2026 SDG Moment - Together, We Can Do It

The day we arrive on this planet and blinking step into the sun there is more to see.

Than can never be seen, or to do Than can never be done There is far.

Too much to take in here More to find than can ever be found But the sun, rolling high Through the sapphire sky Keeps great and small on the endless round the soul of a friend and it moves a soul through despair and through faith and new love so.

Let's give it up again for our friends from the Broadway production of Lion King. Lead vocals and Sepapetjeng Molibatsi, and then with her was Sikhle Ngema and his uncle, Spoo Ngema. Isn't that amazing? That uplifting song, "Circle of Life," reminds us that everyone and everything is connected. We all have a part to play and a responsibility to ensure we pass on the best possible world to those who follow. Excellencies, colleagues, friends, I'm Rajesh Merchantani, and I'm a storyteller. And I feel that the story circle of a life is telling us today is so appropriate. We're in the final stretch of the SDG roadmap, less than five years left of a 15-year journey. This is the moment when we look back at how far we've come, and then we look at how far we have to go. This is not the moment to question whether the SDGs will be achieved in full, no. This is the moment to hold tight to our values, to build the momentum and summon the speed, resolve and unity to get it done. Because together, we can do it. But only together. I'm honored to be your host today as we spotlight inspiring examples of progress, and we hear diverse voices, and we get many more opportunities to experience incredible art in many forms, all coming up. But today, we're also going to be clear-eyed about the challenges that remain, and about the transformative actions, partnerships, and investments we need to close the gaps and get us to the world we want. So let's start by thinking about the progress and the challenges.

In 2015, the world came together around the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It marked a new chapter for humanity. The agenda was about transformative change. At its core, the The 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, held a simple promise: to end poverty, protect our planet, foster peace, and leave no one behind. Ten years on, the promise has held. Not everywhere, not fast enough, but it has held. A woman who gives birth today is more likely to live to hold her baby. More children are finishing school than any time in history. Girls who would have been married at 15 are still in school. Ten years ago, fewer than half of us had anything to fall back on when the work stopped. Today, more than half of us do. Nine in ten of us can turn on a light. Three in four of us are online. And when the storm comes, far fewer people die because the warning arrives in time. These gains were possible because countries aligned national policies and budgets with the SDGs. The United Nations development system evolved to support country-level action, and global SDG monitoring systems were put in place. But still, the progress made and gains hard won have been uneven. We are $4 trillion a year short to meet the SDGs. The world is spending nearly $2.7 trillion on weapons alone. At a time when needs are growing, official development assistance fell by 23% in 2025, the sharpest decline ever recorded. External debt has reached $8.9 trillion, and countries are paying more to pay their debt than to teach their children. The money exists. The question is where we put it. Today, nearly 850 million people are still living on almost nothing. close to one in three of us cannot be sure of the next meal. We are putting less money into the farms that feed us. Two billion still drink water that can make them sick. All almost 840 million women have lived through violence. And in places, rights that were won are being taken back. Shocks such as the pandemic took away years of progress. Climate stopped waiting. And conflict is at its highest in decades. But these 10 years taught us something else. Progress does not survive on aspiration. It survives when we invest in systems. A clinic that stays open when the budget is tight. A school that reopens after the flood. A social protection system that supports families before they fall into crisis. Governments cannot achieve the SDGs on their own. We need everyone to act together. Cities, local communities, young people, civil society, scientists, private sector and individuals. We are now in the decisive and final stretch to 2030, and we must not lose momentum. We need financing at the scale of the challenge we face. Action on debt and reform of international financial architecture. We need to close the digital divide before artificial intelligence deepens it. We need to place women and girls at the center of investment and decision-making. We also need progress designed to survive the next crisis, because we know more crises will come. The SDGs remain the most comprehensive shared roadmap the world has ever had. We are not starting again. We are building on foundations laid over 10 difficult years. 2030 is just around the corner, and we must make every remaining year count for people, for planet, for peace, for everyone.

Not far enough, not fast enough, but the promise is holding. Together, we can do it. And many of that diverse coalition who will deliver the goals, well, many of you are in the room. Let me acknowledge that. Member states, officials, experts, civil society, NGOs, young activists and artists, private sector leaders, representatives of major groups, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders, welcome, and many more who are watching online today. We have an artist called Marsha Dunn who's live scribing the event, and we'll show you her interpretation at the end and on the SDG Moment webpage later. There's interpretation in all six official UN languages, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, English, French, and Russian. Use your earpieces at your seats to select the channel that you want. And because the United Nations is committed to accessibility and inclusion for persons with disabilities, international sign will be provided on screen. Now, I'd like to invite Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, to give remarks.

Excellencies, dear friends, the Sustainable Development Goals were not handed down from above. They are a promise forged by member states and adopted as a shared commitment by every government. A commitment grounded in the United Nations Charter and shaped by the aspirations of people everywhere to build healthier, safer, and more prosperous societies, eradicating poverty and hunger, fighting inequality and exclusion, rooting out discrimination and disease, protecting our planet, and leaving no one behind. Since our journey began, we have together reduced child and maternal mortality, prevented millions of new HIV infections, and expanded access to education, social protection, safe drinking water, sanitation, electricity, renewable energy, and the internet. We have also faced profound setbacks, most notably a global pandemic that erased years of progress and exposed deep vulnerabilities. Through every crisis, we adapted, we learned, And we kept moving forward. Progress was never automatic. It was earned through the determination of people, communities and countries. Yet today, development faces powerful headwinds. Conflicts, divisions and mistrust are weakening international cooperation. Crises in the Middle East and beyond continue to drive economic insecurity and disrupt food, energy and trade flows. The climate crisis is accelerating, bringing the 1.5 degree limit dangerously closer. The rights of women and girls are under attack, and developing countries remain trapped by debt, constrained fiscal space and inadequate investment. The world continues to spend record sums on war, while development is starved for resources. So, dear friends, the promises governments made in adopting the goals are not being kept. It is time to keep them. Let me point to four ours. First, we need to keep our promise to fight inequality by investing in what works, quality education, food security, decent work, universal health coverage, strong social protection systems, access to technology and opportunity for all. We must tackle the barriers that continue to deny people a fair chance, entrenched inequalities, discrimination and exclusion, and conflicts that destroy development gains. And we must stand firm for human rights and gender equality. When women can fully participate, everyone benefits. Second, we need to keep our promise to our planet. Renewable energy is now the cheapest and fastest growing source of new power across much of the world. Countries rich in renewable resources must be given the tools and the chance to become producers of clean energy, manufacturers of clean technologies, and creators of decent jobs. And critical minerals must be managed responsibly and sustainably in a way that adds value and opportunity in producing countries. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy must be just, supporting communities and workers. Third, we must keep our promise to finance sustainable development. Countries have pledged to strengthen domestic resource mobilization and channel resources to the areas of greatest need. But much more is needed. The Seville Commitment is an important step. Multilateral development banks must become bigger, better, and bolder. Every public dollar must mobilize far greater private investment. And developing countries must have a much stronger voice and representation in the international financial system that needs reform. Debt must serve development, not suffocate it. And we need debt relief urgently. Excellences.

Excellencies, fourth and finally, we must keep our promise to accelerate progress with tools at our disposal, better data, strategic foresight, technology and connectivity, responsible artificial intelligence, more inclusive trade, stronger partnerships across governments, business, finance, local authorities, civil society and young people. and above all, renewed efforts to forge peace, which is both the foundation and an enabler of lasting, sustainable and resilient development. Excellencies, dear friends, the Sustainable Development Goals are ambitious because the challenges we face are immense. But commitments must be matched with transformative action. That is the promise governments made. Keeping that promise is an obligation. It is also our greatest opportunity to build a fairer, safer and more sustainable world. I thank you.

Thank you, Secretary-General. Due to pressing work needs, the Secretary-General will be able to join us just for a while longer. Next, I'd like to invite remarks from the newly elected President of the General Assembly, from Bangladesh, His Excellency, Khalilur Rahman.

Good morning to all of you. Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, good morning again. At the outset, I commend the leaders, delegates, youth and civil society, and all those who stood steadfastly at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in 2015 determined to secure a future worthy of dignity. Today, we honor their enduring vision for shared prosperity and resilience, which, with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, was hailed as a promise by leaders of all people everywhere, a universal, integrated, and transformative vision for a better world. More than a decade on, That vision has translated into meaningful progress in the lives of people around the world. Nearly 1 billion people have gained access to safely managed drinking water, and 1.2 billion to safely managed sanitation. Electricity has now reached 92% of the world population, with one third of it supplied by renewable sources. And internet access has risen from 40 to 74%, creating new possibilities for education, entrepreneurship, public services, and inclusion. These achievements are not abstract statistics. They represent healthier children, more resilient communities, greater opportunity for women and girls, and renewed hopes for families who have too often been left behind. As these successes remind us, sustainable development is possible when political will, investment, innovation, and international cooperation come together. Yet, as bold as that vision was, and as powerful as our strides have been, we have simply not gone far enough. Today, only 36% of SDG targets with available trend data are on track or making moderate progress. Nearly half, 49%, are moving too slowly, and 15% have slipped below their 2015 baselines. Moderate or severe food insecurity affected 2.1 billion people in 2025, and about 1 in 10 people still live in extreme poverty. The financing environment has become even more difficult. Official development assistance fell by a record 23% in 2025. These are vital sources of support for countries and communities facing the greatest challenges, especially the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states. Global economic prospects offer little room for complacency. Growth is expected to remain subdued while debt service burdens continue to crowd out public investment in health, education, climate resilience, and social protection. For many developing countries, fiscal space is shrinking precisely when the need for action is greatest. The climate outlook is equally stark. Under existing policy, we are on track for up to 2.8 degrees Celsius of warming this century, far beyond the 1.5 degree threshold we pledged to pursue. And these are not distant risks. They are losses that many cannot absorb. For many among us, sustainability is a matter of life and death. We see this in the flood-swept villages of Nepal and China, and the fire-scarred forests of Canada, Spain, and France. Clearly, the health of our planet is inseparable from the health of humanity. When the air we breathe is polluted, when the water we depend on is unsafe, or when climate shocks destroy homes, livelihoods, and communities, the consequences are felt across the globe. and across all the SDGs, from health and food security to poverty, inequality, and peace. This is why the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be pursued in isolation. The 17 goals are interconnected, and progress on one will accelerate progress across many others. Investments in clean energy can create jobs and reduce pollution. Climate-resilient infrastructure can save the development gains for generations. Digital connectivity and AI, responsibly governed and made accessible to all, can widen opportunity dramatically. Excellencies, this year's SDG moment is an opportunity to course correct, to recommit to the vision embraced in 2015, and to have an honest conversation about the obstacles that have impeded progress, from finance to politics to war and conflict. As we race to 2030, the severe commitment, the action programs for LDCs, landlocked developing countries and SIDS are indeed accelerators that can get us further together if implemented well. We simply have no time left to place blame or point fingers, not to hold resentment. We must get on with the work before us. So what does that mean in actuality? It means recommitting ourselves to implementation. It means scaling up what works, investing where the needs are greatest, and ensuring that the benefits of development reach those who have been left farthest behind. And it means ensuring a future where more people are lifted out of poverty, where food security is assured, where access to safe drinking water and health is respected as a right, and where resilience for LLDCs and SIDS, countries in Africa, middle-income countries, is strengthened and assured. The world already knows much of what works. The task now is to deliver these solutions with the speed and solidarity that this decisive final stretch demands. We have four years to bring them to scale. That's four years to get more children into school, more food onto tables, more medicines into hospitals. Excellencies, my message today is very simple. We must meet this moment. Four years in, let us use them as the promise of 2015 still binds us. Because it does. It binds us to those whose lives have already improved because of the goals, and those who are still waiting for the international community to deliver. The theme of this SDG moment captures both the urgency and the hope before us. Together, we can get there. No country, institution, business, or community can achieve the goals alone. together, we can make these final four years a period of accelerated progress. Only then can we say with confidence that we have honoured the commitment we have made to the future generations and built a United Nations fit for the future. I thank you.

Thank you, Excellency. Just a reminder to folks in the room, because of the way the acoustics work in this room, you'll hear much better regardless of what language you're listening in if you use your ear shells, so please make sure you do. You'll hear much better in the room. Online, you're hearing it loud and clear already. Now, let me also welcome our next speaker. He's also recently elected, this time as the current president of the Economic and Social Council, the UN's home of development. I'd like to now invite His Excellency, Mr. Amar Benjama of Algeria for remarks. Thank you.

Dear colleagues and friends, I thank the Secretary-General for convening us at this SDG moment under the call Together, we can do it. This message should resonate strongly with the reality we face today. With four years, almost five years, remaining until 2030, the path ahead is challenging. But let me say, it is also full of opportunity. A resounding takeaway from today's discussion is clear. Progress is possible when ambition is matched by implementation, by action. Progress is possible when partnerships are translated into tangible result. The Sustainable Development Goals remains our shared blueprint, but achieving them requires stronger collective efforts. It requires a renewed commitment to multilateral action, to multilateral cooperation. It requires political will to translate our words into delivery. As the United Nations principal platform for advancing sustainable development, ECOSOC should play a central role in the follow-up and the review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It bridges It bridges global policy and local action by bringing together member states, the UN system, international financial institutions, and civil society to tackle interconnected challenges through shared solutions. Member states have recently outlined concrete, very concrete measures to make our ECOSOC more coherent, more focused, more impactful, more relevant. The High-Level Political Forum showed the true power of this architecture. Since its inception over 10 years ago, more than 400, 400 voluntary national reviews have been presented before the HLPF. And my country, Algeria, was proud to present its second VNR just a few weeks ago. These reviews are not only procedural exercise. They are, for us, unique opportunities to share candidly our reflections on progress, on setbacks, and on our new priorities. They are vital tools to strengthen ownership, accountability, and peer learning. They are bridges that connect local, local reality to our global action. Excellencies, dear friends, as we look ahead, how can we ensure that we make full use of the voice of the convening authority and of the policy leadership of ECOSOC? How can we sustain momentum on sustainable development in the run-up to next year's SDG Summit through to 2030 and beyond? The task is clear. We must align commitments with actions. We must improve UN system-wide coherence, we must mobilize financing, technology, and strong multilateral partnership. In this context, financing for development, financing for development, and the implementation of the Sevilla commitment are crucial to accelerate progress. I want to highlight the importance of holding a special meeting of ECOSOC on debt, external debt. If we truly want to support the most vulnerable countries among us, we must alleviate the debt burden. than annihilate their efforts and restrict their development. Our efforts must remain dynamic. They must remain ambitious. And they must deliver. Deliver the promise of the 2030 agenda. Let us spare no effort to work together. to restore trust and honor our commitments. I thank you.

Thank you, Excellencies. Now, let me share with you a number. That number is 33,000. That's how many young people from more than 150 countries applied to be young leaders for the SDGs. It's an initiative of the UN Youth Office. And every two years, there's a new cohort of 17 young leaders from around the world and from different sectors working on cross-cutting issues. We're going to hear from two of them soon, Suzuka Nakamura from Japan and Adeline Pierre from Haiti. To welcome them, someone who was only 16 herself when she first spoke at the UN from up there on the balcony in 2015. Today, she's a UN Messenger of Peace, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a globally renowned change maker. Let's please watch this video message from Malala Yousafzai.

In 2015, the world made a promise, a promise to end poverty, a promise to protect our planet, our A promise that every child, no matter where they come from, gets the opportunity to learn,

thrive, and choose their own future.

We have five years to reach the children who are still waiting to sit in a classroom.

They have not given up, and neither can we.

The promise of 2015 is still ours to keep, and young people are leading the way. Please turn your attention to the balcony to hear from them.

Leaders of the world in the room and outside these walls, I'm Suzuka from Japan and I'm here with Adelin from Haiti. We are both young leaders for SDGs. Hello, the world. Today you see many young people here to imagine a promise. a promise made in this very room to work together toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The SDGs are more than a set of goals. They are a collective action, vision for a better world. And today, we are here to remind you that we still have a voice. We still have a promise to fulfill.

We cannot achieve the SDGs without peace. When we look at the situation of the world in Haiti, Ukraine, Congo, and Gaza, to name a few, it's clear we have a lot of work to do. The distance between the promise we made and the reality of today is still too great. Change does not happen overnight, but progress is possible when we choose persistence over despair. We need to pursue this with more determination than ever before to fulfill the promise of the 2030 agenda. Across peace, health, education, climate, decent work, and economic opportunity, young people are leading, organizing, putting for change and showing what is possible, but we in turn, and it is ours into action. We are key partners in the summer of change. The SDGs require the same urgency that led countries to agree with them 11 years ago. To the leaders in this room and around the world, you made this promise. We are asking you to keep it. To governments, partners, businesses, civil societies, and young people everywhere, do not lose sight of the 2030 Agenda. There is still time to act, but we need to move together. We will keep building bridges. And we will keep believing in the power of partnerships. Let today remind us that change is possible. We are not giving up hope on the SDGs, and neither should you. Hope is not passive. It is the spark that turns commitment into action. To everyone in this room and around the world, this is our shared promise. Let's fulfill it together. Thank you.

Let's just take a moment to acknowledge that people get nervous speaking in this room and you guys did such a great job and also it's not just our two young leaders for the SDGs, Suzuka and Adeline, the whole balcony is full of young leaders for the SDGs. You can see them all up there. Hi everyone, great job. Thank you. Thank you to you. And thank you to Malala Yousafzai, of course, as well. Now, from global activists and leaders of tomorrow, to those in office today. Many world leaders are underlining their commitment to achieving the SDGs. Let's hear from some of them now. 17 goals to make the world a better place by 2030.

That was the challenge we set when the Sustainable Development Goals were launched in 2015.

The Sustainable Development Goals represent a simple but powerful promise. that every person should have the opportunity to live with dignity, security, and hope, while protecting our planet for future generations.

The SDGs remind us that progress must be measured not only by economic growth, but also by the quality of life, whether families have sufficient food, whether children receive quality education, communities have access to healthcare and decent employment, and the most vulnerable are protected from poverty, inequality, conflict, disasters, and climate change.

So this is what the goals mean to us.

A light in a house that never had one.

A child who will never suffer the disease that shaped her grandmother's life.

A generation that can study at home in the nation their parents fought to create.

The Sustainable Development Goals are not just abstract targets on paper.

They are the difference between prosperity and poverty. No nation, however committed it may be, can achieve the SDGs alone.

When we work together.

And support each other, we can turn commitments into actions and actions into positive outcomes for our people and our planet.

Excellencies, we have only four years left until 2030. Progress has remained too slow. The time for implementation is now, but the implementation requires global solidarity. Ladies and gentlemen, peace and development are inseparable.

Conflicts.

In one part of the world can inflict devastating human and socioeconomic consequences far beyond their borders.

Ultimately, there can be no sustainable development without peace, and the achievement of the SDGs depends fundamentally on peace and strong political will. We must renew our determination to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and international law, promote global peace and security, and build a better present and future for generations to come. We also need the active involvement of civil society, business, science, young people, and other stakeholders to make implementation more effective and inclusive.

The international cooperation, and in particular the United Nations system, has been an ally indispensable en este camino. El trabajo conjunto que en el marco de la Organización los Estados hemos desarrollado para identificar las metas del desarrollo que nos permitan avanzar como naciones y como humanidad hacia una vida digna de bienestar compartido.

Nos han ayudado a convertir compromisos en resultados que hoy ya están cambiando la vida de muchas personas.

Will leave no one behind, no our children, no our communities, not the most vulnerable. Together with the United Nations, our European partners and our own people, we'll keep moving forward.

calls by developing countries and the global south for a just and equitable global order must be headed towards accelerating progress to fulfill the promise of the 2030 agenda.

With the continued support of the International.

Committee, we can turn the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals into real improvements for our people. and help build a more resilient and sustainable world.

It is our duty to preserve what those.

Before us built, ensuring confidence in our future that will inspire the coming generation.

Thank you to so many leaders, both men and women, for underlining and leading their countries' work towards implementing and achieving the SDGs. The full video will be available on the SDG Moment website later. Let's remember, back in 2015, all 193 member states adopted the SDGs. Every government remains in charge of its implementation of the agenda. So let's hear more about how some of them are doing. you have seen, my colleagues have set the stage behind me to moderate this conversation. Please welcome from the South African Broadcasting Corporation, my friend, Sherwin Bryce-Pease.

Thank you, Rajesh. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the United Nations General Assembly. I'm honored to moderate this Leaders' Dialogue on Leading SDG Action. In this segment, we will hear directly from government leaders who remain at the center of delivering the Sustainable Development Goals. And as countries work to accelerate implementation, they are also navigating an increasingly complex and challenging global environment. Today's discussion will explore how leaders are sustaining momentum and driving progress towards the goals. To explore all of this, please join me in welcoming, and this means you applaud as the panelists come up. Our first group of panelists to the stage, Her Excellency, Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition. Joining us from Benin, His Excellency, Aristide Medoun, Minister of Economy and Finance in charge of Cooperation of Benin. Joining us from Panama, Her Excellency Beatriz Carles de Arango, Minister of Social Development of Panama. And last but not least, His Excellency Rashid Al Mahmud Titamur, advisor and minister to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, overseeing the ministries of finance and planning. You're all most welcome. And I will join them seated now for the discussion. Welcome to you all. It's good to see you. My first question is for the Vice President Teresa Ribera, to my left. The 2030 agenda can only be achieved through strong international partnerships and cooperation, right? Through initiatives such as the Global Gateway and other partnerships, where do you see the greatest opportunities to accelerate the SDG progress, particularly by closing the financing gap and mobilizing investment at the scale that is required? And how is the European Union helping translate global commitments into tangible results on the ground?

Thank you.

Thank you so much for this very important question and for giving me the opportunity to join you today in this very inspiring event.

And allow me to say that I'm so.

Happy to see so many women, young women, among the delegates in the room, coming from the civil society and the academia. We haven't seen many up to now on the screen, but I'm sure that the first message is, think about the education of girls. Think about empowering women. This is one of the topics that is among the most relevant priorities of the SDGs. And I think that the main message is that we need to count in a systemic manner on the different 17 SDGs when thinking about public policies, when building partnerships, when working through this global gateway that the European Union wants to used to enhance partnerships with other nations. Thinking about decent jobs and quality of jobs. Thinking about combining climate scenarios, factoring in climate scenarios, so to develop the right infrastructures and the urban services. Think about fresh water, how we can ensure that it is available for everybody.

These are the priorities that we try to reflect in the Global Gateway. We try to count on the leadership at home with local.

Communities, with national governments, identifying how we can count on the reference to ensure that business can last, but that public policies do also match the expectations of the people, of the local communities, taking into consideration their own priorities and their own way to understand development and prosperity in the time to come.

Thank you, Madam Vice President. The Minister from Benin, Aristide Medouneousser. Many countries are facing increasing fiscal pressures while striving to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Boy, boy, don't we know that and understand that so well. There is just not the fiscal space, right, in terms of addressing the SDGs. How is Benin leveraging public finance, private investment, and innovative financial financing mechanisms to sustain SDG implementation, and what lessons for Benin's could be relevant to other developing countries? I'm not saying it's an easy question, it's a hard one, but we'd like a good response. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, it is not an easy question. The starting point as a government is to be able to mobilize domestic revenue. If a country is not able to improve, to increase the domestic revenue, that country cannot go forward in implementing SDGs. And in Benin, during the 10 last years, we have increased the domestic revenue by 0.5% of GDP every year. And if you look at the progress of revenue mobilization in the country, we multiplied by three revenue mobilization in the country. And with that, we implemented many projects touching the daily life of people. At the external level, you know that today concessional financing is quest. Uh it is not enough. And we need to be innovative. And for that we issued in 2021 the first ever SDG bond in Africa. With all that resources we we did a lot of thing. For instance today the coverage of primary schools talking about school continues is more than 80%. Uh we have improved access to drinking water from 40% for zero to 80% at zero just in five years. So it is very important to have resources and then to implement the right project. But we have also to involve the private sector. That's very important. The government cannot do everything alone. We need to work with the private sector. And because of that, Benin launched just in 2021 a new industrial zone. And from 2021 and today, that zone has created 25,000 jobs. So we need to work together with the private sector. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. There will be Spanish interpretation for the next response. And I'm pleased now to turn to Minister Beatriz Carles de Arango. Minister, we've heard about leveraging public finance and opportunities to close the finance gap Let us now turn to the people-centered dimension of sustainable development. I mean, that's really what it's all about. It's all about the people at the end of the day. How is Panama strengthening and modernizing its social protection system to reduce inequalities? You heard the SG talk about some of the existential threats that are facing the world, AI, climate change, but also inequalities. And how are you working to enhance resilience to economic and environmental shocks? and ensure that women, young people, indigenous peoples, and other populations in vulnerable situations can fully benefit from the country's development progress.

Thank you very much for that opportunity and congratulations on the SDGs. For us, clearly, they are a way of showing our commitment to comprehensive, inclusive, and resilient and sustainable development. This is not a foreign cause for us. This is something that we really take ownership of, and this is something we really try to ensure by helping our population achieve all of the benefits and advantages that can come from resources and policies that the SDGs bring to all of these different sectors. And we have just four years to go, and it's clear that we must transform these commitments and pledges into real, concrete actions that will allow us to address the issues that populations are facing. In my country, we have taken this step by strengthening the networks across the territory. We have been addressing the gaps, the social and economic divides that exist in the country, mainly in the rural areas and areas where there are indigenous populations and where there is a high degree of vulnerability, we have also strengthened our social policies and this has allowed us to ensure that these resources reach the people who really need them to try to ensure that no one is left behind. We've also strengthened and leverage actions to reduce the gap in access to drinking water and also in sanitation, once again, areas where there is a high degree of vulnerability. So one by one, we have been addressing these goals and to address these challenges in order to fulfill the needs of the population.

Minister, let me now move to the advisor and Minister Rashid Al Mahmoud Tittimer. Last but not least, many developing countries argue that today's international financial architecture was not designed to address the scale of contemporary challenges, including mobilizing sufficient volumes of finance and shielding countries from repeated shocks and volatility. What reforms would you prioritize to ensure that the global financial system better supports national development planning and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals? These are not easy questions to answer, but I'm going to leave it to the expert.

Thank you.

You are asking a question that we need to have another Brittaners moment. But let us look at the facts. Facts are stark. If we are imagining about 37 countries and the youth has spoken just now, look at 400 million people. are serving debt repayment than their essential services. Of 37 countries, 1.1 billion people receives amount less than their debt servicing. So this is a reality. And we need to act, and act now, and act together. And I will humbly, on behalf of Bangladesh, come up with a five-point actionable agenda. First, there is a shift in terms of vulnerability. The way currently the international financial architecture operate cannot really address the vulnerabilities because there are more uncertainties. There are more wars which you have not even envisaged when you are placing your budget in front of the parliament. Look at Bangladesh alone, because of the conflict, has to count cost billions to provide oil, gas, and electricity to its people. So what we need a different funding mechanism which can anticipate, which has become now new normal of uncertainties. So we need a new architecture to address and anticipate the vulnerability. That's number one. Secondly, We have been talking about the governance reforms of the IFIs, but none has been acted to reflect the reality of the post-Second World War era. So we need changes, we need voices who can address the ground realities, so second. The third one, you see, We have been hearing that concessional financing is drying up. But how do we represent the humanity? We need to address debt suspension, right? Debt relief. We need to really have predictable finance flow beyond 0.7% that was agreed here. So we need that part. Fourth, national development priorities and alignment. We have heard about Paris harmonization criteria. What are the progress? Because in order to achieve the 17 SDGs, we need harmonization between the national development priorities with the with a multi-year, and there has to be a chance, not a project-based financing, but a programmatic approach that can address productive capacity expansion, that can address environment moving transition to green energy, that can address the fulfillment of the young population so that these countries achieve demographic dividend. And finally, And this is what we have been discussing here. We would like to see LDC graduation, but we want to see a graduation in a strong graduation, not a limping one. And how are we really addressing that? When a country graduates, then there are plethora of conditionalities and conditions.

They're not allowing.

To prosper, to have a shared prosperity. So these issues are known. What we need, if we are to reflect in the 2027 SDG Summit, We need clear roadmaps with actions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Titamur. I was going to ask a second round of questions to all the panelists, but due to time, we've been asked to shrink the segment, so I'm going to move to the final question. It's the same question for everybody, and I think we'll start with Bangladesh. We'll go in reverse. Why does multilateral cooperation matter today? I think it speaks to exactly what you were just saying in your five points. Why does multilateral cooperation matter today, and what is the one thing that leaders gathering during this General Assembly need to understand better, need to do better, to accelerate implementation around the SDGs. One minute each, and your time starts now.

Thank you, thank you. I will be quick. You see, leadership matters, and examples have to be in country level first. Say, for example, our family card, which has been initiated by our new prime minister, could really lift 5.7 million people out of poverty. Our actions on farmers card can ensure food consumption to the bottom 40%. And then our tree plantation could address SDGs 8, 13 and 15. So, canal digging and re-excavation of 20,000 kilometers could really address SDGs 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, and 13. So, what I'm saying is that there are actions on the ground, but we need more multilateralism than ever before because We need to achieve and act together to have a lasting.

Chance to have a planet which is livable for our young generation.

And that requires, as I mentioned about the whole reform architecture of international financial architecture, particularly debt relief, plus we need an actionable agenda where we can prevent vulnerabilities and new normal, which has been worse, which has developing country has no role in it. So what we need, actions so that we can achieve predictable, productive, expansion of decent employment. We want to see a livable planet. We want to see that there are justice, inequality has become lessened so that we can shared our prosperity and multilateralism is more important than ever before. Thank you.

I will concede one minute is not enough, but I thank you for that intervention. To Panama, Minister Carles Arango, why is multilateralism important and what do you want the leaders to do in this General Assembly to implement the SDGs?

Si, gracias.

Yes, thank you for the question. In Panama this year, we are celebrating 20 years of our host Congress. This is an effort by Simon Bolivar 20 years ago in order to achieve multilateralism in our region. We are convinced that the effort must be a collective effort, especially in order to achieve the sustainable development goals. these are challenges that are similar for all of us, and they are complementary goals. So we're not going to be able to achieve them individually. We must all advance together so that we leave no one behind. We really believe in this. Thank you.

Minister Aristide Menendez, the same question to you, sir.

Yes, I will save your time. I will be quick. No, it is multilateralism. It is important because Today, we face many problems that are global problem. We face in 2022 pandemic. We have a rise of fuel prices, energy prices. So there are many problems that are global problem, and we need to be together, to sit down together, and to find a mutual solution, shared solution. And what we need to do now is just to act. There's no time now for taking a commitment. Again, we have just four years remaining before 2030. We need just to act and move forward. Thank you.

The blueprint exists, right? It's time to implement. I'll give the final word to the European Commission.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I think that we all know that multilateralism.

Was born because we were convinced that nobody, no one could manage to handle.

The challenges that are global and to ensure peace.

Peace and the recognition of human dignity trying to promote development.

So I could say that the first thing to tackle is peace. War harms the economy, kills the people, and harms the environment. The second thing could be full respect to the rule of law and ensuring cooperation and solidarity so that we can work together for a better world, thinking about people, dignity, and opportunities to ensure prosperity.

Words you will hear a lot this week, solidarity, trust, and building those two so that we can implement the SDGs. Thank you, Excellencies. Today's discussion has made clear that although countries face different circumstances, the core ingredients for SDG acceleration are remarkably consistent. political leadership, integrated solutions, investment in people, strong institutions, and meaningful international cooperation. We have been reminded that the SDGs remain our shared roadmap, delivering economic opportunity, social progress, and environmental sustainability for all. Thank you to you all. Thank you to you. And back to Rajesh.

Thank you, ministers. Thank you, Sherwin, Bryce Pease, as well. To continue celebrating our shared commitment to the SDGs, I want to welcome two people making connections through music. Ella Bridges is a multidisciplinary artist. She, Ella Brick, sorry. Ella Brick is a multidisciplinary artist who bridges Afro-Venezuelan traditions with jazz and electronica. She's a two-time Latin Grammy winner, including the first woman to win Producer of the Year. She's also Emmy-nominated as well, and perhaps best known for the trumpet, which she'll be playing today. Joining her is bass player India Owens from Detroit. She is a Grammy, Emmy, and Peabody winner. She's played and toured with a string of legends from Wynton Marsalis to Diana Ross. She also created Community Cookout that serves meals and music to people in need. I said we'd have lots of opportunities to experience art at its finest in this hall today, so please welcome Ella Brick and N'Dea Owens.

Grab your coat and get your hat Leave your worries on the doorstep Life can be so sweet.

To the sunny side of the street Can you hear a Peter?

Pan And a happy.

Tune is your step Life can be so sweet On the sunny side of the street I used to walk in the shades With those blues on parade But I'm not, I'm not afraid These rubber girls over If I never had a cent I'd be rich as Rockefeller With gold I'd start my feet On the sunny side On the sunny side On the sunny side the street.

Terrific. How terrific. Ella Brick and Ndear Owens. Love that. Love that performance. Thank you to them for keeping us uplifted and inspired. You know, that's also been the tone as we've been hearing about progress and implementation. But at the start, I said we'd be clear-eyed too. So in this next segment of the program, we're going to hear about obstacles and divides in SDG progress, as well as transformational opportunities, if we can unlock the financing and political will. To set the tone for this segment, let's hear from the chairs of the SDG advocates, Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of Spain.

Secretary General Guterres, my dear friend Antonio, thank you very much for convening this SDG moment and thank you for your leadership. Dear friends, I take up my role as co-chair of the SDG advocates with a clear sense of responsibility. Today, defending the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda is not a routine task. It is a necessity more than ever because they are under attack. But we are here to defend them with all our strength and determination, because they represent the promise of a better world.

My friends, by 2030, people will not ask us how many times we repeated the Sustainable Development Goals. People will ask for one more personal question. What did it change in my life? Could my children learn? Could my family afford clean energy and nutritious food? Could my community survive the next storm without losing a generation of progress?

The SDGs describe a world that works for everyone, regardless of the countryside or power. No wars, less poverty, zero hunger, education for all, real opportunities for women, a healthier planet, fewer lives lost to climate disasters. better lives for millions and millions of people.

The latest United Nations report tells us only 36% of the targets we can assess.

Are on track or are indeed making moderate progress?

That should trouble us, but it must never defeat us.

With less than five years to 2030, this is not the moment to retreat. It is the moment to redouble our efforts. The more others backtrack, the more we must stand up to the task.

Since 2015, nearly 1 billion people have gained safely managed drinking water.

Progress is possible.

We know because we've seen it.

The SDGs and the 2030 Agenda give us a common horizon. Together, we will shape the decades ahead. Together, we will get there. Together, we can do it.

Over the next five years, let us measure vulnerability honestly.

Let us back country-led plans with affordable, predictable, and long-term finance.

Let us put young people at the center as creators, workers, and owners.

Let us keep faith with those furthest behind.

The SDGs remain our common blueprint.

They give hope.

They give direction.

My friends, let's get on with it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Prime Ministers Motley and Sanchez. You heard Prime Minister Motley, let's get on with it. As we heard, as we've been hearing, we've heard from lots of world leaders, but the Sustainable Development Goals are not being implemented or achieved just by governments alone. They're delivered by the widest possible coalition of people willing to act. So let's bring together some of those diverse voices from across the United Nations system, governments, the private sector, science, and civil society. We're going to do this in two back-to-back conversations. First, on bridging the divides that are slowing us down, and then on unlocking the possibilities that can speed us up. And to lead both dialogues, I'm delighted to invite you to please welcome with me your moderator, senior Al Jazeera news anchor, Ms. Folly Bad Thibault.

Thank you very much, Rajesh. Good morning, everyone. A little bit more energy, please. Thank you so much. Good morning. As we've heard this morning, we are in the final years of the 2030 agenda, in a world that is interconnected, more interconnected than ever, in fact, but at the same time, more fragmented than it's been in decades. Financing pressures, climate shocks, debt distress, and rapid technological changes are all reshaping what's possible for countries trying to deliver on the SDGs. Our first conversation this morning is about that tension, about bridging divides between countries with fiscal space and those without it, between the pace of technological change and our ability to govern it, between ambition and delivery, and looking at how international systems and institutions can better address challenges that extend beyond the reach of national action alone. So to explore all this, please join me in welcoming our first distinguished panelists to the stage. Mr. Alexander De Croo, UNDP Administrator and former Prime Minister of Belgium. His Excellency Hector Gomez Hernandez, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations. Thank you so much. Mr. Zane Dango, Director General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa. Ms. Maria Ressa, co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence and the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. And Enzo Romero, mechatronics engineer and founder of LatBionics, building assistive technology in Latin America. Welcome, Enzo. Welcome to you all. Thank you so much for being here this morning. We have a remarkable range of perspectives on this stage from development and multilateral cooperation to financing and inequality, artificial intelligence and inclusive innovation. So a lot to explore, but given our time, I've been told to keep it short, keep it tight and sweet. So I'll ask each of you to keep your answers to two minutes so we can get through as many issues as possible. Mr. De Croo, let me start with you. You've seen the SDGs from both sides of the table, as the former Prime Minister of Belgium and now running UNDP countries worldwide. So, from your experience, where are we seeing progress and where are countries still struggling the most?

Thank you. There is progress, but it's uneven. and even across the world and uneven on the different SDGs. And we've seen a few in the movies before, but I would like to add some more. For example, in more than 60% of the countries throughout the world, the incomes of the poorest have grown faster than the average. That's good news. We also see that access to electricity, access to the internet has increased quite a bit and child and maternal health has continued to improve after a trend that we've seen the last 20, 25 years. But we also see that there are struggles. And one of the things we did as UNDP is you have something which is called the national development plans. And 109 countries have made these. And UNDP has very often been assisting countries in making these. So we have analyzed those plans. and listen to what the countries put forward themselves as the big impediments, the big obstacles that they have in realizing the SDGs. First of all, COVID has wiped away quite some development. But then we see that the big impediments are climate change, vulnerability of energy and of natural resources, lack of infrastructure and so on. What has changed over the past months is that all those obstacles now starting to compound. You have geopolitical instability, which is leading to more wars, more wars and conflicts, leading to more food insecurity, leading to spiking food and energy prices, governments that intervene to protect their populations, eating away their fiscal space, fiscal space that should have been used for health care and so on. And so that element of compounding obstacles That is a new thing, and that is something which definitely, urgently, we need to address.

Thank you so much for your response. Ambassador Hernandez, let me come to you. Mr. de Croo talked about the shrinking of fiscal space, and Spain, of course, hosted last year's International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla. So a year on from Sevilla, what has actually changed in the way countries can finance development? And what do you see as proving hardest to move right now?

First of all, I want to thanks for having me here today.

I think it's a fantastic opportunity, this debate.

And as you said, for Spain, sustainable development is a priority. Spain was a host country last year in F54. In our roadmap, it's a great opportunity, the Sevilla commitment, Compromiso de Sevilla. Sevilla platform for action as well. I think we have the roadmap and priorities, the pre-implementation. In the spirit of the defending of the multilingualism, I'm going to, I will to speak in Spanish.

Interpretation is available for those who need interpretation.

I'd like to thank interpreters as well. So as I was saying, It's it was a wonderful opportunity. The civil conference last year, 2025, was an amazing opportunity. We now have an excellent roadmap with a number of goals. And one of the goals as vice president of ECOSOC has been the follow up to ensure implementation. And now I do want to speak earnestly. We do require a greater commitment from the multilateral banks. and also from member states. I want to highlight the excellent work carried out by member states under the framework, under the auspices of the United Nations. It was a great deal of work to achieve the Seville commitment. That was really major. And the opportunity that was granted us through the Seville conference now must be leveraged. I think we're very, very optimistic. There have been many frameworks put in place in Seville in terms of financing and implementation. And what we're really seeking is to strike a balance so that states can cover their debt and also seek investment in healthcare and in many other sectors. This is really part of what we were seeking at the civil commitment. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Ambassador, for that. An important point that you make on striking that balance. States need to strike that balance between their commitments and their needs on the ground. Let me come to you, Mr. Dangor from South Africa, touching on that. The G20 Africa expert panel found that developing countries often pay more to borrow, not because of their actual economic fundamentals, but because of the risk, how they're perceived. And that's basically inequality, it would seem, built into the financial system itself. What's one reform that's on the table right now that could change that faster?

Thank you, and thanks for having me. It's an honor. Before I get to that, just to state that I was one of the negotiators for South Africa for the SDGs. And one of the issues that kept us awake for months was the financing for development element of it, the means of implementation. And as President Sanchez has said, that is the weakness currently. So when we talk about debt, that was an issue in 2015, and the indebtedness of African and developing countries is something that we looked at in our G20 presidency as well. And as you pointed out, it's not because of the particularities of the economic systems. Often, African and developing countries pay more for debt than countries in the developed world with a similar economic or GDP profile. And that is what needs to change. So the financing for development agreements that were made both in Addis Ababa, but also in severe, that needs to be implemented urgently. What we have is a situation where it's become worse over the last 15 years. Countries now default on development. They don't default on debt. Countries pay debt first before they deal with development issues. And that's part of the global financial architecture. The punishments for not meeting your debt responsibilities are significant, and that's why countries do default in development. And that is why the demand for a fairer debt architecture is now more important than ever. So what can lead us there? I think the implementation of the resolutions and agreements made in Seville, the launch of the Borrowers' Club, That needs to be implemented urgently. So it has been launched, but make sure that there's full buy-in and that the work of the Borrowers Club is supported. And I think secondly, also the African Credit Rating Agency that has just been established is another attempt by African countries to change the architecture in a way that will allow for more fair financing for development. If those two, for example, can be championed initially, together with the entire Compromiso, then I think we're moving in the right direction.

Thank you. Ambassador Hernandez, just a quick reaction to that before I come to Maria Reza. Do you agree that the architecture itself needs to change rather than simply finding the money within the system?

Itself.

Yes, absolutely. We need to renew the international financial architecture. But this is a challenge that has been very clearly defined under the framework of the Seville commitment, the Compromiso de Sevilla. My colleague spoke very eloquently in terms of his analysis as regards indebtedness, and we have prioritized action. And in the autumn, we're going to hold the first meeting under the framework of the Seville Forum on Debt. We want to open up a debate important about this. And I think the GA and the general debate is an excellent space for this as well. But we also must defend multilateralism. It is a key goal for us to achieve agreements in terms of refinancing the international financial architecture. And so we must highlight, especially under the framework of the negotiations of the Seville commitment, the Seville Conference, the Bretton Woods institutions, but also all of the architecture behind the international multilateral development banks. We must develop new channels for access to funds. And above all, what we're seeking, as I said, is to strike a balance between tackling debt and being able to carry out the crucial investment for countries.

Let me come to you next and talk about the tension between the rapid pace of technological change and how we are adapting to it. You've spent years fighting disinformation as a journalist, of course, and now you're helping the world think through how to govern artificial intelligence. Does that experience make you more optimistic or more worried about where AI takes the SDGs?

First, I'll answer in three because we have and thank you for all your thoughts. So I think the first is the how the technology Raptor, my company is a is a partner of every single big tech company, but how the technology has become predatory and extractive of our lives, right? The second is, is going to be the the main thing I've said over and over as co-chair of the scientific panel on AI. And then finally, the last one is what is it that we have to do to get the sign, the SDGs back on track? I think the first one is that it hacks our biology in three ways. Social media was a decade ago. I was getting an average of 90 hate messages per hour. It isn't normal. It is also part of the way that journalism is dying, both literally and metaphorically, because our business model is dead. So that's the first. That was a decade ago. Now you add in generative AI, and you have-- we move from attention to intimacy, because the chatbot comes to you, it moves out of the public sphere and the dangers there have actually are very clear now. We have a lot of studies that show that. And then finally, the last one, and this is what you see in the news every day, is agentic AI, which is the frontier models that our scientific panel talks about, but also how it's taking away your agency, right? So we move from attention to intimacy to agency. Now, what is it, the three things I say all the time as the co-chair? Power, pace, and control. How does it affect what you gentlemen do, right? Well, power is asymmetrical. Small group of countries and companies. 75% of the world's compute power is in America. It's supposedly America versus China, but it's not, 'cause 15% of the compute power is in China. And the EU, which is protecting all of us with safety regulations, only has 5%. So that shifts geopolitical power. The second part is pace. As you said, the pace has increased. It has increased. And then the last one is control. When we came out with our preliminary report, there were 40 of us from 37 countries, very inclusive, who were working together and we could see who was going through it. We already said as of May that it is uncontrollable, right? The tech is uncontrollable. So finally, the last one is What do we do? I stood here last year and I said, information integrity is the mother of all battles. If we cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, we cannot do anything, we don't have a shared reality, journalism will die, democracy will die, you cannot accomplish the sustainable development goals. We must have a shared reality. So I appeal to government, civil society. I will say the same thing I said when I was standing here, which is please give us back facts, right? So that that is how you actually can control power. That is how journalism survives.

Thank you so much, Maria Reza, for that. Thank you. Enzo, let me come to you finally, because you work at the intersection of technology and lived experience, speaking to from your own experience as a person with a disability. Where is the biggest gap today? Where do you see the biggest gap between that promise of leaving no one behind and the way innovation is actually designed and delivered.

Thank you so much. In my case, I would like to address this beginning with access to information. I don't think one can begin talking about disability without taking in mind that, for example, Gaza has the biggest number of child with amputations per capita around the world since the conflict begins. And that is powerful. And that set ups the agenda for every sort of disability or assistive technology that we could set up. Because, for example, in my country, Peru, we have at least 40 new people who get to lose their upper limbs in technical conditions because of working conditions. And if they want to buy a prosthesis for themselves, an imported robotic prosthesis from the United States can jump to $25,000. So this means for a person who works on daily life activities, to have enough savings for at least seven years just to buy the prosthesis, not taking care of her dressing, housing, at all. So what we were beginning to do is develop these affordable prosthesis for people of low income, both in my country and all across Latin America, having in mind that these people need to get back to work as soon as possible in order to have money, once again, access to their family. So once again, access to information, please, to governments and multilateralism agencies, please give enough information about the assistive technologies that you can develop to your people. According to UNOPS, for every dollar that you get to invest in assistive technologies, there might be a return into $9 into the family of that person, and that is powerful.

Thank you so much, Enzo Romero, for that. Ms. Reza and Ms. Romero. Between the both of you, you cover both the risks and the promise of technology for people who are furthest behind. We have just about four minutes left, so I'm going to ask you a final round of questions, the same one to all of you. In just 30 seconds or so, in one sentence, what do you see as the most important shift that could help bridge this divide, that we've been discussing today with just a few years left until that 2030 deadline comes? What is the biggest bridge and most important one? Mr. de Kruif, first.

One thing we don't talk often enough about is conflict is development in reverse. And so any effort that is being done throughout the world to bring peace Even if it looks difficult and even if people doubt, any effort is a laudable one, and we don't talk often enough about that.

Thank you very much. Ambassador. One thing you could change.

I think it's the priorities from commitment to action. I think I speak Spanish, sorry.

I think that we have lots of different roadmaps, documents, agreements, and it is very difficult to reach these agreements, but I want to raise something just briefly in relation to scientists and global dialogue. Spain and Costa Rica, in recent years, we achieved an agreement by consensus here in the GA to implement and put this into practice, and I'm extremely optimistic in this regard, but it is true that we cannot lose ourselves in making these agreements. We must move quickly to action. We must immediately carry out concrete action. Society is moving forward very, very quickly, and the constant and permanent impact of this is directly affecting citizens. And citizens need and are asking for direct actions and commitments from us.

Over to you next. One thing that you could change, one policy, one investment decision, perhaps, that could bridge this divide.

Thanks. I think the most important issue currently is dealing with the inequality emergency. At the heart of the SDGs is dealing with inequality within and between countries. And the inequality emergency affects 83% of the globe's countries. And the challenges with that is that it's also a direct attack on democracy. When the dividends of democracy is not felt by people, they are going to challenge democracy and you'll have global instability. So that emergency needs to be dealt with. And it can only be dealt with if together, in line with the theme of this conference, is together we can get there. But we should also say only together through cooperation and not through unilateralism and coercion. we deal with this.

Yeah multilateral cooperation more essential than ever thank you so much Mr. Dango or Miss R one minute.

The only the only thing you can control in the world is you right so I'll start there which is we are standing on the rubble of the world that was multilateralism is the solution is the path forward but how do we get there that means every single one of us who wants to find the solution must act and ask yourself just one question question. It's the question in how to stand up to a dictator, the question my country faced. What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth? Then they can do their jobs if we come together.

Thank you very much, Maria. And so finally to you, one thing that you could change.

I think it is mandatory for us to set up a new significance for human dignity. that is, and a path to do that is to finance and giving out funding for assistive technology. Because if you, if we want to leave no one behind, assistive tech is the path.

Thank you so much. Multilateralism more essential than ever on delivering these sustainable development goals with the clock ticking to 2030. Thank you all for your insights. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Mr. Alexander de Croo, Ambassador Gomez Hernandez, Mr. Dangoor, Ms. Maria Reza, and Mr. Romero. Thank you all. A round of applause, please, to our distinguished panelists. Thank you so much for joining us on the General Assembly stage today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So we had there a clear picture of what it will take to bridge these divides. Fairer financing, we heard, smarter use of technology, and the political will to act on both. So that first conversation, we spent it looking at the barriers holding back progress. We've heard about them, but there is another side to this story. We know that the solutions exist. We see them in clean energy, climate action, technology, community-led initiatives, new financing models, and the work of young people around the world. So despite everything working against us, despite the clock working against us, there is real innovation, there is real cooperation, and real solidarity out there. Why aren't we scaling, you ask, what we already have? And what would it take to do that before 2030? Please join me in welcoming to the stage for our second conversation, Ms. Charity Ropati, member of the UN Secretary-General's Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change and an Indigenous water engineer. is Damilola Ogumbi, CEO and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Sustainable Energy for All. Also with us is Dr. Isa Fai, Director General of Global Practice and Partnerships at the Islamic Development Bank. And Maryam Solika, young SDG leader and founder and CEO of The Good News. Welcome to you all. Thank you all for being here. I look forward to hearing your insights on how we get there with what we have already, right? So, Charity, let me start with you. We increasingly hear about climate overshoot, but for many people that can sound like a very abstract scientific concept. So what does it actually mean for people's lives, their livelihoods, and especially in countries and communities that are the most vulnerable.

Of course, thank you so much. And so we first need to define what climate overshoot is, right? It's a temporary period when global warming exceeds a set target, like 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is what we're seeing currently in the world. But it also describes a time where temperatures are eventually brought down, which is honestly not what we're seeing right now. And for me, And for many Indigenous communities across the world, climate overshoot isn't just this abstract number we're talking about or a line on a graph, but it really, it's what happens when that number reaches someone's home. It's what happens when that number reaches someone's water system, their food system, and affects their way of life. It is lived reality. And for me, coming from a small Arctic community in Kalganuk, Alaska, this is what's currently happening right now. In 1967, we relocated our homes and dragged our homes with just ropes, ski-dos, and a dog sled at a time where the federal government didn't really help and at a time where the federal government still doesn't help our people. And we were able to relocate successfully. And this is something that we're seeing not just my community in the Arctic do, but Indigenous communities.

All across the world.

Permafrost thaw is destabilizing land and infrastructure, flooding is continuing to take lives, that's affecting homes and water systems and communities are really having to think about questions of relocation that would have been unimaginable in previous generations. So just to set the framework, these are indigenous communities who have lived in their lands at this time of memorial, having to think about relocation, if not already relocating. So where's the justice in that? And when we talk about the SDGs, I think the risk that we're still underestimating is the compounding risk to the basic systems that every development goal depends on. Things like water, sanitation, housing, food security, health and education. And climate change undermines progress across all of these areas all at once. The Secretary General says that climate change is one of the biggest threats to humanity. But for young people and for indigenous peoples, an even larger threat are leaders and countries' inability to act on climate right now. We need a just transition away from fossil fuels and do it in a way that upholds our right as indigenous peoples. But I also want to challenge the way we frame this conversation. We shouldn't see communities like mine and indigenous communities across the world simply as vulnerable communities that need help, communities that are waiting for solutions. Indigenous peoples have been stewarding land, ecosystems, and waters for generations, and our communities have already been developing these solutions. So I think the question for this final stretch in 2030 is not only how we respond to climate change, but it's how do we recognize, invest, and scale the solutions that are already working.

Thank you so much. Very, very important that you highlighted that. Indigenous communities have managed land, water, and climate together as one system for generations, and that we need to draw on those lessons and that experience. Thank you so much. Ms. Ogumbe, let me come to you next. Countries, as we've heard in the previous discussion, are being asked to expand energy access, meet rising demand, and transition their systems, often all at once, with very little fiscal room. So from what you're seeing with governments right now and efforts like the Mission 300, what does it actually take to turn these commitments into investment at the pace and the scale that it requires?

Okay, thank you. I think it's really important to see where we are coming from. So when we started our sustainable development goals, we had over a billion people who didn't have access to electricity. It's not that we have been moving as fast as we like, but we still have 600 million people that have no access to electricity now, and we have 2.4 billion people have not access to clean cooking. So progress has happened, but it needs to happen quickly. We're seeing that a lot of the answers, like my the person on the stage said, does lie with these communities, right? So we're seeing that countries in the developing world are actually moving faster than in the developed world. So for example, some country like Pakistan, which rooftop solar is now one of the largest forms of electricity access to people who did not have access at all. My home country, Nigeria, is now doing a million connections to solar energy every single month. This is progress because we that if you only look at the energy solution, you're failing. You also have to look at the solutions that lead you to get energy, and that lies with financing. How things are financed, the way that financing affects the local developer compared to the international developer that comes in, and more importantly, the cost of money. So one of the key things that we've been working on as a UN system is how to get more local currency finance into developing renewable projects. So this is taking the cost of finance from about 28, 29% in some of our economies to 2, 3%. How to integrate long-term financing options like pension funds to actually invest in how the countries lead the way. And then, you know, more importantly, and we'll be talking about it in the Global African Business Initiative that you're part of tomorrow, is how to now encourage sovereign wealth funds, not to invest in just the future of their population, but to invest in now. The last thing I wanted to note is that we need to reframe how we talk about energy transition. For people who don't have enough energy, you can't talk about a transition. The transition and access is one of the same. You have to talk about how they get enough energy, and we are at the perfect time to make sure that energy is clean and more resilient than before. But we can't keep asking the poorest, most vulnerable people to transition out of something they do not have.

It's not a one-size-fits-all. No, it's totally. Thank you so much, Mr. Bumbi, for those remarks. Dr. Fai, let me come to you next. We've addressed the fiscal challenge, of course. There are so many good solutions that already exist out there. The problem is that they're staying small. So how do we change that? How do we actually move from a successful pilot into something transformative, and how can multilateral development banks like yourself assist in doing that?

Thank you. Thank you, Foly, for having me. I think the gap is huge. It's daunting, $4 trillion to meet the SDG financing. And at the MDB level, we know that we need to act fast, together, and differently. And for us, there are three main things that are the recipe for moving from pilot to scalable solution, because that's what we're talking about. We have been doing financing for more than 60 years now, but still we're seeing that impact is not coming at a scale. So what we need now is first to have solutions that are homegrown in the countries using policies and national system and leveraging them. We need to use country system. Those solutions should be homegrown. That's first. Those solutions should be also integrated and comprehensive because our challenges are not segmented. We need to avoid fragmentation. Integrated solution that take into account climate issues, political stability issues, macro issues, fragility, and all the sectoral issues like water, energy, and all of that. We need something integrated and consolidated. We need to avoid fragmentation. That's the solution you need. But not only that. Those solutions need to be translated into bankable project, viable project that we can find. And that's what give us the scale. That's number one. The second thing is that no single institution will make it alone. There is no institution that will make it alone. So we need to partner differently. We need to use platform. We need to platform, and we need financial engineering and solutions at the same time. Meaning that we need to leverage all sorts of financing that are available there, traditional and non-traditional, ordinary capital, sovereign financing, guarantees, and you name it. And in the MDB circle, we are working on private capital mobilization methodologies as we speak. We are trying to do a balanced optimization type of work and trying also to bring capital, patient capital from the pension fund, the insurance industries, the sovereign wealth fund, the capital market, through originate to distribute model. We are using the originate to distribute model to really position MDBs as an asset class. That's part of the innovation that we are trying to bring. But in terms of those innovation, let's not overlook the power of Islamic finance. Islamic finance is part of the solutions. look at only the Sukuk issuances that we have been doing in the Islamic Development Bank over the couple of years, we raised more than 6 billion US dollar only on Sukuk issuances. We are doing Takaful and other products. So there is a room for Islamic finance to play a big. And on the platforming side, there is this mission driven agenda, mission driven initiative like M300 with the World Bank. World Bank putting $30 billion, we are putting $4.6 billion, African Development Bank around $10 billion to connect 300 million Africans by 2030. So these are the things that we are doing in terms of partnership. And we are trying also to work differently. I think that the name in the game is that we need to work differently. We need to move from fragmentation, being slow to being swift and fast into delivering for member countries. And we are doing it a big deal now because multilateralism is there and it's relevant. But we need to work differently. We are doing mutual reliance agreements, co-financing agreements, MOUs between MDBs to make sure that we fast track delivery on the ground.

So beyond the money itself, partnerships, knowledge sharing, South-South cooperation to scale what already Thank you so much, Dr. Fye. Thank you. Mariam, let me come to you last but not least. You built the good news on hope at a moment when most of the conversation about 2030 is doom and gloom, will we get there? Why does that choice of hope matter and what is it unlocking in the young people that you work with?

Thank you so much. It's such an honor to be here. I want to start with sharing a little story. Back in 2020, I hope that you all remember how it looked like on our feeds, on our social media. All the news were negative. I was 21 at the time, and I thought to myself, this is not how the world survives. So I pulled up my phone and I started filming the good news happening in my country, Egypt. I did not know about the SDGs at the time, but I knew that there were stories of young people that needed the spotlight. Later, I learned that that was called solution journalism. I shared stories of young people creating change in their own communities, people who are advancing technologies when it comes to education. Later, I learned that that was SDG 4, quality education. And then one step further, 2023, when the war on Palestine occurred, what I noticed is that there are still young people surviving in Gaza, even though the resources are limited and even though rockets are flying over their heads and in their homes. I found stories of hope from young people still trying to make it work. And that was how the good news started. So as much as we see that the world is surrounded by so many negative stories, so many different powers are trying to take what is rightfully It's really important that we shed light on not only what is happening, but also how can young people create change in that. We do not necessarily work around the agenda. Not all young people in the room and outside of the room know about 2030, but they know that they have problems in their own communities that they're actively trying to solve. So now it becomes a question of not whether or not young people are doing change or whether or not there is hope, it's a matter of access. Are young people making it to rooms like that to share their own stories at scale? Is accessibility present as much as we'd like it to be? Is every young person resourceful enough and safe enough and surrounded by peace to create? So it's not a question of hope. It's a question of resources, funding, and access.

Thank you so much, Maria. Thank you. Well said. We have about five minutes left, less than five minutes, in fact, looking at my clock there. And I want to end on that word, hope, because I think it's important, right? We've talked about unlocking possibilities for people and planet. That was the title of this conversation. So in one sentence, I want each one of you to tell me what gives you today the most hope that we can still unlock this by 2030, and what would it take to scale it? You go first.

Be quick.

Yeah, I just want to follow with that. Young people truly give me hope, but furthermore, it's the work that Indigenous communities are doing. I think a big reason why we even talk about.

Climate in such a space like this is because of the work.

Of the indigenous people's movement, but specifically that of the youth climate justice movement. It's the young leaders of the SDGs. It's the youth advisory group on the UN Secretary General. And even just I want to highlight a quick story. The first youth advisory group under the UN Secretary General, some of the founding members helped create the Youth Climate Justice Fund. And since its inception, and since I'm also a part of it, we've invested over $8 million in youth climate justice movements across the world, and not just in the Arctic, but primarily in the global south. And this is what happens when youth are leading and when we're invested in. So just wanna end with that.

Youth need to be included and they need to be taking the lead as well. Thank you so much, Charity, for that. What gives you hope that we can still unlock this by 2050?

My panelist said it, but one of the programs that really gives me hope is Mission 300. So two years ago, the World Bank, the African Development Bank came together and said they were going to connect 300 million people to energy. They chose enough the UN system to be the secretariat to guide them. And now we're talking about 60 million people already connected to energy, which with support from Islamic Development Bank is five times the speed of how people were connected to electricity So multilateralism does happen. Collaboration does really, really matter. And when we do come together with a common goal, we do achieve these goals.

Thank you so much. Dr. Fine.

What do you think? I cannot agree more. I totally agree. And multilateralism is relevant. It is still relevant.

But a lot of people will tell you today that multilateralism is dead.

That's why we're reforming, actually. That's why. What gives me hope is that we are reforming. MDBs are reforming. We have new initiatives, new instruments and tools that can make the difference.

Thank you so much. There are new tools that can make the difference and change is needed, perhaps. Thank you. Mariam, last but not least, again, we'll end hopefully on a positive note from you.

Well, I have good news for you. After six years of working in good news, I want to let you know that every single person in this room and outside of it is born with a spark of hope. It's a survival mechanism. It's not optional. We all have hope, but it's a matter of how we keep the spark alive through consistent actions and loudly and noisily advocating what's right?

Thank you so much. A round of applause, please. What I take from this conversation is that we're not starting from zero. The solutions, the knowledge, and the people capable of driving the change are already doing it and they're already here. Thank you all very much for being with us today. Thank you. A round of applause once again for Charity Opari, Ms. Damilola Ogunbiyi, Dr. Isa Fai, and Maryam Solika. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you.

Thank you, panelists, and thank you, moderator, Folly Ba Thibault. We're going to be seeing Folly again later today. What a great thought that Mariam just left us with. Everyone is born with a spark of hope. I hope you'll take that throughout the rest of your day today. Someone recently said to me something about the Sustainable Development Goals that really resonated. They were never simply a 15-year checklist. They were always a global declaration of what matters. I love that framing. Dignity, equality, justice, prosperity, peace, sustainability, and a healthy planet, all interconnected. Let's hear now from leaders who are striving to make those connections every day. Please welcome the UN's first ever Assistant Secretary General for Youth Affairs, Philippe Paoli, who's going to lead this fireside conversation with Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, and the former First Lady of Namibia and SDG advocate, Monica Gingos. Please welcome them.

Good afternoon to everyone. So pleased to be here. And I already made some disruption. So I'm responding to the call the Secretary General always makes to me about the importance of also disruption when it's about advancing the commitments for people and especially for youth. So very pleased to be moderating this important conversation with two inspiring leaders, Ms. Monica Gengos, former first lady of Namibia, and Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Amina Mohammed. So I will start with you, DSG, if it's okay. And earlier today in different segments, we've heard from young leaders from young advocates about the importance that we don't lose sight of the promise we made in 2015, and also about the importance of understanding that we still have time to go towards 2030. And we are living in a world which looks very youthful, especially in developing countries where majority of the population is under the age of 35. So in this context, but also understanding sometimes how our institutions are composed, maybe my question to you, the ESG, is about intergenerational solidarity. And what does this means for you in your personal journey and also why this is important to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Thank you very much, Philippe, and great to be here with everyone. I think the intergenerational commitment, solidarity is an imperative for us to get it right for today and tomorrow. And we talk about future generations, but I think today it's important that we are having a conversation, we are co-creating together, we are understanding that my generation will be custodians, but the generation that we are to engage with will be the leaders. And much of that leadership has already started today. And with the event of technology and the many changes that are happening so rapidly, it is about that youthful generation. In the United Nations, it is a member state institution. And I think that what we have been able to do is to say, if we are to be true to meaningful participation, more than just voice and being at the table, I think a young person said the other day, thank you for the voice, thank you for the table, can I now have the pen? Meaningful participation is going to mean that you shape those agendas in terms of informing them. Decisions will be taken by member states, but if they're not properly informed with that engagement, then we will not see outcomes that will get us to the SDGs. The framework that we made the promise on by 2030 was with young people. Have we traveled the road with them in implementation? I think in most cases, probably not. We still hear them, they're still at the table, but engaged in that implementation, not so. And that needs to happen from countries up. And we have four years to go, so we're not done yet. And I think that that commitment to solidarity needs to be seen in our work, in the way we design things, in the advocacy we have, and in the implementation.

Thank you, DSG, for this very deep and substantive response and call for intergenerational, I would say, justice, which goes even beyond solidarity. And I will turn now to Ms. Monica Gaingos. You're one of the SDG advocates of the UN. You have been during your whole journey now also currently as executive chairperson of One Economy Foundation leading on this agenda, putting young people at the center of development. And maybe my question to you on all your journeys, We are approaching in just one year an important political moment, which will be the SDG 2027 Summit. And this summit comes also in that final stretch towards 2030. So my question to you is, what do you believe is the responsibility of the leaders that we have today across institutions, across the UN system, across governments, in terms to ensure that young people go beyond consultation as the DSG was sharing. How we ensure that they are meaningfully included towards this summit and beyond this moment.

So something happened as we were walking in. Amina, as the DSG, was supposed to walk in first and she stood back and she said, "Moni, could you go first?" And to me, that's how we're going to solve this issue. We must have an older generation of leaders who step back. I think we need to assess what we fear losing, whether it's power, whether it's resources, whether it's status, and really understand that the average young person, if you ask them what the SDG is, they won't be able to tell you. But if you ask them what are the challenges that they're grappling with, they'll tell you about how hard it is to find employment, how hard it is to access healthcare and education, the impact of inequalities on everything, on health, on access, on their political issues, their social issues. So they'll articulate the SDGs in their language. So the SDG, it doesn't stop in 2030. Those issues don't go away. I think they'll start to coalesce, and I think we're not addressing the issues with the urgency. nor are we addressing it at the scale and the complexity exists in. And I think the big thing, if we want to talk about what do we need to do as an older generation, is to make space, it's to give up some power, it's to give up space, it's to give up some resources and really enable decision making, real decision making to happen. Just a second thought on that is also the age gaps between our populations. You mentioned the statistic about more than 70% of populations being under the age of 30. And then you look at the age of our leaders, and it's not in any way to suggest that age immediately says you're a good or a bad leader, whether you're young or old. I think that's not the only criteria. But there is an age gap between these big youth populations and the leaders between them. And I think we need to narrow that gap a little bit as well.

Thank you. Miss Monica, for this substantive also message that started with something extremely simple and human, which is how leaders take concrete actions in their day-to-day, but also into the complexity of the current gaps we still have across generations in terms of understanding certain topics and how we breach them. And this brings me to even my own experience when I joined the UN. It's been three years now. And I'm thinking about how critical has been in this journey also taking time to learn from those that have been for more time around. And on a reverse way, I am also very impressed always when you have leaders that have been many years that are actually asking you as a younger person, what is your point here? And they will take that into consideration. So maybe this brings me back to you, DSG, and maybe this time going even more into the personal role of being a woman leading at the global stage. What do you think is one message for young people? What is one critical thing young people bring to the institutions that maybe complements what older generations can bring?

We started the SDG moment for good reason, not just that it is a Broadway hit, The Lion King, but we were talking about the circle of life, from when you come and when you leave. And I think it was to make that connection, that there is a space there in which you are growing and learning and contributing until such time as you come all the way back down again and you're feeding the foundations. And I think if there is any big message here is that have very clear distributions of labor as we go through life. I don't see old and young, I see experience. And that experience come from anyone's happenstance in life. It can be a young person that has an experience and therefore that's what will lead to a solution that we have that we're grappling with many challenges. So I think that just understanding that everyone has a value to add in the discourse of whatever it is that we're taking and that's always been something I'm conscious of. I'm conscious that I've been the youngest person in the room for a long time and now it's difficult for me to say I'm the oldest, but someone is going to be the youngest in the room and that space has to be given for that person to carry their courage of their conviction. It takes a lot as a young person to walk in a room of old people. And you need to make space for that. And I think that that's something I learned that many along my journey gave me. I think the second big message is don't do this alone. When we talk about solidarity, we talk about all those that we take with us. And I think that path in that circle of life is short, it's long. Sometimes we don't see the end. We are in a hurry to do things yesterday. But I think the more you take people with you, the greater the impact, the more you have the shock absorbers of life around you. Because today, what I have great concern over is the anxiety, the mental health issues that I see young people trying to grapple with. And I'm wondering what happened in my time, what were my support systems? And I think that in Africa we had many more than we have today because of the context of urbanization, the context of conflict, the many different experiences that we have that we're not able to respond to. So having community, solidarity, whatever the generations are, making sure that you're well connected and you're getting there together, make every step count and take it, you know, do it with people.

I believe it deserves an applause. And this was not in the run of show, but now that you brought a critical topic to the conversation, I will take the chance of being with you here. And I think you were referring to one of the most human dimensions, which is our well-being and our mental health. and how this is very grounded with any issue in relation to development. Because when we think about our wellbeing and mental health, it goes across every SDG. It's about access to jobs, it's about education, it's about community. And we are living in a world with a lot of technological disruption. So thank you for bringing that component of how we really reinforce the aspects of communities coming together across generations, of connecting across people and also about promoting to really break stigma also on people, on topics like this one. And at the end, it's about real people having real conversations, because I think that's what we need most in the UN.

We did something amazing in our community, the international community, and I think that that was finally realizing that the head belonged on the body and not in a corner somewhere when we talked about mental health. It was difficult, it was not just the stigma, but it was just really understanding that connection between the mind and the body and the body and the mind. And I think that we are so much more aware of that today, and maybe because of technology, because the way knowledge itself is shared, it allowed us to open up on many of those discussions. That's something that we should continue to keep at the core, because we're not there yet. I mean, there are experiences today in Sudan, in the Sahel, in Gaza that I don't know how one responds to. I remember the anxiety and the mental health reaction in the war in Ukraine, because never did we imagine that we would have a war in Europe in this day and age. So I think these are contextual issues that if we don't weave in to what we find as solutions to the many challenges in trying to get to the SDGs, we will leave many, many behind.

Thank you, ESG. And sorry for breaking a little bit the structure, but again, I'm responding to the guidance of my boss. Ms. Monica, I come back to you and learning about your journey, I think it's inspiring for young leaders across regions. And maybe I want to get there, in your own leadership journey. And I'm curious to ask you if you can share with us a certain moment, a certain initiative where you saw the real power of collaboration across people, across generations, across sectors, that really put the, what is the spirit behind the sustainable development goals into practice?

I, probably need to start by explaining where I was before I became a first lady. I ran the largest private equity fund in the country. It's still the largest private equity fund in the country. And in order to become first lady, we need to do asset declarations and all kinds of things and divestments just to ensure that the transparency part was done. I mention this because being more private sector creature than a public sector creature, I was part of the us, private sector, and I saw government as them. And getting closer to government, I actually realized that's exactly the problem. The issues that are solved by governments are complex, and you need your best brains and your best talent in government. And there's a talent problem there. There's a lot of good capacity in governments, but it's not enough. So something I have a conversation with young people in all of the programs that I'm involved in is that we'll never achieve SDGs, we'll never solve structural issues in our countries if we only talk about the political representation of young people. We must talk about young people being prepared to go into the public sector and into governments. because we have to resolve the issue of state capacity, we have to resolve the issue of human capital in governments, and they resist that a lot. And I personally have been very involved in getting more and more people from the private sector into the public sector, and it's tough. It's tough. As soon as they see the challenges, you have to let go of lucrative salaries, of structure, and you need to put up with quite a lot, but you can't change the outcomes of any country without improving state capacity and without people and the best talent transitioning to the public sector. So when I was faced with the challenge of what do I do now in this role that I find myself in, given the experience I had, my experience was a private equity manager. It was raising capital and managing it for optimal capital returns on behalf of third parties. I didn't see my role as a first lady as different. I had to use social capital and translate that into social returns and manage whatever money comes from that in seeing that. So we spoke a lot to young people, what do they want? They wanted a integrated youth services, bricks and mortar building where all of the issues, the full spectrum of the issues could be resolved. Trying to find the money for that was difficult. And I had to find the capital, I had to find people, and it was tough, but it got done. And that was, to me, an example of you don't need people's permission to lead, you don't need formal positions to lead. We all have responsibilities to do whatever we can from where we are. Two weeks ago, I was in the south of Angola, same people as me. speak the same language, we look the same. I come from northern Namibia. The first lady of Angola had come to see this building that we put up for young people. She was hearing exactly the same thing from young people in Angola. She consulted with my team. She listened to the young people of Angola and put up a similar building or initiative for young people in southern Angola. And to me, that showed how ideas of young people in Namibia and Angola ended up being translated by people who had social capital, who listened to them, put resources behind their views, both what they wanted and how important it is actually for cross-border integration of services because again, it's the same people, especially on the northern parts of our borders. If you look carefully, especially on our continent, our problems are either on the east or it's on the northern parts of our borders. We're the same people, so we must start resolving the same problems with the same resources. in an integrated fashion. So I think that's my personal example of how to use where you are with limited resources to get things done on behalf of other people.

Thank you. Thank you for highlighting the importance of trust for collaboration, but also the importance of building capacity within institutions, especially in the public sector, to advance any of these goals, these global goals. So we are running out of time, but before wrapping up, I want a last message from you two. And maybe I take the chance to share something I read yesterday. Many reports are always released before UN High-Level Week. And yesterday there was one that every year comes in relation to the views about the UN. And once again this year, this report done by Pew Research shows that is a group between 18 and 35 where we have the strongest support for the values that the UN represents. So I want to hear from you two as two global committed senior leaders. What is that message that we can bring in relation to the SDGs, hope, and the role of the UN to these young people across so many countries that are expecting a lot from these values and the promise this organization represents?

I think it's about localizing what those values are in the languages within the context and experiences of the people who are there so that it doesn't feel abstract, that it doesn't feel far away. And I think it's doing what a previous panelist spoke about. It's about protecting the truth as well. I think there is a lot of misinformation that ends up us not having shared values. And as we differ and as we argue and fight, people die. The consequence of failed policies, of unimplemented policies, is people die deaths that they shouldn't be dying, whether it's women dying in childbirth, whether it's high infant mortality, whether it's our fights around reproductive health, whatever it is, young people die when an older generation doesn't coalesce around shared values. So I think it's about localization, it's about making the SDGs personal and contextual.

DSG.

I like to refer to this place as the global town hall for our global village. And I think it matters for everyone because you are able to amplify your voices. Everyone has a voice, all our member states and therefore through them, the world. We don't all have the same muscle. And today, we see many challenges to this. So, the world today is not the best it could be, and a lot of the stories are not good, but the aspirations of the values and principles we have of the Charter still remain the same, and that's why you see young people who still identify with that. And the gap between the two is our job to sell the commodity, hope, and get on with not just bringing people into this hall, but ensuring that those halls are in every country and that the UN is convening because it has the trust and it can bring together strange bedfellows in a country where a government perhaps couldn't and do exactly what Monica is saying, make people feel that they are heard, that their issues are the ones that are being tabled and that we're trying to implement. And not always just to stick the acronym SDG on everything, you know, what are you doing for the SDGs, but what are you doing for health? explain behind these acronyms what exactly it is and how you can have an economy that's inclusive, that if it works and revenues are coming, that it's about systems of health, of education, that we are saying, yes, the climate is crossing borders like we've never seen before, and that we can invest in adaptation if we bring an integrated agenda together. People, farmers, know what that means, but they don't exactly call it SDG X, you know, no hunger, SDG 2. And I think that's what we need to do is the language. And we have this new technology, technology that is an extension of many youth and what they do, and that makes it more exciting for them to have smart agriculture, to teach and learn differently. And I think we need to find a way to bring that into the intergenerational conversation and implementation and how we can do that better. So just more purposely and more focused exactly what this town hall means beyond New York, beyond Geneva, in every single country, whether it's Nigeria, Namibia, Uruguay. This is what we need to see more of. And we need to do it sooner rather than later. We need to learn to be more responsive rather than reactive. and just be listening and learning and having the fire in your belly to fight for it as well. Because I think there's less fight today, it's in echo chambers. It needs to be one that says we, that we the people is every single one in our family. How do we fight? How do I fight your fight? And you're fighting Monica's fight, it's not just about yours. And I think that that's something we have to get back to, is that whole we. is the responsibility we have. We drop that, people die, people don't go to school, people don't have access to the health that they have a right to.

Thank you, DSG. Thank you, Ms. Monica. It's been a pleasure, and we continue with the rest of the program.

Thank you, everyone, and thank you, ASG, interviewing his boss. No pressure at all. Now, as my friends clear the stage behind me, it's your turn. For those of you who are in the room and those of you watching, thank you for the focus you've given us to what we've been sharing with you all morning. Really appreciate it. But as we've been hearing, the goals will be delivered by everybody. And so even today, you have a part to play. I'm not going to, don't worry, I'm not going to ask you to moderate a panel or play the trumpet like Ella Brick. But I am going to ask you all to recommit to the SDGs together, right now. Let's send a message. In years from now, when we look back, what's the story we want to tell? Is it that we nearly made it? Or is it that together, we did it? That isn't really a question, we don't have a choice, the young are waiting and watching, we saw them and heard from them. The story we have to tell is that together we can do it. Together we can do it. Will you say it with me? Say it with me. Together we can do it. Together we can do it. One more. Let's have it really loud. Together we can do it. Great job. Now, hold on to that. Imagine, once we do it, after we get there, once we achieve the goals, what would that be like? With that in mind, I'm really excited to introduce the next part of the program. I've been told that something like this has never happened in the General Assembly before, so this is special. It's a specially written short play, specially written for today. Created by author Rajiv Joseph and the Waterwell Theatre Company, both award-winning creators, it's a conversation between two different worlds. Here's Izzy, the main performer. Hi, Izzy. It's called The Future Speaks to Now.

I'm sorry, but I have no dreams for the future. Does anyone my age? I work hard in school. I earn good grades. Reading is my favorite thing ever, but most days I can barely think straight. There's this whole other world online where people are constantly harassing me. I see them every day, but the adults don't see what's happening. I don't want to go back to school at all. On top of that, my dad's business is falling apart. My mom's losing her job to some automated thing. My parents, I love them so much, they're forced to tell me they're not sure if we can stay in our home. I understand. I understand the economics of things. I'm smart. I'm smart enough to know that even if I do keep going to school, there won't be a job waiting for me. I'm smart enough to know that there won't even be air to breathe or water to drink. But the world I'd simply be too scary and angry and broken.

I'll get a job.

Good for you.

I'll be a nurse and work in a hospital.

Neonatal care.

Great, thanks for telling me.

It won't be an easy road to get there, but I wanted to help people.

I'm sorry, but I don't care.

I'll work in our local government to ensure clean drinking water.

Don't you understand? This has nothing to do with me.

I'm gonna be a teacher, math and science. These were always the subjects we loved as a family. We marvel at the facts of the world that aren't up for debate.

I'm happy you're all so successful.

You don't understand.

What don't I understand?

We're going to live.

Going to thrive. We have health care, education, we have families.

But I have none of those things. I'm too scared to dream.

We are your dreams.

We are your triumph.

We are your patience, your heartbreak, your struggle.

Who are you?

We are your children, mama. I'm your eldest daughter.

I'm your son.

I'm your youngest daughter.

I don't have children. I'm 13.

You almost lose me when I'm born, but the great nurses and doctors saved me. You always say that I was too stubborn to die, that I gave.

You strength, but it was you, Mama, who gave me strength.

You'll teach me to read, to spell.

To dress nice without much money.

You try to teach us how to cook.

We never really learned how to cook.

I can cook.

We never really learned how to cook. At least not like you, Mama. Nothing like you.

This can't be true. How can this be possible?

It's hard to explain, but...

Sometimes in the quiet moments of our consciousness, we are offered a moment of clarity.

A vision of a world we shouldn't be.

Able to see, where past and present and future mold into a prism of... Of hope or possibility. You'll tell us of this time right now, a time of great uncertainty, of drought, of war.

Of great.

Technological advancements that are immensely frightening just before they are focused to create the very possibility for you to move.

To create, to forge, Mama, for yourself a ferocious and brave future for your family.

Two daughters.

One son.

And many grandchildren. I am the youngest.

And grandmother, let me just say, these people, this generation, they tend to be the optimistic types.

I'm more like you.

I worry. I worry so much about the world. But when I despair, I remember you, your story.

Because when you were born, leaders around the world determined with an agenda to save the planet.

They set goals to completely involve the entire world. They resolved to free the human race from the tyranny of poverty and secure stability for our planet.

Oh, don't let him skip the history.

Some looked down upon this grand vision, resisted giving their support for the betterment of the whole world, and put sand in the gears of real partnership.

Yes, but ultimately, the bigger vision.

Won out.

The determination to apply the bounty of knowledge won out.

People knew how to solve the problems, and they did.

And you can't see it now.

You're still just growing up, living your life. But they do double down on the promises they made when you were born, the Sustainable Development Goals.

And they solved them.

And they solve them.

The problems we have are the problems we know how to solve.

That's right. The problems we have are the problems we know how to solve. Thank you, Mama.

Merci beaucoup, Mama.

Spasibo, Mama. Shukran, ya Mama. Gracias, Mama. Shukran, ya Mama.

Didn't I tell you that was going to be special? That was incredible, guys. I just want to make sure we know who everybody is in the team from Water Well. On stage, Izzy Elena Rita, Michael Braun, Karen Lugo, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Ariane Moide, director Lee Sunda, and the playwright Rajiv Joseph. Let's give them another round of applause. That was so great. The problems we have are the problems we know how to solve. What a terrific message that was. Reminds me of our slogan for today, together we can do it. Now, I want to keep this energy, this moment. There's something special happening right now. I want you to take a moment to think quietly for yourselves. What would that conversation be like for you when we get there, talking to, from the future, back to the past? Just take 10 seconds to imagine it, having that conversation. Can you do it? Are you having that conversation? Can you feel it, how that feels that we did it? Remember our call to action. Imagine yourselves what it would be like when we get there. What's the world you see? Think big, think bold. Again, that's why we're all here in the global town hall for the global village. Okay, I'm going to get you to do something else unusual today now. I'm going to give you 10 seconds. I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you. And if you're sitting on your own, turn to the person nearest behind you. It doesn't matter. And I want you to tell them in one sentence, after we achieve the goals together, what does that world look like to you? Go for it. Do it now. Turn around. And if you're doing it at home, think to yourself. Tell your friends, tell your family. Okay. Okay, everyone. Now my task is to get you to focus again. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for getting out of your comfort zone and sharing probably the reason that you're in this room to begin with. Remember that, because that's the vision. And if we have a vision, we just have to figure out how to get there. And as we know with the goals, it's not about figuring how, we know how to get there. This is about redoubling our efforts, regaining the momentum. So thank you for that. We're going to move now to the final part of today's program. We've heard some amazing speakers, still got some amazing remarks to come. So I'm going to invite, first of all, two civil society voices. And let's get remarks from Mandeep Tiwana, the Secretary General of CIVICUS, and Malia Khan, the President and CEO of Women Deliver. Please welcome them.

Distinguished dignitaries and fellow citizens of the world, Agenda 2030 is arguably the greatest ever human endeavor ever undertaken to create more peaceful, just, equal, and sustainable societies. It was crafted in a moment of sublime optimism in 2015, when committed public servants, insightful technocrats, visionary leaders, thankfully we still have some of them around, and fierce civil society advocates came together to put together a framework that's grounded in constitutional commitments and international human rights law. Civil society has a key role to play in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Indeed, we help with inclusive decision-making, service delivery to the most excluded, and in ensuring that we act as watchdogs on public resources and priorities. As such, civil society needs to be assured of the promise of civic space and fundamental freedoms, the freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and expression, which allow us to come together, speak out, and take action. Too often, our work is impeded by disabling laws that prevent us from seeking resources at home and abroad.

and from various forms of persecution for uncovering.

Corruption, serious human rights violations, or seeking to drive transformative change in our societies, whether on gender justice, whether on political justice, whether on economic justice, or whether on environmental justice. The means with which civil society is persecuted are many, including physical attacks, arbitrary arrest and detention, and maligning of our reputations. Yet, the quest to speak truth to power, the quest to create a better world for all, remains relevant and something we remain committed to. In this situation, we urge the international community to recommit to guaranteeing meaningful participation for all and to create a safe and enabling environment for civil society to be an effective partner.

In the implementation of the goals.

I thank you.

Thank you. It's a hard act to follow from that play and from Mandeep and from the DSG and from Monica Gingras. But let me mention two words here that haven't been mentioned before. Well, actually the play did mention, I caught it, thrive and rights. And those two have not been mentioned. We've talked about problems, we've talked about commitments, We've talked about the role of partnerships. We've talked about how everyone has to come together and play a role. But what we've not talked about is that it's vitally important for us to do that so that humanity, all the people around the world, not only their problems can be solved, not only their voices can be heard, not only their futures can be ensured, but that that is done in a way that they can thrive as human beings. And that is the right of everyone who's born on this earth. And that is the responsibility of every state in the boundaries of which they have been born, regardless of who they are, regardless of the state, regardless of the government. So this is a reminder that the SDGs, as Mandeep reminded us, a lot of very smart people came together and said, how do we put this in a framework that people could understand? How do we put this into a structure that governments can debate, they can measure, and they can hold each other accountable? So as civil society, we have to remind ourselves that what we are is the collective voice of all those people who have the right to thrive. And the SDGs are the manifestation of all the ways in which people need the governments and the private sector and civil society and academia and everyone else to step up and work towards allowing and making the conditions that would allow them to thrive. We put them into numbers. We put them into goals, we put them into sub-goals, we make all sorts of commitments, we issue all sorts of reports, because that is institutionally how institutions here in New York and other places can work and manifest themselves. But we need to remind ourselves at the end of the day, that these are the commitments that every single government has towards every single human being that lives within its boundaries, and that the rest of us support the governments in trying to solve these complex, complicated and difficult to do things. And right now, and several people mentioned it in the panels, governments are under attack, civil society is under attack, academia is under attack, multilateralism is under attack, because the people who are attacking all of these recognize that if we are able to come together and we allow all the human beings on Earth to thrive to their highest potential, then their goals may not be achieved. So I urge us and urge all of us, including civil society, and we commit as civil society to say every girl, woman, gender diverse person, and men, sometimes we speak on their behalf too, has the right to thrive And we must all come together to ensure that. Whether we come together under the rubric of an SDG or something else, it doesn't really matter. Because at the end of the day, and many people spoke about this, it is about education. It is about clean water. It is about safety and security and health. And like I said before, every human being has a right to that. Because without that, they cannot thrive. Thank you.

Thank you, Malia Khan and Mandeep Tiwana. Another amazing thought there, with a collective voice of all those people who have a right to thrive. How powerful is that? Now I'm going to invite remarks from Lee Jun-hwa, Under-Secretary-General for United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues, dear young representatives, as we close this year's SDG Moment, let me thank all Member States and partners for bringing your commitment, experience and vision to this important conversation. Our theme this year is "Together we can do". It reminds us of the urgency and the moment and what we can achieve by working together. Our world is facing multiple intersecting crises, from geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty to the climate crisis, rapid technological change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, debt distress, and widening inequality. While staying mindful of the challenges ahead, we must also recognize the significant progress achieved over the past decade. Access to electricity has reached 92% of the world population. Internet connectivity has increased from 40% in 2015 to 74% today. Nearly half, nearly one million people have gained access to safely managed drinking water since 2015. These are not just statistics. They represent profound, tangible improvements in the lives of the hundreds of millions of people. They have to prove that the progress is entirely possible when the political will, investment, and partnership align. However, the progress is not happening at the speed or scale that we need. Today, only 36% of the measurable SDG targets are on track or advancing moderately. The remaining years to 2030 must be a delivery cycle, not another reporting cycle. Our challenge now is to implement proven solutions at scale. Despite the challenging political context, member states have engaged constructively in several multilateral processes, producing key outcomes, including the severe commitment on financing for development, the Doha Political Declaration for the World Social Summit, and also the 2025 UN Ocean Conference outcome. The agreement on the sustainable use of the marine biological diversity of the areas beyond the national jurisdiction is another important and shining example. Member states demonstrated that the political will can produce new legally binding agreements to address the challenges that no country can tackle alone. We need that spirit of cooperation now more than ever. We are also living through an era of extraordinary change. Technology, demographics, climate, and geopolitics are transforming our societies at a remarkable pace. But what we can decide is what kind of world we want to build and to set the path forward. Sustainable development is our path. The collaboration across the borders is the only effective vehicle to get us there. This is why the road to the 2027 SDG Summit is so critical. The Summit represents an opportunity to champion practical, high-impact actions that can still change the trajectories before 2030 and beyond 2030. We must use the summit to take the stock, strengthen ambition, and above all, accelerate the delivery. We must look beyond 2030. Ultimately, enduring legacy of the SDGs may well be in the stronger culture of the cooperation, accountability, evidence-based policy making, and the whole of the society engagement that the 2030 agenda has helped institutionalize. The SDGs have the 2030 deadline. Sustainable development does not. Dear colleagues, the experience of the past decade gives us a cause for both urgency and confidence. We know that progress is possible. We know that the solutions exist. And we know that what countries, institutions, businesses, communities, and the people join forces change happens at the scale. Let us make 2027 a moment, a true acceleration, serving a bridge to our long-term future. And let us continue to work together across the borders and across the generations to build the future we all want. Together, we can do it. Thank you.

Thank you, Under-Secretary-General Lee Jun-hwa, for those powerful remarks. Now, over the years, I've had the privilege of interviewing our next speaker many times, but I'll admit, this time hits differently. Because if we're here today talking about the Sustainable Development Goals, the progress made and the road still ahead, It is in no small part thanks to her, the chief architect of the SDGs, the United Nations Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed. And because her term draws to a close this December, today is a chance for us all to pause and to pay tribute to a woman who has spent a lifetime serving a better human condition. Very early on, She carried an incredible sense of responsibility to help those around her and build a better future for everyone long before the world gave her a title to do it. Her career has taken her everywhere that work needed to be done, from the private sector, building schools and hospitals across Nigeria, to civil society, to government, serving as Nigeria's environment minister, and onto the global stage where she helped write the 2030 agenda itself. Ask anyone who's worked on this agenda and they will tell you that the progress we've made would not have happened without her. So through every chapter also, very important, one thread has remained and has never been broken. And that is Amina Mohammed's insistence that women and girls have health, have education, have jobs, and a seat at the table. That, simply by being who she is and where she sits, is why she inspires me and millions of people on our continent of Africa and beyond. So today, ladies and gentlemen, we celebrate a legacy that outlasts any title and look forward to a next chapter that she has more than earned. One where at last, her time might actually belong to her. So please join me in welcoming to the stage a leader, a builder, a mother, a sister, a friend, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Oh, goodness. Okay, that wasn't on the script. Thank you so much for the, and you forgot the grandmother. But no, thank you so much. Many, many friends in the room, our member states, excellencies. I've spent a lot of mornings in this hall, at this podium, at the side, but this one has lifted me the most, and I have to tell you this time, Yesterday evening when we came to have a rehearsal, I was wondering if we were going to make it. But thank you to my team. And that's always why there is success here is because we work together on the SDGs, but also on this moment and year in, year out, they managed to pull it off. And today you did an amazing job. So thank you on behalf of the SG and myself. But also thank you for all of you that have brought through the doors the energy that we needed, and particularly the panels that had those discussions on issues that we've been speaking about for 10 years, and we still need to do so much more in the next four years as we try to deliver on the promise of the SDGs. There are champions today who have shared their stories, and they've done it through the creatives, the music that we have heard, the skits that we have watched. Every one of them has touched our hearts, and I think it has allowed us to imagine what we can do when we go out of this hall. And it's because they inspire, it is hopeful. And so it is great to see you all in this room, to see delegations committing, recommitting, and reaffirming their commitment to the SDGs. 2030 is close enough to demand urgency and far away enough for us to make a difference. So we're not done yet. And when people talk to me about post 2030, I keep saying, let's get to 2030 and then we can talk about beyond. Of course, there is a big reality check because we did not have AI in 2015 when we gaveled the goals and now we do. But let's use that as an opportunity. And I know there are a lot of reasons why we should be concerned. But if we can push out the concern with the opportunity and the investments we need to put those guardrails in, we will do so much better in accelerating towards the momentum that I heard this morning for trying to get to the SDGs. It has been 11 years of really hard work and open and urgent call for the rest of the world to catch up. The Secretary-General has said this morning, progress is never automatic. It has been earned through the determination of people, communities, countries, individually and collectively, who are still trying to transform our world. And the goals have been transformational. We remember going from the MDGs and the eight of them were really only about the band-aid. This is about the systems that will help us to deliver, that we leave no one behind. And it's a phrase that for me is at the core of what we want to do to deliver the rights of people across the world, wherever they are and whoever they may be. So as we close today's SDG moment, my mind is on the years ahead of us and the promise that we still owe to people and to protecting our planet. Some here, four years to 2030 and think of a clock running down, we're thinking of something different. Most of my working life, we've measured development progress in decades. Today, technology itself can make it in a matter of weeks, minutes, and a good solution can spread far faster than it once could. At that pace, we do have the opportunity to look at a vastly different picture in 2030. So the road to 2030, a runway, rather than a countdown, and every metre of it counts. We continue down that one way knowing much more about what works than we did as we set out in 2015, and with some humility, knowing that where we fell short, and with also some pride for the thousands of the solutions that have proven themselves and actually deserve greater investment. In 11 years, we've faced a pandemic. We've faced two awful conflicts that are still ongoing today, climate shocks. and what I often say is the loss of our moral compass when it comes to Gaza. And we have each time, communities and countries have picked themselves up and they begin to build something stronger. When COVID hit, years of development gains were wiped out overnight. Children and young people lost schools, years of schooling and opportunity. Developing countries were left waiting for vaccines. And today, countries building the capacity to make their own. So we're learning from those crises that we overcame. When the war in Ukraine sent food and fuel prices soaring, the world felt the fragility of our systems. Almost 200 million people were facing acute hunger than before the pandemic. Families who had never struggled to eat were suddenly cutting meals. Yet the world responded, strengthening preparedness, diversifying our supply chains, and building shock absorbers that are still proving useful today. Sustainable development is how we make sure each shock does less damage than it's done before. Sadly, the headwinds still come, and we have to navigate them. When conflict breaks out in one region, a family on the other side of the continent pays more for food and fuel. and a government already stretched takes on more debt to cope. When we gavelled the goals, few of us imagined that a decade later we would be speaking about the climate overshoot, the promise of Paris in jeopardy. For young people wondering what kind of planet they're inheriting, this is a daily concern. For indigenous people watching lands and ways of life around them, it is a hastening reality. The climate crisis has changed the conditions in which development now has to happen, but has not closed the door, and we can still bring that temperature back down as long as emissions fall faster and clean energy reaches every developing country with the finance that is needed. So development has to keep navigating through the storm. We must all, in one way or another, lean in. Countries have no way to put their people's future on hold until the sky is clear, and that means that finance must arrive now and not tomorrow. The severe commitments gave us a framework to close that 4 trillion SDG dollar financing gap, and tackling the debt crisis and reforming a financial system that isn't delivering for where people, where it matters for people most, is still at the core. Commitments were made, what matters now is As always, delivery at the speed and the scale that the moment demands. To keep saying we're missing the goals, we need to look at why are we missing those goals. And often, as the report says today on gender equality, we are so far back. I hate it when people tell me it's going to take us 100 or 200 years to get there. But today's stats, that's what they're telling us. The goals were agreed before, as I said just earlier, artificial intelligence. They will be delivered with it, and it is set to transform action on every single one of them. Of that, we have no doubt. For a woman that is applying for her first job, that can mean a biased algorithm deciding whether her application is ever seen. For a person with disabilities, AI can do in a moment what services have failed to do for years, or it can lock in the same exclusions. So the issue is not simply how powerful the technology becomes in this brave new world of AI, it is who it works for, whose voice is present when it is built, and whether it gives people more agency over their lives. And that depends on the guardrails and the human judgment we build around it, and on whether technology strengthens our social fabric rather than thinning it. Beyond 2030, sustainable development, I believe, will still be our compass. keeping every choice we make anchored in the lives that it's meant to improve. My ask is a simple one. I'd like everyone in this hall, those who have been here, those who have gone, and everyone that is watching, to really leave today with a commitment to accelerate, to take what is working to scale, to build progress that can withstand the shock, and to put the finance behind it, and to ensure that this happens from our local realities, our communities, our families, and we build upwards. And when you want to consider impact, real impact, look beyond the numbers. Can a child get through the school door and come out educated? Can a young person see a future worth building, or would they have to remain in the anxiety and the mental health that has no end to it? Can a woman turn her work into security for herself and her family, her community? Can an older person count on care and an income that they can live on and live a life of dignity? Can a community protect the land, the knowledge, and the way of life it wants to pass on? If the answer is yes for people who have been furthest from progress, then we are getting somewhere. Countless champions on this stage today and beyond are already on the runway of 2030. My hope is that every one of you will join them. because we can do this, but we have to do it together, in solidarity, for human dignity, for those that don't have the voice, and for those that sometimes are not seen. And with that, I just want to thank everyone for really being on this journey with us, but we need a little bit more fire in our belly so that we can go out there, we can do more today, more tomorrow, and we can go further than the 2030 agenda. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Secretary General. Thank you to all our speakers. Yeah. But you have to keep that going, because I'm also thanking all our speakers, all our moderators, and all our performers. Let's give them a round of applause as well. Thanks to you all too, watching online and here in the room with us as well. Thanks to our incredible interpreters. I was listening a little bit. They do amazing work, so thank you very much. Yeah. At the start of the show, I said we had a live scribe and a real-time artistic interpretation of today's program. We're going to show that to you at the very end of the show. There's one more thing left to go. It'll also be on the SDG Moment website later on. I'm Rajesh Merchantani. Thank you for letting me be your host and storyteller today. It's been a privilege.

Thank you.

But the best is yet to come. To close our program, I'm delighted to introduce an artist who is a global icon. He uses the power of music to unite nations and amplify the voices of Africa. Please welcome UN Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and the legendary voice of Senegal, Baba Maal.

Sidikari dematoro sidikari dematoro.

Yemamara, mata.

Sare. number one No more troubles, no more wars. No more sufferings, no more violence, no more discrimination. All we need is love.

If you want to be an example We need all of us to walk on.

Peace In a bright future for all the next generations It's gonna be all right Africa Amina. Amina. Please get up.

Please.

All of you.

Woman of my land. of the world. African woman. From town to village, from office to fields, from house to factory, you are the land, you are the mother, we respect you. City girl, city. The battle thank you Thank you, our sister, Amina Mohamed, and all the people that was collaborating with her. She did really, really good. She did put light and hope in our hearts and make us believe that the future can be bright. But to make it happen, Like we all said, we need peace on the planet. We need to be together. We need to believe that we are all one single person. And we can make it happen.

Amina, thank you very much.

Baba Ma, thank you so much. Thank you, everyone.