Concerted effort needed on UN development goals, says Higgins

A "concerted political commitment" is needed by world leaders to ensure promises made by the United Nations to tackle issues such as poverty, inequality and injustice are delivered on, President Michael D Higgins has said.

The President was speaking on Saturday at a session at the UN General Assembly in New York and will take part in a number of events at the UN and elsewhere in the city over the coming days.

The General Assembly saw 193 world leaders commit to 17 Sustainable Development Goals designed to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and combat climate change by 2030. The global goals replace the millennium development goals and Ireland, along with Kenya, was a co-facilitator of intergovernmental talks that led to the agreement.

The President addressed a session entitled Fostering Sustainable Economic Growth and Transformation and Promoting Sustainable Consumption and Production.

He said the agreement of the Sustainable Development Goals is a “moment of celebration” but warned that “concerted political commitment” is needed to fulfil the promises made by world leaders.

“I would submit that to achieve our objectives, we also need little less than a paradigm change in our assumptions,” Mr Higgins said.

“Over the period of the millennium development goals, since the year 2000 the number of people living in extreme poverty has been halved. However, this has largely been achieved because of good progress in a relatively small number of countries.”

Growing inequalities

He said the economic and financial crisis had led to a recognition of growing inequalities, both within countries and between countries.

Mr Higgins also said the “current dominant model of economic growth includes a growth based on speculation and debt, a growth without equality, and a growth without employment”.

“We know also, and this is recognised in the [Sustainable Development] Goals that development cannot be contemplated in isolation from issues such as climate change, gender equality and human rights.

“It will require delivery of new policy options in areas beyond development aid: areas such as access to land, technology transfer, energy policy, and financial and taxation regulation.”

The goals “go beyond aspiring to address poverty as a symptom, but go further to address the structural causes of inequality”, he added.

“In forging new models of development, it is essential that economic forces are harnessed to serve the requirements of social justice and human rights, rather than interests of justice being seen as residual to the demands of the market.

“Success will also depend on the ability of marginalised communities and civil society in the poorest countries to exert influence on policy making. Empowerment of those living in poverty is a critical part of the fight to end poverty.”

The state must remain or be restored as the “guarantor of the human rights of citizens”, Mr Higgins said.

“We must recognise that unless states and democratic systems of government can acquire, retain, or recover the capacity to harness development and growth for the benefit of their citizens, the legitimacy of democracy itself will come into question.”

The President has on a number of occasions over the past few days compared 2015 to 1945 and this morning said: “At both moments in history, the leaders of the world came together to forge new systems and institutions to meet the needs of their time.

“If this generation is to meet its historical responsibilities, we must ensure that the agreement being signed this weekend signals the beginning of a sustained process of institution building rather than being merely a momentary flicker of hope.”