Statement by Tapan Mishra, UN Resident Coordinator in Mongolia at the High-Level National Forum on Sustainable Development

Your Excellency Mr. Khurelbaatar Chimed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Development of Mongolia 

Distinguished Partners,

Distinguished Guests,

Dear UN colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for me to speak and welcome you all at the National Forum on Sustainable Development that we are co-organizing with the Ministry of Economy and Development of Mongolia under the auspices of the President of Mongolia. I would like to thank the Office of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia for providing necessary support in organizing the event today.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to our speakers and participants for joining our discussion today on the Accelerators for SDGs achievement in Mongolia.  

Eight years ago, the global leaders committed to a global agenda for sustainable development and agreed to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The President of Mongolia joined for this commitment in 2015. The 2030 Agenda is much more than a framework; it is a concrete plan for policies that can improve lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. With almost two years into the COVID-19 crisis facing challenges like never before, as well as geo-political conflict resulted in war in Ukraine, the triple crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are having a devastating and lasting impacts in SDGs implementation.

Human rights are the center of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda, as they are based on the universal and indivisible principles of equality, freedom, and justice for all. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which will mark its 75th anniversary in 2023, is the global blueprint for human rights and a bedrock of the SDGs. As we commemorate this milestone, we must reaffirm our commitment to uphold human rights and leave no one behind in our pursuit of sustainable development.

Early this year, the Sustainable Development Goals report 2023 was prepared by UNDESA, in collaboration with the UN Statistical System; it provides a comprehensive midpoint assessment of the 2030 Agenda using the latest available data and estimates. According to the report, more than 50 per cent of implementation of targets of the SDGs are weak and insufficient and an additional 30 per cent has stalled or gone into reverse.

These include key targets on poverty, hunger and climate. Many countries face a huge financing gap and are buried under a mountain of debt. One in three countries is at high risk of being unable to service their debt. Developed countries adopted expansionary fiscal and monetary policies during the pandemic and have largely returned to pre-pandemic growth paths. But developing countries were unable to do so, in part because of the risk that their currencies would collapse.

The report further warns that while lack of progress is universal, it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable who are experiencing the worst effects of these unprecedented global challenges. It also points out areas that need urgent action to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030.

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mongolia is one of the few countries who formulated its ambitious and comprehensive long-term development policy – Vision-2050. The 9 pillars articulated in the Vision-2050 underpinned broader development aspects which are perfectly aligned with the SDGs. In order to effectively achieve objectives of the Vision-2050, Mongolia needs to successfully meet the SDGs targets by 2030. In another word, achieving SDGs by 2030 will be the mid-way accomplishment for Vision-2050.

Like in many other countries in the world, Mongolia has faced triple external shocks such as Covid-19 pandemic; geopolitical conflicts (Ukraine – Russia war) and China border closure almost for two years, which have continuously posed substantial challenges to achieving the SDGs. It is noteworthy that Mongolia has well managed addressing some of these challenges since 2022.

This year’s Forum is at the midpoint of the 2030 Agenda.

Mongolia prepared its second Voluntary National Review (VNR) 2023 and successfully presented at the High-level Political Forum in July in New York. The VNR analyzed the progress, challenges and opportunities for effective implementation of SDGs in Mongolia. At the current rate of progress, Mongolia’s performance for achieving poverty target is regressing and disparities in various dimensions are widening. Mongolia faces multiple vulnerabilities in its development. Mongolia is severely affected by adverse climate change impacts and natural disasters. While economic growth and export has shown a sign of recovery since the pandemic, export dependency on mineral products with limited trading partners has continued, calling for an urgent need of economic diversification to make its economy sustainable and resilient. SDGs are all about development and a sustainable future for all. Mongolia needs to have thorough integrated policy interventions and action to address these development challenges.

SDGs targets and the means for their implementation therefore need to be established at the country level.

Mongolia started the preparation of nationalized SDGs indicators framework since 2019 and several revisions made in the draft since then. The UN has been constantly advocating to adopt the framework through various platforms such as NCSD and MCSD during the almost last 4 years. Since the establishment of MED in early 2022, a notable progress was made in reflecting the nationalized framework for the SDGs progress analysis in the second VNR 2023 as well as mainstreaming the nationalized indicators and targets into the policies and programmes.

I am particularly pleased that the Government of Mongolia recently reflected, 146 nationalized SDGs indicators and targets, out of 196, into the draft 10-years targeted programs. The MED is aiming for the draft programmes soon to be submitted to Parliament and I am look forward towards the Parliament’s support in reviewing and adopting them during the upcoming sessions. Anchoring the nationalized SDG targets and indicators in the national development policies and programmes, supported by adequate financial resources and monitoring mechanism, is crucial for achieving the 2030 Agenda.

The UN will continue working with the Government organizations for further mainstreaming the remaining indicators and targets. We are also keen to continue cooperating with the NSO in improving data availability for measuring SDGs indicators.

Among the first steps to be undertaken to kick off the implementation of the SDGs is configuring institutional arrangements for promoting, coordinating and overseeing implementation and mobilizing various non-state actors. Effective, accountable and inclusive institutions are essential to achieving the SDGs.  We need to break out of institutional and policy silos to fully realize the benefits of synergistic actions and effectively manage unavoidable trade-offs across SDGs.

The Parliament of Mongolia established the MCSD in March 2022 to serve as an effective coordination mechanism to oversight the SDGs implementation, including policy planning, financing, and monitoring, and to ensure mobilization of all available resources to accelerate the SDGs achievement in Mongolia. The platform has not been fully operationalized yet since its establishment and strong leadership and commitments needed to strengthen capacity and credibility of the platform.

The MED holds a key role in leading and coordinating the Government’s efforts for localizing SDGs in Mongolia. The National Committee for Sustainable Development (NCSD) chaired by the Prime Minister was abolished at the end of 2022 and the MED took over the role of the NCSD since its establishment. We encourage MED to re-activate the function of NCSD by creating a platform with the involvement of various stakeholders.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As many other countries are facing common challenges in their development and achievement of SDGs, the United Nations is calling an SDGs Summit to be held in September 2023 in New York, which provides a unique opportunity to change course and secure the breakthroughs and momentum needed to drive progress between now and 2030. The member states are reassessing their SDGs progress, and their leaders will re-commit to the SDGs acceleration in 10 days’ time in New York at the SDGs Summit. 

The MED was leading Mongolia’s preparation for the SDGs Summit identifying national accelerators for SDGs and preparation of the national commitment. Various stakeholders including the private sector, CSOs, academia, youth, local representatives, and journalists were extensively consulted on the proposed accelerator, and I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to those stakeholder groups for their very active engagement in these efforts. This event represents an important milestone in discussing and reaffirming the stakeholder’s feedback on the draft national commitment and suggestions for the way forward. I am looking forward to interesting and substantive discussions today on Mongolia’s commitment to SDG Acceleration.

As we prepare for the SDGs Summit, the UN system has been working to mobilize analytical briefs and reports. In Mongolia, two analytical pieces were prepared by UNESCAP (Country Profile and Transformative Pathways) and UNDP (SDGs Insights Report). I would like to thank UNESCAP and UNDP for providing such reports that were used for identifying the SDGs Accelerators.

I would like to reaffirm the UN’s continued commitment for partnering with stakeholders to support Mongolia in implementing the SDGs Accelerators.

On behalf of the UN, I am expressing my gratitude to MED for jointly organizing the National Forum today. I would also like to extend our sincere appreciation to private sector representatives such as APU, Golomt Bank, Khaan Bank, Invescore and MCS Coca-Cola for supporting the National Forum as partners, including showcasing their sustainable development practices.  

Lastly, the SDGs are the universally agreed road map to bridge economic and geopolitical divides, restore trust and rebuild solidarity. Failure to make progress means inequalities will continue to deepen, increasing the risk of a fragmented world. No country can afford to see the 2030 Agenda fail.

This is a pivotal moment for all of us to work together to ensure that we are able to keep our promise to put Mongolia on a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive path.

Therefore, I would like to call on all Mongolians to “Unite to Act” (Uildleeree negdeye!!) to accelerate SDGs by 2030.

Thank you and Sain saikhaniig husie!!!