Qatar and Ireland chair int. governmental consultation session on political declaration of SDG Summit

HE the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al-Thani inaugurated the first governmental consultation session on preparing a draft political declaration for the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, to be held on September 18-19, prior to the opening of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
In her speech at the opening session, HE Sheikha Alya welcomed the attendees and thanked the UNGA President for entrusting a joint responsibility of leading the process of international governmental consultations, along with the Permanent Representative of Ireland, regarding the political declaration of the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, in line with Resolution 75/ 290b.
Her Excellency stressed the importance of holding the Sustainable Development Goals Summit in September 2023, noting that the summit represents the middle of the road towards the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, which is a valuable opportunity to assess the international community's performance and provide guidance for moving forward.
She pointed out that the summit will be an opportunity to call for taking measures to tackle shortcomings, as well as to offer recommendations that could stimulate rapid progress towards achieving sustainable development goals.
Her Excellency declared that there are great expectations regarding the political declaration that will be adopted by the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, given that since 2019, new challenges have emerged alongside the existing ones, making the situation more urgent than ever.
She stressed the importance of adopting the political declaration by consensus, to reflect the international community's consensus to commit to implementing the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.
In this regard, Her Excellency expressed the desire of the consultation process facilitators to gather preliminary opinions on the scope and content of the political declaration, guided by points aimed at helping to survey opinions, set priorities and the manner in which the consultation process is conducted.
Her Excellency affirmed keenness to carry on with consultations and to listen to member states' views.