NEW YORK: Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations Ambassador Munir Akram has stressed the need for a global compact for economic development to make social development inclusive and participatory.
Speaking during the general debate on social development, he said sustainability, development, security and respect for human rights reflected on “the quality of life” of communities and nations.
From this perspective, he added, the world is the habitat of un-equals, between the rich and the poor, the safe and the endangered, the free and the oppressed. One billion people, one in eight is poor. Almost 350 million are hungry and one third are threatened by the growing impacts of climate change.
The world has just lived through the Covid-19 pandemic, which killed 6.9 million people, froze economic life and disrupted supply chains. It also illustrated global inequity in the distribution of vaccines and the finance required for economic revival.
Mr Akram said climate change and proliferating conflicts have further exacerbated the food, fuel & finance challenges faced by the developing countries like Pakistan
“We appreciate the Secretary General’s proposal to convene a world social summit in 2025. The modalities, title, objectives, scope and possible outcome of the Summit should be inter-governmentally discussed and negotiated. It should focus on the implementation of the objectives and principles of the 1995 Copenhagen Summit.”
Their ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, and ensure inclusive social development, has been severely constrained by their limited fiscal space.
As the Secretary General has proposed it is vital to reform the international financial architecture. We must contain the forces of corporate greed, neo-nationalism, right-wing extremists, and a global oligarchy. Without such reforms genuine social development will be difficult to realize.
We must also implement the decisions and commitments of the SDG Summit, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda regarding debt, ODA redistribution of unused, SDRs, creation of new SDRs, and larger concessional lending by multilateral development banks.
Pakistan also fully endorses the UN Secretary General’s SDG Stimulus Package designed to rescue the developing countries in economic and financial distress.
The “future we want” for our current and future generations can only be realized by developing such a Compact for Development. The upcoming summit of the future accords us the opportunity to develop this global compact through an inter-governmentally negotiated process and make it part of the pact of the future.
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