Statement by Mr Mogens Lykketoft, President of the 70th session of the General Assembly, at Third Meeting of the High Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for post 2015 monitoring
14 January 2016
Distinguished co-chairs, Under-Secretary General Wu, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
It is my pleasure to join you at this third meeting of the High Level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for post 2015 monitoring.
The New Year ushers in the beginning of fifteen years of action to implement the 2030 Agenda.
As the saying goes, a good start is half the battle and over the next twelve months, governments and others must now begin responding to the new Agenda – preparing or adjusting national plans; identifying needs and working with partners to kick-start implementation.
One of the key drivers of this early implementation will be the robust and integrated follow-up and review framework which governments committed to last September.
Reviews will of course be voluntary in nature, but through the 2030 Agenda, all member states expressed their support for participatory, transparent and integrated review processes at the national, regional and global levels.
To support evidence-based decisions making; help measure progress; improve accountability and spur targeted responses to the challenges which member states face, those reviews must be based on quality data, information and statistics.
This, of course, is where this High Level Group can make a particularly positive contribution.
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Over the past fifteen years, as the Millennium Development Goals spurred action across the global south, there has been notable improvements in the production and use of data for development.
The development of new technologies has also led to remarkable progress in the volume, level of detail, and speed at which data on societies, the economy and the environment, becomes available.
Nevertheless, given their ambitious and comprehensive nature; monitoring the SDGs will bring more statistical challenges than ever.
These challenges relate among others to data availability and quality, data comparability, timeliness and granularity.
At present the data situation differs both across nations and goals and some of the monitoring needs are more difficult to cover than others.
In addition, a key feature of the new agenda, ‘leaving no-one behind’, requires that data be captured so as to determine how implementation affects everyone, particularly the most vulnerable.
To meet such formidable challenges, existing statistical gaps must be filled.
We must ensure that support is provided to strengthen the statistical capacity of national authorities, particularly in the poorest and more vulnerable countries.
We must also make full use of new technologies and innovations; and improve cooperation among all stakeholders including governments, regional and international organizations, civil society and the private sector.
On these and other issues, this High Level Group can provide the necessary strategic guidance and recommendations, highlight priority areas to target funding for capacity-building and identify ways to secure the necessary resources.
These are important and by no means easy tasks.
In April, I will organize a high level thematic debate on SDG implementation, during which I expect many of these issues to be discussed through a dedicated session on technology and data as means of implementation.
I look forward to your participation in that meeting and I wish you all productive discussions over the next two days.
Thank you.