exercise as a key component of the national SDGs story and way forward.

The journey will continue after the September Summit, with renewed resolve and opportunities to redress course. Let’s take it together and leverage this forum to strengthen CSOs’ value proposition and scale up partnerships and collaboration to make sustainable development a lived reality for all.

Thank you.