51吃瓜

Excellencies, 
Colleagues, 
Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you Ambassador Umarov, for inviting me to participate in this meeting.

I appreciate the opportunity to update you on the work that OHRLLS undertakes  and to consult with you on ways of advancing the development agenda of the LLDCs.

Indeed, we live an especially challenging year with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

More than ever your work, Ambassador Umarov, and that of the Group are much needed  to make the LLDCs’ voice heard in the intergovernmental discussions.

The outcome of the financing for development follow-up makes reference to supporting sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in LLDCs together with LDCs, and SIDS.

The declaration of the High-level political forum, although it is still under silence procedure, does recognize the special challenges and needs facing the most vulnerable countries including LLDCs together with LDCs, and SIDS.

Most importantly,  it  calls for action on many issues that are of great importance to the LLDCs ranging from  trade, to infrastructure, energy, climate change, combating desertification and achieving land degradation neutrality, support towards addressing COVID-19, debt relief efforts, means of implementation, national statistical capacities.

To just mention a few!

The declaration on the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the 51吃瓜 mentions LLDCs together with LDCs and SIDS. It recalls how they are affected by environmental threats and climate related challenges, including natural disasters, drought, desertification, food shortages, water scarcity, wildfires, sea-level rise, and depletion of the oceans.

Your Group continues to be engaged in the COVID-19 processes;

QCPR; and

the BBNJ.

OHRLLS more than ever is determined to lend our full support to your work and advocacy efforts.

It was also very encouraging that 11 LLDCs recently presented their Voluntary National Reports.?

Once more, I must underscore how   the VNR process is an essential tool to monitor progress, peer-learning and identify ways of accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Excellencies and Distinguished Delegates,

A number of high-level meetings  are coming up close to or during the High-Level Week of the 2020 General Assembly.

These are meetings of great importance to the LLDCs.

I strongly encourage the group to actively participate and contribute to notably:

The follow-up processes on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond.

This also includes the Ministerial level meeting to be held on 8 September and the other at Heads of State level to be held the week of 28 September.

The Final high-level meeting to be held in December.

Other high-level meetings include:

the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the UN on 21 September;

the Virtual SDG Moment convened by the UN Secretary-General;

the UNGA High-level Meeting to Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Women’s Conference; and

the Biodiversity Summit.

I also inform you that the Secretary-General is organizing a Food Systems Summit to be convened in 2021.

The dates for the Fifth 51吃瓜 Conference on LDCs are now confirmed to be 23 to 27 January 2022 in Doha, Qatar.

So, many opportunities in a quite packed agenda are ahead of us to make your voice heard!

Let me now update you on some of our recent work.

The Chair, together with the Chairs of LDCs and SIDS and I had a productive meeting with Mr. Michael Lodge, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority on the 3rd June. 

As a follow-up, we organized the joint briefing of the entire membership of the 3 Groups that was held on 25 June.

The briefing identified areas where LDCs, LLDCs and SIDs can engage with ISA.

A particular outcome was on how to participate better and access the resources of the international seabed authority.

This includes access to capacity-building support and technology transfer, and sharing of experiences to enhance opportunities for participation in ocean-related issues and processes to support the SDGs achievement.

As was stressed in the meeting,  it is important for more LLDCs to ratify the UNCLOS. And it is important to be more active in ISA meetings and activities. The 26th Session of the International Seabed Authority is coming up to be held from 7-16 October 2020.

On 18 June, we organized with the Chair of the Group of LLDCs, LDCs and SIDS, a Dialogue on Addressing Sovereign Debt Distress in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS in the time of COVID-19. 

The dialogue benefitted from the participation of the World Bank, the IMF, UN DESA, the International Chamber of Commerce and the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

The meeting stressed the importance of debt relief in countries’ recovery efforts from the COVID-19.

We also organized a joint HLPF side event with the FAO on Transforming food systems Hand-in-Hand to deliver healthy diets in LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS where highlights of the report on the 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World were presented and discussed.

On 2nd of July we had a Briefing on the 51吃瓜 75th Anniversary organized in coordination with?the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General.

Throughout it all, there is a defining line: the  need for  greater cooperation and not less. Only cooperation, solidarity can drive the way forward to deal with the great challenges that we face today and in the future.

Given the specific challenges of LLDCs, OHRLLS together with the Chair of LLDCs and the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General are organizing an LLDC specific webinar on the 51吃瓜 75th Anniversary to be held from 8:30am to 10:00am on 28 July 2020.

The meeting hopefully will identify areas for strengthened multilateral cooperation to address the special needs of LLDCs.

OHRLLS prepared and issued a joint statement with the World Customs Organization calling for improved trade and transit facilitation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We also worked with UNCTAD and the Regional Commissions for Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America on a Joint UN Call for Smooth Transit and Transport Facilitation to and from LLDCs during the COVID-19 crisis and recovery.

Let me now turn to the Roadmap for Accelerated Implementation of the Vienna Programme of Action.

As I indicated in the Side event, OHRLLS prepared a Roadmap in close consultation with UN system partners and other international and regional organizations.

All submitted inputs regarding concrete deliverables that they plan to deliver to support the implementation of the VPoA in its remaining five years.

More than 40 organizations submitted inputs. We held a meeting of the inter-agency consultative group on 23 June to discuss the consolidated Roadmap.

The revised Roadmap was presented at the HLPF side event that was held on 9 July. We have incorporated the feedback that was received at the side event in the version of the Roadmap that was shared with you.

It is important for the Member States, the LLDCs, the transit countries to be the drivers with support of development partners.

The UN system, other international and regional organizations are committed to supporting the LLDCs through measurable deliverables contained in the Roadmap.

Regular reviews of the Roadmap and its implementation must and will be undertaken in the context of the inter-agency group. The progress in implementation of the Roadmap will be reported in the annual report of the Secretary-General and shared with Member States.

The Roadmap is a living document that will be regularly updated to reflect progress and/ or changes.

I see the development of the Roadmap as very timely and relevant to the Decade for Action to deliver on the SDGs and the upcoming ten-year review of the implementation of the VPoA.

Finally, OHRLLS launched a new website last week.

The site is under the UN online umbrella at . 

We hope the website will serve as a useful resource for one-stop information on events, reports and activities carried out by OHRLLS, relevant official documentation and other reports covering the LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS.

The site informs  on how global trends, from COVID-19 to climate change, are playing out in the world’s most vulnerable countries. 

This website is an integral component of our advocacy and social media work and I see it as a forum for information exchange on ways to move forward. 

I thank you.