Johnson Smith calls for more action on SDGs

Describing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the world’s blueprint for development and that there has been ‘mixed success’ in achieving them, Jamaica’s Foreign Minister, Kamina Johnson Smith, encouraged the United Nations (UN) member states to move beyond commitment.

Johnson Smith charged that member states must act as needed to achieve the goals and targets of the 2030 development agenda.

“The young people have signalled their impatience with our debates. We must not let them down with weak excuses. We must move beyond committing to actions,” she stated.

Johnson Smith was speaking Tuesday at the joint African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and European Union (EU) press conference on the ACP-EU Declaration on SDGs in the Margins of the UN General Assembly.

She encouraged “pragmatic partnership and urgent action to eliminate poverty and promote sustainable development through the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.”

Johnson Smith also noted that despite the shared goals, the resources and capacities remain unequal amongst countries.

At the same time, she pointed to the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States to natural disasters and the importance of re-energised partnership on efforts to achieve SDG 13 (Climate Action).

“While countries like ours in the Caribbean have been making steady progress in achieving some of the targets set, it is our unfortunate reality that accomplishments are either delayed or completely derailed by developments outside of our control - the devastating effects of climate change being the most prominent and persistent. Raising the bar towards the implementation of the SDGs and the commitments of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change has taken on a level of urgency for SIDS, many of which are ACP members,” she stated.

She also indicated that the commitment to poverty eradication, promotion and achievement of sustainable development, displayed by the ACP-EU grouping will “take on higher levels of significance in the post-Cotonou dispensation.”

The joint press conference preceded the high-level political forum on Sustainable Development.

The ACP and EU member states, totalling 107 countries, represent more than half of the UN’s membership of 193. 

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