8th plenary meeting - 64th Session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD64)

Good morning. The 8th meeting of the 64th session of the Commission for Social Development is called to order. I invite the Commission to continue its consideration of agenda item 3A, entitled Priority Theme, Advancing Social Development and Social Justice through Coordinated, Equitable and Inclusive Policies. in order to hold an interactive dialogue with the senior officials of the United Nations system, entitled United for Inclusion, Leveraging the United Nations System for Transformative Social Development. I'm pleased to welcome you to the interactive dialogue on priorities for transformative social development. And we will now hear pre-recorded video presentations from the distinguished panelists. From Mr. Gilbert Hongbo, Director General of the International Labor Organization. Mr. Claver Gatete, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Ms. Tatiana Molchan, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Mr. Jose Manuel Salazar, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Armida Salsiah Ali-Schabana, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Mr. Murad Ghaibah, Acting Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. And finally, Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. I'm also pleased to welcome the moderator, Ms. Bjorg Sandkjaer, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Ms. Sandkjaer, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and good morning, distinguished delegates. A very warm welcome to all of you. And also, I'd like to express our sincere appreciation to our distinguished panelists for joining us today. So at its 64th session, the Commission for Social Development is meeting for the first time following the adoption of the Doha Political Declaration of the Second World Summit for Social Development. And that declaration reaffirms the Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action from 1995, and it underscores the need for coordinated, equitable, and inclusive policies to advance social development and social justice. In this context, the interactive dialogue with senior officials of the United Nations system provides a timely opportunity for member states to engage with the system on how these commitments will be operationalized at the global, regional, and national levels. You will have seen from the documentation that today's dialogue is organized in two segments. The first segment focuses on priorities for transformative social development. The second segment to follow later this morning will address UN system leadership for inclusive and integrated policy solutions. For this first segment, I'm very pleased that we will be joined by seven senior officials representing the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, and all five United Nations Regional Commissions. The purpose of this exchange is to highlight key global and regional trends, emerging challenges and policy priorities, and to discuss how the United Nations system can strengthen coordination, regional global linkages, and support member states in the follow-up to the Doha Political Declaration. As we heard from the chair, We will hear pre-recorded messages, a very modern type of panel discussion we will be having today. So we will be hearing pre-recorded messages from the panelists before we will open the floor and have some real interaction. The panelists will address the following questions. What are the key global and regional trends, disparities, and emerging challenges that must be addressed in implementing the commitments of the Doha Political Declaration, and how is your entity supporting member states in addressing these challenges? The second question is how the UN system will contribute to the follow-up and review of and the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration, again, at global, regional, and national levels? Third, how can the regional commissions leverage their existing mandates to convene regional consultations and support the regional follow-up processes? Fourth question, is what global, regional, and national policy innovations or good practices can guide coordinated, equitable, and inclusive policy responses across member states, and how can they be strengthened across regions and within the UN system. Fifth question, how can regional and global linkages be enhanced to improve coherence between regional priorities and the work of the Commission? And finally, what specific support do regions need from the broader UN system to advance social development and social justice? So we will now turn to the pre-recorded video statements prepared by each panelist. Following those interventions, we will open the floor for comments and questions from delegations. I will also follow up with some questions for the panelists. And finally, panelists will be invited to respond and reflect live, virtually, during a dedicated interactive period. So let's turn to the first part of this session, which is the pre-recorded video interventions of the panelists in the order listed. And I would like to invite the secretariat to begin playing the messages.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, The Doha Political Declaration has placed social development and social justice at the heart of a renewed multilateralism and of the UN service for people. We share a collective responsibility to translate the commitment made in Doha into concrete progress in poverty eradication, decent work for all, and social inclusion. The latest ILO data shows that while global unemployment is projected to stay around 4.9%, progress toward decent work has stalled. 400 million people worldwide are ready to work but cannot find or take up employment. Over 2 billion people are in informal sector, working in insecure jobs with minimal protection. And young people continue to face the highest unemployment rate of all. These trends show that the gap in achieving the sustainable development goals remains wide. The Doha Declaration establishes a UN follow-up architecture to help ensure that the UN system has policy coherence, supports developing countries, and integrates social commitment into its work. The ILO will follow up on the Doha Declaration while building on the strategy endorsed by ILO governing body in November 2025. We will continue to support countries in their efforts To extend universal social protection systems, we will mobilize partners and expertise through the Global Accelerator and the Global Coalition for Social Justice. The ILO is committed to ensuring that social justice is at the heart of the UN80 initiative. We will work closely with UN partners at national, regional, and global level, and we will continue to champion multilateralism. Only by working together in partnership can we achieve the sustainable development goals and make sure social justice is a reality for all.

So I thank Mr. Gilbert Hongbo, the Director General of ILO for that message. And I would like to invite the secretariat to play the message from Mr. Claver Gatete, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa.

Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, I'm pleased to address you through this video message. under the theme, "United for Inclusion: Leveraging the United Nations System for Transformative Social Development." We meet at a time when the world is asking a difficult but necessary question. How do we build societies that are not only wealthier, but more inclusive and treated with fairness? Across regions, familiar fault lines from poverty, widening inequality, fragile labor markets, deepening digital divides, to the accelerating impacts of climate change and conflict as straining social cohesion and slowing progress. It is precisely for this reason that the Doha Political Declaration of the Second World Summit for Social Development reaffirmed the simple truth: social development and social justice demand coordinated, equitable, and inclusive policies backed by delivery. Declarations by themselves do not change lives; implementation, integration, and impact do. This is especially urgent for Africa, where structural constraints remain despite resilience and progress. Most jobs remain informal, youth unemployment is high, and gender gaps remain high, and participation and access to finance remain constrained. Moreover, climate shocks increasingly threaten livelihoods and social stability. If current trends continue, many countries will struggle to fully achieve the SDGs by 2030. But there is reason for optimism. Allow me, therefore, to outline three integrated priorities to deliver real change. First, we must transition from informality to decent work through skills acquisition, digitization, and policy coherence. Informality continues to trap millions, especially women and young people, in low-paying jobs with limited protection. At the same time, digitization and artificial intelligence are reshaping the future of work. creating new possibilities while also widening skills gaps. It is therefore imperative that we equip our people to seize these opportunities. In this regard, ECA is supporting countries to upgrade skills, expand technical and vocational education, strengthen labor market data, and better align education systems with market demand. But this requires deliberate action. Policies must be aligned across education, employment and social protection, and investments must be guided by data that reaches rural communities, women, and fragile contexts, not only urban elites. Second, we must build resilient societies by integrating social protection, health, education, and sustainable financing. While coverage has expanded, Africa's social protection systems remain fragmented and underfunded. Informal workers, persons with disabilities, and climate-vulnerable communities are too often left behind. Our societies cannot remain stable when protection is partial and opportunity uneven. In response to this, ECA is working with member states to scale shock-responsive, digitally-enabled social protection, strengthen universal health coverage, and reform education systems for future-ready skills. Additionally, resilience demands stronger institutions and sustainable financing. As such, we must mobilize domestic resources, leverage remittances and blended finance, and build robust data systems that ensure accountability. Third, we must turn Africa's youth barrier into a demographic dividend through jobs, inclusion, and regional coherence. It requires sustained investment in human capital, accelerated job creation in green and digital economies, and genuine access to finance and skills, especially for young women and the vulnerable. Equally important, national efforts must be reinforced by regional action through platforms such as the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, ECA's strengthening peer learning, regional follow-up, and a common African voice in global processes. This is essential to ensure that youth employment, inclusion, and skills development are aligned with both regional priorities and global commitments. Excellencies, the Doha Declaration gives a roadmap, but delivery is what ultimately matters. Africa is ready to do its part. At ECA, we stand ready to work with member states, the UN system, and all partners to turn this new social compact into tangible progress for Africa and for the world. I thank you.

And I would like to thank Mr. Gatete, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, for sharing your views. I would now like to invite playing the recording of our next speaker, who is Ms. Tatiana Molchan, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe.

Distinguished delegates, colleagues, I'm really pleased to join you today for this important discussions in setting priorities for transformative social development as outlined in the Doha Political Declaration. We all agree that there is an urgent need to advance social development and social justice for coordinated and inclusive policies that confront persistent poverty, rising inequalities, demographic shifts, digital divide, and the impacts of climate change and crisis. As regional commissions, we are the bridge between global commitments and national realities. We can translate multilateral norms into practical cooperation to ensure that the outcomes of the second World Summit for Social Development lead to real improvements in people's lives. Across our region, the UNICEF region, we are witnessing profound social changes. Populations are aging, inequalities are widening, and the green and digital transitions are reshaping our economies. These shifts can deepen divides or help close them, depending on the choices we make. And let me briefly highlight four areas in which UNICE is supporting member states in making sure that we do close these divides. First, on demographic change, aging and intergenerational solidarity. UNICE will continue working with member states through the Standing Working Group on Aging to integrate the priorities set in Doha in our new regional implementation strategy for the Madrid International Plan of Action on Aging, helping countries adapt labor markets for aging societies, foster digital inclusion and skills development throughout life, and strengthen gender equality, care, and social protection systems. Second, on data and statistics. Good policy begins with good evidence. Through our group of experts on measuring poverty and inequality, UNICE helps national statistical offices develop and apply multidimensional poverty and inequality measures that go beyond income, including disparities linked to employment, education, health, housing, and access to services. These tools make visible who is still being left behind and why, so policies can be more targeted, equitable and effective. Third, on housing and urban development. UNISE region faces a persistent housing emergencies, which affects member states and their cities with different intensity. The 2025 ministerial commitments on housing affordability and sustainability give us a strong regional framework for policy action fully aligned with the Doha Declaration. UNICE is turning that framework into action through monitoring the implementation of the commitments by the member states, as well as through its country profiles to support sustainable national and local policy development, the UN Forum of Mayors and targeted support, including for post-war urban recovery in Ukraine. And last but not least, as countries decarbonize, UNECE's guiding principle for a just transition ensure that the journey to net zero goes hand in hand with social justice. We are working with governments and industries to design transitions that create new livelihoods, protect communities, and uphold human rights. Across all these areas, UNECE is supporting member states in the follow-up to the summit. The Doha Declaration designates the Commission for Social Development as the primary body for global follow-up, with preparatory meetings at regional level ahead of the first review planned for 2031. UNICEF stands ready to contribute to these efforts within its existing mandates by mobilising peer learning, strengthening data systems, and promoting policies that combine prosperity, solidarity, and sustainability. UNISEAS established platforms such as the Standing Working Group on Aging, the Conference of European Statisticians, and the Committee on Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management provide ready mechanisms for regional consultations for which the commitments of Doha can be advanced and progress discussed. These platforms help ensure that regional priorities feed into global processes and that global commitments are translated into practical pathways for countries across our region. Colleagues, the World Social Summit has reminded us that social development is not simply a byproduct of growth. Economic policy and social policy are two sides of the same coin and can reinforce progress. Concluding, I'd like to reiterate that regional commissions, UNICE among them, stand ready to support member states in turning this renewed global compact for social justice into tangible results for all. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Molchijn, from the Economic Commission of Europe for your insightful contribution. I'm now very pleased to invite Mr. Jose Manuel Salazar Chirinos, Executive Secretary of ECLAC. We look forward to hearing that recording. Thank you.

Ms. CHRISTINA HAVOLYUSHIN: Chair of the 64th session of the Commission for Social Development, Madam Moderator, Ms. Bjork Sanker, Assistant Secretary General for Policy Coordination at UNDESA, thank you very much for your introduction. I would like to begin by greeting my fellow panelists today. It is an honor to participate with all of you. Ladies and gentlemen, first, I'd like to remind you that the Doha Political Declaration has an enormous importance. Given the enormous social challenges in all countries of the world today, the importance of the Doha Declaration cannot be overemphasized enough. It is not just a worldwide commitment to social development, but a modernization of the vision about the challenges and about what needs to be done and how to accelerate progress. The declaration sets out a series of commitments and targets related, among other areas, to eradication of poverty and reduction of social inequalities, universal and sustainable social protection and the expansion of social safety nets, universal health and education, financing and financial reform, including endorsing the Seville Commitment, digital inclusion and making every effort so that the new technologies and AI in particular do not deepen existing inequalities, and integrating social protection with climate action and the Paris Agreement process. On the House, it talks about an integrated policy model, calling for a whole-of-government approach, breaking down policy silos, and it establishes follow-up mechanisms, mainly The mandate to this commission for social development to be the primary body for follow up and progress review, inviting regional commissions to convene preparatory regional meetings, making use of existing mechanisms and platforms, and a formal five-year review cycle starting in 2031. All of this is tremendous progress and very promising and hopeful. The declaration modernizes the vision about multidimensional poverty. It underlines the role of social protection as an essential infrastructure of modern and stable societies. It links this with the powerful idea of social cohesion. It openly discusses financing and the much needed mobilization of resources. And it stresses the importance of institutional and state capacities. So, the declaration has all the ingredients to be transformational. Whether it will be so or not depends entirely on implementation. and on follow-up, which is precisely the focus of this panel and of this interactive dialogue. So, what needs to be done? The first obvious point is, of course, to follow carefully the declaration. But it is not just a matter of reporting progress. The bigger challenge is what countries do on the ground and how we support them. This is what would move the needles. And this is something related to our policy approaches, our methodological developments, our convening of spaces to focus on implementation, our statistical capacities, the tools we make available, and our analysis and recommendations around governance and institutions. So let me tell you a bit about what we do at ECLAC in the area of social development and how we see our work on the follow-up. And I will do this by referring to three dimensions. Policy approaches, existing mechanisms and platforms in Latin America and the Caribbean, and how we plan to use these mechanisms and platforms to support countries in the follow-up. On policy approaches, at ECLAC, we are arguing that the countries of the region are caught in three main development traps. A low capacity to grow and transform trap, a high inequality, low social mobility, and weak social cohesion trap, and a weak institutional capacities, and ineffective governance trap. These traps are interrelated and mutually reinforcing. And to overcome them, ECLAC has proposed a series of vital transformations. Most of these transformations directly reflect the commitments set out in the Doha Political Declaration. But I want to emphasize something which is crucial in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this region, inequality is profoundly rooted in the trap of low capacity to grow and transform productively. That is a productive structure that is very heterogeneous and dual. In addition to the fact that the social protection systems are mostly financed by taxes on the formal economy, what the low capacity to grow means is that labor markets are not very dynamic and do not generate enough formal jobs. So both Productive development policies and social protection policies are essential to generate decent work and are also good social policy. As for the mechanisms and platforms, one of the intergovernmental bodies we have in Latin America and the Caribbean is the Regional Conference on Social Development that meets every year. In 2019, the 2019 conference, the member states adopted the regional agenda for inclusive social development. This agenda is well aligned with many of the elements of the Doha Declaration. Already in 2023, at the fifth session of the conference, the countries requested ECLAC to prepare a draft roadmap and a document which would allow the region's voice to be heard at the second World Summit for Social Development. This was done and translated into a number of key messages, including one on the need to invest at least 1.5 to 2.5% of GDP in social protection with a view to ending poverty. During the sixth session, countries requested ECLAC, and I quote, "to prepare under the leadership of the chair of the presiding officers a regional strategy for the implementation and follow-up of the agreements emerging from the second World Summit for Social Development, as well as for the promotion of cooperation in this area, and to present a first progress report at the seventh session of the Regional Conference on Social Development to be held in 2027," end of quote. We are already working on this regional strategy under the leadership of the presidency and the presidency of the Brazilian government, which will be discussed at the next presiding officers meeting this year. We also have other related platforms, such as the Fiscal Seminar and the Fiscal Cooperation Task Force, and the yearly forum on sustainable development that we are also planning to activate to discuss the Doha Declaration follow-up. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Jose Manuel Salazar, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, for that message. And I would now like to turn to our next speaker, Ms. Armida Salsi Alisha Bana, the Executive Secretary of ESCAP. We will please hear her recording.

Excellencies, distinguished participants, The second World Summit for Social Development in Qatar in November last year was an important moment to advance inclusive, equitable, and sustainable social development. The Doha Political Declaration, which was adopted at the summit, is fully aligned with the priorities expressed by Asian Pacific countries and provides much needed momentum for faster progress towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Throughout the summit, countries from the Asia-Pacific region demonstrated that diversity is not a barrier, but a strength in creating people-centered solutions. Our region's contribution showcased innovation, resilience, and solidarity, values essential for shaping a future where no one is left behind. Across Asia and the Pacific, countries are implementing transformative approaches to strengthening social protection, reducing poverty, adapting to demographic change, fostering intergenerational solidarity, and developing the care economy. These initiatives, rooted in local realities and scaled through regional cooperation, supported by ESCAP, offer lessons that resonate far beyond our borders. Social protection is a proven and powerful tool for reducing poverty and inequality. 55% of the population in the region now has access to at least one social protection benefit. With climate change adding new risks, its role is more critical than ever. For example, Indonesia's program Keluarga Harapan has strengthened household resilience in climate sensitive sectors, while public works program in Fiji and India help rural communities adapt to climate shocks and build resilient infrastructure. Nepal's forecast-based financing ensures that resources reach vulnerable communities before disasters strike, reducing impact and safeguarding livelihoods. Rapid demographic shifts are reshaping societies and demanding new approaches to social cohesion. Aging population, youth migration, and changing family structures call for policies that foster intergenerational solidarity. The Maldives National Policy on Aging and the Lao People's Democratic Republic's recent decree on older persons exemplify this commitment, recognizing that aging is a life course issue and that solidarity across generations benefits all. Our repository of policies and good practices on aging supports countries in sharing experiences and strengthening regional cooperation. Equally important is transforming the care economy. Valuing unpaid care work and investing in care systems are central to inclusive, resilient society. Malaysia's Selangor state has pioneered a comprehensive care economy policy while municipalities in the Philippines have embedded care into local budgets, ensuring support for vulnerable women. The Republic of Korea's expanded parental leave scheme promotes shared caregiving responsibility and sets an example for gender equality and family well-being. One of the strongest messages from the summit was the importance of regional cooperation. Regional frameworks such as the Action Plan to Strengthen Regional Collaboration on Social Protection, the ASEAN Comprehensive Framework on Care Economy, and the Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade for Persons with Disabilities have helped countries share lessons, align priorities, mobilize resources, and adapt solutions across borders. The Doha Political Declaration proposes regional mechanisms to monitor commitments made at the summit to ensure accountability and continuous learning. And ESCAP is fully committed to supporting the regional follow-up. Building on our established platform, including the Committee on Social Development, we will continue to provide inclusive spaces for dialogue, review, and policy coherence that reflect regional priorities. We will also strengthen the capacity to collect disaggregated social development data and support national statistical system to monitor progress and inform policy, ensuring that progress is accurately tracked and gaps identified. I look forward to receiving further guidance on how we could better support member states in implementing the Doha Political Declaration. Thank you very much.

I thank Ms. Ali Shabana for her important message from ESCAP, and I now invite Mr. Murad Waba, the acting executive secretary of the Economic and Social Commission of West Asia, ESCWA. You have the floor, or rather, I look forward to hearing the recorded message.

Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates and colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, warm greetings from Beirut. And I wish I could be with you today, but I'm at my post preparing ESCWA for the challenges of transformative social development in a rapidly changing financial and regional context. What I'm about to say today may be unexpected. I have mixed feelings about the Doha Declaration. Being from the Arab region and leading the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, I'm extremely proud that one of our member states hosted the Second World Social Summit for Social Development. This was no simple feat. The Qatari administration successfully brought 40 heads of state and government, over 230 ministers and senior officials, and nearly 14,000 participants to Doha for two days to advocate for some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. They achieved this 30 years after the first World Social Summit and during a global environment of rising geopolitical tensions and falling social expenditure. Even more remarkable, and here I believe the UN's role was invaluable, All these people came to one common agreement to build a more just, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world under the Doha Declaration. To the state of Qatar, to all my colleagues here who supported this landmark achievement, congratulations, bravo. But I also feel some regret. How have we not achieved social development since 1995. 33 million people in the Arab region lived in poverty in '95. Today, 35 million people live in poverty. We had achieved progress at the start of this millennium, and now we're regressing. Today, a record 200 million persons, 40 percent of the population of this region, live in hunger. 57 million people live in slums, 7 million more than in 1995, and 40 million people have been forcibly displaced, more people than any other time in history. As human needs grow, our capacity to alleviate the suffering has decreased. We are all acutely aware of the financial institutional and political constraints before us today. But one of the greatest catalysts for poverty is the reduction in high health expenditure. In the Arab region, 47% of health expenditure is financed by individuals, meaning one negative diagnosis could plunge a whole family into poverty. Social mobility has stalled. Where education used to break the intergenerational transmission of poverty, decent employment is now a luxury for a minority. And wealth inequality is increasingly polarized. But with you and before you today, I feel hope. And more than hope, I feel the determination to go further on our way to achieve transformative social development. The Doha Declaration honestly recognizes all our collective shortcomings. And as difficult as the current UN reforms are for all of us, they also encourage us to re-strategize, to focus, and to reconfirm our ambition. And though we don't have all the answers today, together we can see a bright future before us. Our growing interconnectedness has enabled us to learn faster, share solutions more widely, and adapt more effectively. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let me highlight four priorities to eradicate poverty, provide decent work for all, and achieve universal social inclusion, grounded in human rights, as we have outlined in the Doha Declaration. We must take advantage of our convening power. We need to bring leaders together and show them that positive change is possible. Transboundary social challenges, such as conflict prevention and peace building, natural resource management, climate change adaptation and mitigation, migration, the reduction of illicit financial flows, and potentially fiscal coordination can only be overcome through increased multilateralism. The UN has a comparative advantage in multilateralism, and we must take advantage. We need to scale proven social development solutions. We need to collect success stories where countries have achieved inclusive social development, share them with the world, and tailor concrete policy packages to relevant national contexts grounded in reality. Better coordination within and outside the UN system, including with national governments, with civil society, with academia, will allow us to achieve this, embracing comparative advantages and providing evidence-based policy solutions. Together, we need to strengthen our accountability and our public communications, because, ladies and gentlemen, For the UN to succeed, we need to convince the world that we can succeed. We must not be shy about our goals, but we must also ensure our goals are actionable and that we are all accountable for them. The reduction of poverty, safe migration, decent employment for all, do not only benefit the poorest members of society. They create dynamic economies and healthy societies for the benefit of everyone, including the wealthy. And, ladies and gentlemen, we need, we must break down divisive rhetoric. And finally, I believe we need to sustain our ambition and innovate. New technologies and innovation can expand our possibility if we choose to shape them rather than be shaped by them. The Doha Declaration holds us all accountable for the future of social development. Let us turn words into action and prove today what leaving no one behind really means. I thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Waba, for that very important and, may I say, thought-provoking message. I would now like to invite Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda Carmona, the Director of UNRISD, to the floor, or rather to the screen, for the final recorded message from our panelists.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, colleagues, it is a pleasure to join you. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion. This is the first session of the Commission since the adoption of the Doha Political Declaration, a moment that calls for focus, urgency, and collective resolve. Today's world is marked by rising inequalities, demographic shift, digital divide, discrimination, and the growing pressure of climate impact and crisis. These realities affect every region, every community, and they demand that we accelerate transformative social development. Allow me to share three priorities emerging clearly from UNRIS research and from consultations around the globe. First, strengthen universal rights-based social protection. Across the globe, Social protection systems remain too limited, too fragmented, too underfunded. Informal workers, migrants, persons with disabilities and many women are still unprotected. Universal social protection, adequately financed and grounded in rights, is one of our strongest tools to reduce poverty, enable decent work, and build resilient societies. When countries integrate social protection with care systems, climate resilience, and labor policies, they manage shocks more effectively and ensure inclusion. Second, support just and inclusive transitions. Climate change, aging populations, digitalization, labor market disruption, all are transforming the foundation of development. But without deliberate social policy, these transitions risk widening inequalities. we need policies that protect workers and communities, expand adaptive social protection, promote sustainable livelihoods, and ensure meaningful participation from those most affected. Regional commissions are advising vital work. Stronger UN system cooperation will amplify this effort. And third, build fairer economic governance, and expand fiscal space. The Doha Declaration reminds us coordinated and inclusive policies require fair and sustainable financing. Yet many countries, especially low and middle income, face tight fiscal constraint, rising debt burdens, and unequal global economic rules. AMRIS research highlights progressive taxation, tackling illicit financial flows, aligning public budgets with human rights and sustainability. Without adequate fiscal space, transformative social development is not possible. We welcome the Commission's strengthened mandate to follow up the Doha Declaration. AMRIS will contribute through independent multidisciplinary research, evidence-based inputs for states, regional commissions, and UN partners, multi-stakeholder dialogues, elevating excluded voices, and analytical tools and policy framework for coherent follow-up. Excellencies, transformative social development requires aligned policies political will and renewed multilateral cooperation. The UN system must work together coherently and inclusively and with purpose to move from commitments to implementation. UNRIS stands ready with rigorous evidence, inclusive processes and policy innovation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Sepulveda. for that interesting presentation and the important perspectives of the UN Research Institute for Social Development. Now, ladies and gentlemen, when I recapped the agenda for you at the start of this session, I mentioned that we would have three segments, and we would now go to a segment where I will ask follow-up questions of the panelists. Now, looking at the time, and given that this is meant to be a real interactive session, With your permission, I hope we can go directly to the interactive part. We do have all of the speakers or the institutions that we've heard from represented online so that you will be able to ask your questions or provide your reflections and get responses from our panelists. To ask for the floor, please just press the microphone button. and my colleagues here will help me to organize the speakers list. I would like to encourage you to be focused in asking a question or bringing a quick reflection to the floor so that we can get as many of your interventions as possible and also get feedback from our panelists so that we make this a truly interactive discussion. And delegates, while you think about your question and think about pressing that button, let me just quickly recap who we have online so that you know who you will be speaking to. So we had six panelists. All of them will be represented online. with the exception of ILO. We've just received the excuses of ILO. They were planning to participate and are very-- sent their apologies. They will not be able to participate after all. UNECA, Economic Commission for Africa, is represented by Ms. Suzanna Szwedrowski, the director of the Gender, Poverty, and Social Policy Division. And ESCAP, is represented by Mr. Srinivas Tatta, the director of the Social Development Division. The other three institutions are represented by the panelists that you've just seen in their recorded messages. So with that, I open the floor, and I see Cuba on the list. Please, you have the floor.

Madam Moderator, Madam Chair, distinguished senior officials of the United Nations system, the delegation of Cuba welcomes the organization of this interactive dialogue, which focuses the debate on inclusion and the ability of the multilateral system to advance truly transformative social development. For Cuba, this is a vital space. Inclusion is not an abstract concept, rather it is a key principle of our social project since 1959. Our country has historically advocated for social development only being possible when human dignity, equal opportunities, and the full participation of all people are guaranteed while leaving no one behind. The Constitution of the Republic enshrines these principles, and recent policies, such as the Family Code and the Code for Children, Adolescents, and Youth, reaffirm the state's will to protect groups in a situation of to promote gender equality, and to strengthen social cohesion. The United Nations system plays an irreplaceable role in promoting international development cooperation. Cuba recognizes and deeply values the work of its agencies, funds, and programs with which we have historically cooperated in areas such as health, education, food security, disaster risk management, and social protection. However, we must also clearly point to the structural obstacles that prevent countries such as ours from fully deploying their development potential. The economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States, which has been in place for more than six decades, and which in recent years has been intensified, is the primary impediment to Cuba's social development. Its extraterritorial effects limit access to technologies, financing, essential inputs, and opportunities for cooperation, and have a direct impact on the daily lives of millions of Cubans. That is compounded by unilateral pressure and threats by the United States, which is attempting to destabilize our country and the region. These actions, contrary to international law and the purposes of this organization, are eroding national efforts to guarantee universal public services, to strengthen social protection, and to move towards an inclusive and sustainable development model. Despite these adversities, Cuba remains committed to social justice, solidarity, and international cooperation. We will continue to work with the UN system to expand inclusion programs, to strengthen institutional capacities, and to promote person-centered public policies. We reiterate that inclusion can only be complete when all countries can develop without external coercion in an international environment based on mutual respect, sovereign equality, and cooperation. Cuba will continue modestly but firmly to help build a more just, inclusive, and human world. We would be grateful if the panelists could tell us their thoughts on what additional actions the international community and the United Nations system could take to help achieve the commitments made in Copenhagen and Doha. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much to Cuba. And again, with your permission, another housekeeping question and to provide some predictability for our panelists. The way we will organize this, I think we'll take some comments from the floor and we'll turn back to the panelists so that each of them can actually have a few minutes to respond to the different concerns and questions that will be raised from the floor. I have so far seven speakers. We have time for more, but I would like to encourage you to ask for the floor so that we can organize the time and make sure that everyone gets to provide their intervention. So with that, I give the floor to Qatar, followed by the Philippines. Qatar, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair, esteemed attendees. Peace and blessings of God be upon you all. It is our pleasure to participate in this interactive dialogue with senior officials of the UN system. This dialogue, which is held in the first session to be held for this commission after the adoption of the Doha Political Declaration, a great way for addressing the work of the UN in the implementation of the Doha Declaration regionally and internationally. Qatar also appreciates the crucial role played by the UN system in supporting member states in the follow-up of the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration, along with providing expertise and innovative approaches and the facilitation of initiatives. Such cooperation and cohesion enables the addressing of key issues such as poverty and inequality and the digital divide. This would ensure that development is inclusive and fair for all. In our National Vision 2030 and our comprehensive strategy for social development are a reflection of our belief that Inclusive social development requires concerted efforts among all. We have an approach that combines the government and the inclusive and solidarity economy and the private and public sector, along with international and local initiatives. This is to sustain all results. Qatar is committed to continue cooperating with the UN system and partners among states and corporations alike in order to enhance social development. Thank you all.

Thank you, Qatar. I give the floor to the Philippines, to be followed by Malawi. The Philippines, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we also thank the senior officials of the UN system for their presentation. As we reflect on the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration, several global and regional trends require urgent attention. Rising inequality, demographic shifts, climate change, and technological disruption are reshaping societies. In Asia and the Pacific, aging populations, widespread informal employment, and persistent gaps in social protection exacerbate vulnerabilities, especially for women, youth, migrants, persons with disabilities, and those in rural areas. These trends highlight the need for inclusive, life course responsive social development frameworks. From the Philippines perspective, institutionalized rights-based social protection has proven essential for resilience. Programs that integrate income support with education, health, and livelihoods empower households to manage risks while participating more fully in society. Such approaches work best when coordinated across governments, aligning social welfare, labor, health, education, and finance policies to ensure equitable outcomes. Excellencies, the UN system plays a very crucial role in translating the Doha commitments into action. Globally, it provides normative guidance, accountability platforms, and policy coherence. Regionally, the regional commissions convene member states, share evidence, and facilitate peer learning on common challenges such as informality, aging, and migration. At the national level, UN teams provide technical support, capacity building, and data systems to identify gaps and ensure that no one is left behind. Coherence across these levels ensures that global commitments inform national action and national realities shape global policy. We are delighted to hear that there will be continued support from the UN system. Regions need targeted support from the UN system. in building inclusive policy capacity and developing robust data systems to guide interventions. Coordinated, equitable, and inclusive responses across global, regional, and national levels are essential. With strength and follow-up, effective use of regional mandates, and full UN support, the Doha Political Declaration can really become a driver of transformative and lasting social progress. Thank you.

Thank you to the Philippines. I now give the floor to Malawi, to be followed by Egypt. But before I do that, may I encourage those of you who have not asked for the floor yet but would like to say something that you press the button now. And again, with your permission, I would like to close the list when Malawi is done with their intervention. So you have the floor, Malawi.

Thank you, moderator, Chair, your excellencies, distinguished delegates. Malawi aligns itself with the statement made on behalf of the Africa, the least developed countries, and the G77 and China. Malawi, like many least developed countries, continues to face multifaceted challenges that are compounded by external shocks and limited fiscal space. These challenges undermine livelihoods, strain social protection systems, and reverse development gains made. In this context, Malawi underscores the importance of deliberate and context-specific support for countries in special situations to respond effectively to social development needs, recover from multiple and intersecting shocks, and build long-term resilience. The effective implementation of the Doha Political Declaration will require approaches that take into account the structural vulnerabilities and limited capacities of at least development countries. Such targeted approaches are possible through multilateral partnership arrangements. Malawi, therefore, reaffirms its commitment to the value of the UN system as a global multilateral system. Over the years, Malawi's collaboration with the UN Specialized agencies contributed to notable progress in strengthening public institutions, including local government service, institutions that bring services closer to the people. Despite the ongoing geopolitical dynamics, cooperation with the UN system remains vital in strengthening national capacities and sustaining social development efforts. As we move forward with the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration, Malawi emphasizes the importance of strengthening multilateral cooperation, enhance the interagency coordination, and sustained technical and financial support that is aligned with the national policies. Malawi looks forward to the UN reform that will make it more impactful on the ground where the targeted population is. In conclusion, Malawi welcomes further clarity on what support strategies are being investigated by the UN system to support least development countries in implementing the Doha Political Declaration in order to accelerate economic recovery address climate-related vulnerabilities, and advance inclusive and resilient social development. I thank you.

Thank you to Malawi. So with your permission, ladies and gentlemen, bit of housekeeping again. We have three more speakers on the list. So I would like to suggest that we hear those three. and then we'll go back to the panelists for their responses. Since we need to finish by about 11:30, and this is a message to the panelists, it means you'll have two minutes each. So please, I know you've paid good attention to the interventions from the floor. Each one of you, in the order that you spoke originally, will be given a couple of minutes to respond to what you've heard. But before that, we do have three more interventions. So I will give the floor to Egypt, followed by South Africa, and finally the NGO Children and Youth International. So Egypt, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, and I would like to thank the speakers from the UN system for the interventions. I apologize I haven't been early to the session due to other engagements, but I've heard part of the interventions, so I apologize if any of my comments or questions may have been addressed already, but maybe they would come with more elaboration. Doha came at a critical time in itself, when we had the proposal to have the World Social Development Summit, and when we decided that it is a revival of Copenhagen and a recommitment to Copenhagen, the times were a bit different from the proposal to the negotiations. And now the implementation also comes at a critical time when the UN system is being questioned, Its relevance on the ground is being questioned, and the commitments are still there. If we look closely at Copenhagen, from Copenhagen to Doha, we will see, and transcending the 2030 agenda, we will see that even Copenhagen, with the core themes that came in that document, inspired a large part of the 2030 agenda with its goals on targets. We're still working on decent work. employment and decent work. We are still working on the overarching goal of the eradication of poverty as the greatest global challenge. We're still working on social integration. Maybe the face of things is different, but the core issues are still the same, and this is what has transpired into the Doha Political Declaration of the second summit. So the implementation is important because the UN also needs to prove its relevance. on the ground. In national capacity, we do believe in the role of the UN on those pillars. We have great cooperation not only with the regional commissions, but also with the specialized agencies of the UN that have a role to play on all those areas. So the question would be how each regional commission, for example, or each organization within the system is aligning within the system to remove the duplication given also not only the limited resources, but also the limited capacities, human resources, not only the financial resources. They all come together and are intertwined. And how the implementation on the ground is also aligned with the specificities of each region and each country in each region. For example, in the Arab region, our ministers of social affairs have come together to work on how to incorporate the outcomes of Doha and the commitments that were made in Copenhagen in order to go forward with our policies and also translating those commitments in our national and regional context, taking also the different challenges that each region faces. And even the discussion about the regional commissions during the negotiations on the political declaration was a big issue because not each regional commission is like the other, not each region is like the other, and the alignment may be different. So how is the UN system trying to go through this sea and to fight the waves in order to deliver with the current context? This is a very general question, but I believe it's pertinent also to our discussion. Thank you.

Thank you to Egypt. And with that, I give the floor to South Africa. You have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We also thank the UN executives for their intervention in this important session. In particular, the UN Research Institute on Social Development has a very important mandate that focuses on promoting sustainable, equitable, and just development, on often challenging the mainstream approaches and providing alternatives to address the root causes of inequalities. So we would like If Madame Magdalene Kamon from the UN ARIST could kindly advise whether ARIST is developing or plans to develop a dedicated research agenda to support the implementation and monitoring of the Doha Political Declaration, particularly advancing the evidence-based policies for inclusive social development and social justice. Thank you.

Thank you, South Africa. I'm sure Andres took note of the question, and we will get to the response when we turn it back to the panelists. For now, I would like to give the floor to the NGO Children and Youth International. You have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderador, for the floor. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, my name is Nancy Palomino, and I'm taking the floor on behalf of Children and Youth International. For many young people, the United Nation is often experienced as a space where commitments are made far from the realities we navigate every day. Social development policies shape access to education, care, and opportunity. Yet the systems behind these policies are often fragmented, complex to navigate, and even in their reach. It is within this gap between commitments and lived realities that inclusion is most tested. The Doha Political Declaration rightly recognizes that advancing social development and social justice require coordinated, equitable, and inclusive policies. From a youth perspective, coordination is not an abstract concept or a nice to have. Poverty, migration, unemployment, digital exclusion, and care responsibilities intersect in our lives simultaneously, yet policy responses too often remain siloed across institution and mandates. Through youth engagement across the UN processes, I have seen that when the United Nations system operates in isolation, inclusion becomes procedural. When entities collaborate intentionally across social protection, education, health, care systems, and digital transformation, inclusion becomes tangible and transformative. Best practices from existing inter-agencies coordination structures can provide an important blueprint for such coordination efforts. In particular, we emphasize the importance of ensuring the direct involvement of youth constituencies within such coordination mechanisms at global, regional, and national level. We highlight the example of IANYD, the Interagency Network for Youth Development, which brings together UN agencies and their respective youth constituencies to advance and increase the effectiveness of the UN's work in youth development and policy. in this interactive dialogue, I would like to pose three questions to our distinguished panelists. First, how will the United Nations system strengthen interagency coordination to ensure that the follow-up and review of the Doha Political Declaration result in integrated social policies rather than parallel initiatives? And how can we ensure the direct participation of youth in these efforts? Second, how can regional commissions in the UN Country teams better support member states in translating global and social development commitments into locally grounded youth inclusive outcomes. Third, how will youth participation be embedded structurally in implementation and monitoring processes so that engagement does not depend on access, networks, or individual initiatives, but becomes a sustained part of social development governance? As we move toward 2030 and beyond, leveraging the United Nations system for transformative social development means recognizing young people not only as beneficiaries of policy, but as partners in shaping integrated solutions. Inclusion must be measured not by how often youth are mentioned, but how meaningful our perspectives inform actions. If social development is truly about people's lived realities, the young people must help design the system meant to serve them, not later, not symbolically, but now. Thank you.

Thank you very much to Children and Youth International. And with that, we conclude the interventions from the floor. I would like to thank all the delegates that provided their inputs into the discussion. I would now like to turn back to our panelists for their responses. I'm informed that we are allowed to go a little bit over time, not too much, but it means that we can give each of the panelists, let's say, two to three minutes to respond to what they've heard. I would like to encourage each of the panelists to respond to any specific questions that was posed to you, and of course, to respond to the points that were raised from the floor within that, the two to three minutes. We'll go in the same order as we heard the panelists at the start, meaning that we will start with the Economic Commission for Africa. The ECA is represented by Ms. Susanna Swidrowski, who is the Director of Gender, Poverty, and the Social Policy Division. So I hope We have you online and I am pleased to give you the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I will start with responding to the question from the Malawi representative and in particularly on the two points. First was acknowledging the highly limited fiscal space that currently number of African, of course, other developing countries are facing and Economic Commission for Africa is very active in this area. For one, we contribute, and in fact, our deputy executive secretaries is leading the effort of amplifying Africa's voice in the global economic arena and making recommendation on reforms of global financial architecture. And in particular, some reservations about the common framework and how the approach to the debt sustainability needs to revamped and taking a longer term view and ensuring that once the current debt situation is resolved, which to a large extent is due to higher borrowing costs, that going forward, African countries have access to adequate financing at scale. So this is very much on the agenda. We have also estimated, you know, the financing gap, et cetera, and it is significant. Then the other point was what specifically we do for the least developing countries, least developed countries. And yes, we do actually have special initiatives. We are We are basically working along the functions, which is the analytical function, convener, and policy advice and technical assistance. So within analysis, every year we have a sustainable development report where a specific segment is dedicated to least developed countries. And also at our conference of ministers of finance, there is a session dedicated to the challenges of least developed countries in Africa, of course, in our context. And then we move on to practical implementations, and those are demand-driven. So we are responding to the demand from our countries, and we are usually bringing regional perspective and also supporting peer learning. So maybe with that, I can move to the question of the representative of Egypt. Yes, within the UN 80 reforms, we have really undertaken a significant, and looking not only at the financial, but also human resources, and of course, you know, working in an integrated way. So just one example could be, for example, in, and how are we, For example, differing. So in the area of poverty, our contribution is we are increasingly focusing on the multidimensional poverty index and vulnerability. And this is in contrast to other institutions which are focusing more on the income poverty, so like for example, World Bank. So we are complementing each other. And obviously, we are working very closely with statistical departments and also sharing lessons from other regions. And then how are we targeting within Africa, for example? So we had a representative from South Africa, and we recognize that South Africa or Southern Africa region and the middle income countries there have very different challenges. So there, for example, youth unemployment is very high on agenda, with South Africa having the highest one of the highest rates in the world. In other regions, it would be more the fiscal sustainability or when it comes to labor markets, focusing on working poverty. But in all of this, again, we take a demand-driven approach. So we are highlighting to countries some of the longer-term trends and discussing their perspectives, what they view. But when it comes to implementation, we rely on the demand-driven and what our countries are of basically requesting and seeking our expertise in. So, thank you.

Thank you very much for that input, and thank you also for sticking to time, since we want to hear from the other panelists as well. It is my pleasure to give the next two to three to four minutes to hear from Executive Secretary Jose Manuel Salazar of ECLAC. You have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you very much for the very interesting questions. Even three minutes or four, it's going to be difficult. But on the distinguished question by the distinguished representative of Cuba, you know, what additional actions can international organizations take to implement the Doha commitments? Well, I think additional, um, we are working, uh, strongly with DESA and others, uh, on the whole issue of, of the Doha commitment, but particularly in the financial, a lot of this, uh, will require really progress in the civil commitment, and we do have, in fact, now in the month of May, a conference, uh, which we have… all the years with the ministers of finance and/or their representative or vice ministers. So that's a very concrete issue. We also do research on good practices for social policies on issues of cash transfers, where Latin America has a lot of very good practices on the issue of universal pensions. And I could continue with other aspects, but just to very specifically answer that particular question, Also, Philippines asked about how to translate objectives and aspirations into actions. That's a very, very important question. One of the innovations that we have been doing in the last three years in ECLAC is to, and this is aligned with what we call the fourth trap of low capacities, institutional capacities, a whole agenda of research very orient, practical oriented on the capabilities of institutions. How to really move the needles, what are the, what we call the top capacities, technical, operational, political, and prospective of the institutions. We already devoted the social panorama of last year to analyze the capacities of, or weaknesses of the institutions in the social area. Malawi, you had a question about the negative effects of external shocks. that's very, very important. We live in an era of permanent shocks and disruptions. It's a very changed world, and this has consequences for the fiscal policies. So we have this conversation with the governments about how to be able, you know, to be able to have responses in the bad time. Countries need to accumulate fiscal cushions in the good times. And, of course, the fiscal space is very restricted, and it's also restricted by the debt levels and the debt service. So all of that is very much an aspect of the reaction to external shocks. And of course, we are also very much working with the states, particularly in this region with Caribbean, on natural disasters and the high levels of debt and what to do about that. And we published, unfortunately, precisely because of the natural disaster shocks, the Caribbean islands mostly, on average, have levels of debt to GDP which are 20 points above the average for the Latin American continental countries. And finally, perhaps if I have the time, there was a question from South Africa about what do we do in terms of dedicated research agenda for implementation. As I said, we have research agendas on pension systems and options for financing. We have on productive development policies to create decent jobs and have more dynamic labor markets and ways to reduce informality. We work a lot. And by the way, we do this with the ILO, with all UN system organizations. There were questions about alignment. All this that I'm talking about, we do, in most cases, work also on the care economy, on the care society with UN Women, et cetera. And we also work on the issue of how to accelerate the digital transformation and use the AI revolution for more effective social policies. This is very fast in a few minutes, but I could tell you, but each one of these are, of course, big subjects on which we will be happy to share more information about what we do with all the UN agencies and, of course, in support of countries' priorities. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Salazar. And also for the important reminder that, of course, the discussions today, they are brief, but they are not the end. The discussions will continue, and there's every opportunity, of course, to follow up afterwards. So with that, let me invite Ms. Tatiana Molchan of the Economic Commission for Europe to provide your responses in about three minutes. You have the floor.

Each month, and to the questions, I believe that most of the comments and questions I already have addressed them in my intervention, but Just to reiterate that in the EU region, as you might know, ageing is one of the key factors that we address and we are looking at. And we've been working with member states in identifying and really working and developing effective policy responses to address this transformation that we need to achieve. in order, bearing in mind this demographic shift, the aging and not only, that will shape our societies and economies. In responding or more as a comment to some of the questions that were raised, and my colleagues both from ACCA and my colleague Jose Manuel already mentioned this briefly, about how And what more we as regional commissions can do for the Doha political declaration to be implemented, to be delivered, I think we have all of us the existing mandates, resources, the very vast intergovernmental structure that can be even more put to use in order to deliver on this important mandates. At the same time, it's very important to keep good coordination I think the distinguished delegate from Egypt and someone else also raised the question about synergies, coordination, cooperation. We've been already doing that within the regional collaborative platform, so we do not work separately in this. We work with our colleagues from all of the UN entities. on this subject. And we will continue to do this as UN80 progresses, as the regional reset is being discussed under the new regional platforms for integration. So that is true. We cannot deliver if we act isolated or if we are not coordinating and spend resources ineffectively. And that's a priority that we all work together from top, bottom, up in joint engagement. Again, in our case, one of the areas and platforms and one of the principles is to really mainstream this across different sectors. I mentioned already aging, but also in our work, which is quite substantive on housing and urban development or energy, and really to support the not only Doha but the 2030 agenda more broadly. I'll stop here. I know we don't have enough time, but would be glad to continue this discussions when we have more time for engagement. Thank you.

Thank you very much for those comments. With that, I would like to turn to ESCAP and ask Ms. Armida Salsi-Alisha Bana to provide us with your response. You have the floor.

I apologize, Madam Moderator, as you read out initially, I'm Dr. Tata. I'm the Director of Social Development who is standing in for my Executive Secretary. Just that the responses provided by other regional commissions really answer a lot of the points that were raised, but I'd like to just stress on a couple of points regarding how regional commissions are placed in order to respond to the requests made by member states. I think regional commissions, yes, they are different in different regions in the way that we have evolved, but there are many common similarities. We are multidisciplinary. We provide the most inclusive intergovernmental platform, which also brings together other stakeholders. And I think we are uniquely placed through, including through the regional coordination Platform, the RCP, which will now become the Regional Platform for Integration, and the UNAT is really ensuring the reforms are towards ensuring a coordinated UN response to country requests. So I believe that the concerns are the points raised by the distinguished delegate of Egypt and others, including the NGO delegate, that I think the UN is getting prepared to deliver jointly on the Doha Declaration in a way that really makes an impact. And I would like to refer to the points made by Philippines, especially on the importance of population aging and rapid demographic change in Asia Pacific, the challenge of informality. And these are issues that we are working with all our member states together with our partners within the UN system using the regional coordination platform, right now the RCP, But additionally, we would like to acknowledge the leadership of Philippines, who has been highlighting these issues and working with us in terms of mainstreaming these both in the Conference of Middle Income Countries. And now Philippines is the new chair of ASEAN in 2026, and they have undertaken to highlight the issues related to population aging as well as social protection as part of their presidency. So we look forward to working with Philippines in order to promoting the effective implementation of the Doha Declaration in Asia-Pacific. Back to you, Madam Moderator.

Thank you very much, Mr. Srinivas Tatha, indeed, the Director of the Social Development Division at ESCAP for your responses and reflections. So with that, I would like to turn to ESCWA. And Mr. Murad, Waba, for your responses, please. You have the floor.

Thank you very much, Madam Moderator. And thank you, Chair and distinguished delegates, for hearing us. I'm of an age where I can remember the negotiations leading to the Copenhagen Declaration. And perhaps I wanted to say this to share some good news. which is that there's a much greater understanding of what is required for social development today, both by the UN and indeed by member states, so that negotiations leading to the outcome document and the commitment to action beyond policies, I think, is very much noted in the Doha Declaration. So that's the good news. We've also, since Copenhagen, learned quite a lot about social development and how to go about it, if I may answer some of the questions. And what we've learned is, to a very large extent, represented in the UN at 80 reforms. And I'll start with data. I think we've learned since Copenhagen that better data and better targeting leads to better social policies. And I'd like to emphasize the question of data because it's one which is one of the work packages in the UN at 80. It allows us to focus together as UN entities, not only the regional commissions, but everyone in the UN, really to work much more closely on targeting modalities for social development, social protection. A second area where we have taken lessons refers to the importance of inequality beyond income poverty. And I think the multidimensional nature of poverty and the resulting inequality have been major elements in the social development, and I think together there has been a concerted effort at dealing with such. If I may then just refer you to the fact that is promoting an inequality summit in Oman next June, and we're really looking forward to concrete policies in support of social development for our member countries. A third, and I'll stop there, Last, well, two more, a last comment is, uh, on the importance of working together since, uh, Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Declaration was very much directed at individual entities of the UN system. However, the Doha Declaration really addresses us as a totality, and as such, I believe we need to work together. Regional commissions, headquarters, departments, and indeed the resident coordinator system and the UN country team. And I think that element is very much important in getting policies that work. And finally, if I may, Again, since the Copenhagen Declaration, we've emphasized the role of cross-boundary work, where we have population displacement issues, labor migration, also climate, sadly, conflict, and what a previous Secretary General referred to as uncivil society, all threatening the policies of social development. And I think that there, regional commissions have a role in supporting cross-boundary work to achieve social development. And I'll stop there, but as my colleagues have said, there's so much more we could say. Thank you very much, Madam Moderator.

Absolutely. And thank you so much, Mr. Mourad Wahba, for those reflections. I am now very pleased to turn to Unrest, our final panelist, for your responses and comments. Please, Ms. Magdalena Sepulveda, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator. It is a pleasure to answer the direct questions that we received from the distinguished delegate of South Africa. I have to emphasize that ANRIS is the sole entity within the system that has exclusive mandate to do research on social development. So we played a very important role already in the way to the summit, but also in the past in Copenhagen. And we expect to bring our independent, interdisciplinary, and inclusive research to help and assist the state to implement policies that are grounded in evidence. We collaborate with other entities when we do the research, and we try to bring also our research to, uh, within the system through DESA, for example. However, we also take note of the calls of different distinguished delegates on the needs to improve collaboration and integration. And we also hope and we have the expectation that after the UNAT process, that integration and further collaboration is going to be strengthened. Secondly, I also would like to point it out that the Doha Declaration, in our view, give additional power or the additional competences to the Commission of Social Development. It has put the declaration an important role for the Commission in order to monitor the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration. And in there it is very important that I emphasize that this organization, this entity, ANRES, has a very important link with the Commission of Social Development. As the distinguished delegates know, ANRES provide his report to the Commission, and it has been doing so since its establishment 63 years ago. So we really hope to engage more closely with the Commission in the coming years to really assist the Commission directly with the research and evidence in order to monitor the compliance with Doha. I know there is little time, so I'm going to leave it there. Thank you very much, Madam Moderator.

Thank you very much, Ms. Sepulveda, for those perspectives from UNRISD. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to try to summarize what has been, I think, a very rich exchange on our common priorities around social development. I would just like to sincerely thank the panelists for your contribution today, but not least for the important work in taking the Doha Declaration and the commitments and translating them into reality at the regional level and for supporting member states with evidence and analysis to make sure that we affect that change that we are looking for at the national level as well. So let me, before I hand back to the Chair, also thank all the delegations for your inputs from the floor and again for your continued commitment to social development and social justice. So with that, I think I hand back to the Chair.

Distinguished delegates, we have reached the end of the segment one of the interactive dialogue with senior officials of the United Nations system, and I thank Ms. Sankier for guiding our discussion. I am grateful to panelists and to all delegations for your participation and active contribution. We have thus concluded this interactive dialogue on priorities for transformative social development. We will now have a brief pause before we start the next interactive dialogue, so please remain seated. Excellencies, distinguished delegates, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the interactive dialogue on UN system leadership for inclusive and integrated policy solutions. I am now pleased to welcome the distinguished panelists for our interactive dialogue with senior UN officials. Mr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, who has sent a pre-recorded video. Ms. Diane Keita, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. Mr. Marcos Neto, Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Program Support at the United Nations Development Program. Ms. Shoko Ishikawa, Director of the Policy Program and Intergovernmental Support Division at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization; and Ms. Rosemarie Calla-Puracall, Deputy Director of the Development Coordination Office. I am also pleased to welcome again the moderator, Ms. Bjorg Sankir, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Ms. Sankir, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Chair. I think we have a great panel, again, for this second session on the follow-up of Doha and discussions with important UN entities. For this segment, I would like, with your permission, ladies and gentlemen, to organize the discussion the same way as we did the first session, which means we will hear from each of the panelists. After that, we'll open the floor for your questions, comments, and inputs. So I'd like you to encourage you to think about any questions, reflections you would like to make. And I would also like to encourage you to make them succinct and brief so that we can hear from as many of you as possible. After that, I will then hand back to the panelists so that each of them can get a few minutes to respond to what they've heard from the floor and possibly also from each other. So with that, I think we can just get started. And I would like to invite the first panelist. This is the only recorded intervention that we have for this session, the first panelist, who is Dr. Tedros, well known to all of us as the Director General of the World Health Organization, was represented here in the room by Dr. Werner Obermeyer. So we're happy to have you here on the panel, but we will first hear the recorded statement by Dr. Tedros.

Ambassador Christina Iovine, Excellencies, colleagues, and friends, societal development and health equity are inseparable. We now have clear evidence that progress in one depends on progress in the other. Today, nearly half of humanity lacks income protection. More than 2 billion people face financial hardship when they seek care. These pressures are escalating at a moment of deep global change and rising inequality. They weaken social cohesion and undermine development. They widen gaps in opportunity and erode trust in institutions. These are not only health failures. They are failures of social development. They show that the structures meant to protect people are not keeping pace with the risks they face. Health and the work that sustains it is one of our greatest collective assets. Yet health and care work performed largely by women remains chronically undervalued. This weakens health systems. It constrains economic growth. It limits the resilience of societies. Underinvestment in health and care shifts essential services into the unpaid realm. This undermines gender equality. It compromises universal health coverage. It weakens emergency preparedness. Universal health coverage is a core pillar of universal social protection. It provides financial protection against the out-of-pocket costs of sickness. Social protection goes further by replacing lost income due to sickness and supporting other essential needs. These two systems are twin engines of sustainable development. They must be designed and financed together. They must serve people in informal work, displaced populations, and communities facing multiple forms of disadvantage and discrimination. The Doha Declaration calls on us to recognize the full value of health and care. It calls for investment in decent work, strong protection, and fair public financing. These commitments reflect a clear consensus that health is central to social development and shared prosperity. WHO is committed to supporting member states to turn these commitments into action. We're supporting countries to strengthen policies, improve financing, and build a more resilient health and care workforce. We are working to ensure that health systems are reliable, trusted and accessible. Integrated policy approaches are essential for human well-being. Health systems must be linked with clean water and sanitation, adequate nutrition, safe housing and effective social protection. These connections determine whether people can live healthy and secure lives. It's essential to embed health equity and social determinants across policies on health, climate, education, and social protection. This ensures that health impact is consistently considered in economic and social decision-making. We need deeper collaboration across the United Nations system, civil society, and development partners. Countries need coherent policy support, not fragmented sectoral advice. Linking health with labor, food systems, gender equality, and social protection is central to this effort. Together, we must advocate for sustainable and equitable financing for health and social protection. These are for investments in social justice, economic resilience, and peace. Investing in health is not a cost. It's a foundation for resilient and inclusive growth, justice, and stability. Health is a central component of poverty reduction and economic development. It will also be a priority at the high-level meeting on universal health coverage in 2027. It will be a test of whether we deliver on the promise of inclusion affirmed in Doha. I thank you.

Thank you very much to Dr. Tedros from the World Health Organization for that message. I would like to now invite our next speaker, who is Ms. Diana Kator, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA. You have the floor, Diana.

Thank you so much, Madam Moderator, Madam President, Excellencies, esteemed colleagues, distinguished member of this session. I'm very glad to be here with you and with partners across the UN system. Our collective presence is a powerful sign of our unity as we work together to advance and transform social development globally. The Doha Political Declaration and the ICPD Program of Action go hand in hand in building a more just and inclusive world. The both framework embodied our shared belief that people are the fabric of societies and are at the heart of sustainable development. And to advance these two agenda, the Doha Political Declaration and the population development agendas, we must account for demographic changes, a mega trend that has far-reaching implication for our tireless work towards sustainable development goals. Population shifts affect labor markets, pensions, social protection, healthcare, education, housing, infrastructure, and the list goes on. Changing demographics can also affect the transition to a green and just future with environmental sustainability and equity for workers and vulnerable groups. The world's population is shifting in very dramatic ways. We are witnessing rapid population growth in some regions and an unprecedented decline in fertility rate in others. In both cases, these changes present opportunities to build more equal and resilient societies. We cannot eradicate poverty or ensure decent health care or work without incorporating demographic realities into our development strategies. With that in mind, UNFPA leverages demographic foresight to help governance, anticipate trends, and inform national planning. And we are very proud to partner with member states to champion a vision of opportunity and rights for all. We champion investment in human capital across the life course so that everyone can realize their full potential, from the young girls who need protection and support to finish their education to the older person who needs social service to age in dignity and actively contribute to society. To support member states effectively, UNFPA, DESA, and our sister agency, we have developed a common message on demographic change so that it is seen as an opportunity to build resilient societies rather than a crisis to be feared. These messages serve as a vital resource for system-wide policy coherence as we we head towards the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration. They ensure our collective work, whether on social protection, labor market, or health, is grounded not just in number, but in human rights. To turn the vision of Doha into reality, UNFPA is coordinating country-led action grounded in people-centered, right-based approaches. Our social development priorities are anchored in key pillar of action. achieving universal health coverage and sexual reproductive health and right for all, advancing gender equality and body autonomy, and bridging the digital divide. Universal health coverage include access to sexual reproductive health, empowers people to lead healthy and productive life, and it is the surest path to human capital development, poverty eradication, and shared prosperity. UNFPA prioritized a right-based approach to ensure that every person has the power to chart their own destiny. By upholding rights and choices, futures are determined by individual agency, not dictated by circumstance. Addressing the cumulative impact of inequality across life course is essential to building inclusive societies. As artificial intelligence and digital technology transform the world around us, UNFP is committed to working with government and other partners to bridge the digital divide and ensure that digital safety is so critical today. We want technological progress to empower people, not exclude or harm them. The 59th session on the Commission Population Development specifically focused this year on how technology and research can advance the ICPD agenda. Progress in all these areas depend on data and evidence. We cannot act on what we don't measure. We cannot change what we cannot see. So our expertise in collecting, analyzing high-quality, disaggregated population data is essential for evidence-based decision-making that leaves no one behind. Madam President, strengthening national statistical system is critical to ensure that the most marginalized are seen and that their needs are addressed. And we provide the technical assistance, capacity development, and innovative data source to support country-led monitoring processes that strengthen accountability. By translating data into actionable insight, we are helping the Commission assess progress, identify gaps, and promote evidence-based policy. We are committed to turn demographic change into catalysts for social development by connecting the promise of our past with the reality of our future, we can build a world where dignity and equality and right and choices are not just word on paper, but the lived experience for every human being. I thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you so much, Dr. Keita, for those important messages. I would now like to invite the Director of Policy and Intergovernmental Support Division of UN Women, Shoko Ishikawa, to hear your intervention. Please, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Excellencies, partners, and colleagues. It is a pleasure to join you at this 64th session of the Commission for Social Development. The historic adoption of 2025 Doha Political Declaration. What evidence has long? That gender equality is not a cost to contain, but. a catalyst for progress, the smartest investment any society can make in social justice and shared prosperity. And yet, our progress towards equality is fragile and uneven. Female extreme poverty has barely moved from almost 10% since 2020. And if the current trend continues, 351 million women and girls could still live in extreme poverty by 2030. Women remain 24.2% less likely than men to be in the labor force, in part due to the 2.5 times more hours per day in unpaid care work that they spend than men. And a staggering 2 billion women and girls lack any form of social protection, when what the world spent on military expenditure last year could have funded universal social protection in low-income countries nearly nine times over. This is not because solutions are out of reach. Our own forecasting with DESA shows that if countries invest in care, education, green economies, labor markets, and social protection, female extreme poverty rates could fall from 9.2 percent in 2025 to 2.7 percent by 2050, unlocking $342 trillion in cumulative returns. The returns economic and social would be significant. Excellencies, UN Women's support to Doha and Copenhagen commitments is unequivocal. We focus on poverty reduction, transformative care systems, sustainable financing, and expanding women's access to social protection and decent work. We champion and facilitate the use of gender-disaggregated data to shape policy, providing technical guidance to member states and UN partners. We do this and more as members of an ever more coherent UN system. UN Women is the leading voice and UN system coordinator for gender equality, as demonstrated through the role that we have played in building a common framework for transforming care systems for sustainable development. We also make this real in concrete programs, for example, joining forces with FAO, ILO, UNDP, UNICEF, and WFP to implement the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection. Every day, our country offices work with national partners and our sister UN agencies to tackle systemic gender bias in economic policies and institutions. design better strategies, establish universal protection floors, and shield women from life cycle risks. Gender equality is the key to social development. It is about valuing care work as skilled, essential, and the most valuable of public goods. It is about making decent work available to all equally, ensuring social protection for all equally, financing services that deliver for all equally. UN Women stands committed to working with government, UN partners, all of you here, to making this a reality for women and girls everywhere. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Ishikawa and UN Women for your intervention. So now I'm very pleased to invite Mr. Marcos Neto Assistant Secretary General and Director of the Bureau for Policy and Program Support in UNDP. Please, you have the floor.

Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here, Madam Chair, Moderator, my dear friends and colleagues at the UN, esteemed delegates. We meet at a time when the world demands more than just the management of poverty, and I think we've learned that with the Doha Declaration. It demands a clear path to prosperity. For too long, development has been defined by poverty line only, keeping people just above water. But human dignity is not found in survival. It is found in the ability to thrive. That is why the United Nations Development Programme new strategic plan for 2016 to 2029 places prosperity for all as a central pillar. We are shifting our gaze merely from ending deprivation to building dynamic, inclusive economies where everyone has a stake and is able to withstand shocks. At the end of that prosperity are jobs. But let's not forget one thing. Most of the poor around the world today is actually working. So what is the jobs that we're talking about? So you ask, what policies, approaches will be prioritized? We prioritize the dignified work as a foundation for social inclusion. We do so in partnership with ILO and of everybody here in the Global Accelerator that has already been mentioned by my colleague from UN Women. There is no social protection stronger than a decent job. There is no poverty eradication strategy more effective than a paycheck that covers more than just the basics, but allow for the accumulation of assets. To achieve this, UNDP will champion three coordinated policy approaches in the lifespan of our next strategic plan. First, we are treating employment and social protection as a single integrated system. We cannot have labor markets that exclude half the population and social safety nets that catch them only when they fall. We need adaptive social protection that support workers through transitions, whether triggered by climate shocks or digital disruption. Social protection systems that serve as a de-risking for people to take risks in their lives, knowing that they can go for a better job, go for a business, but know that there is something that allows them to take that risk. We are working with finance ministers to prove that invest in care systems and social safety net is not a cost, but a high return investment in economic resilience and productivity. Second. We are driving a structural shift through our new approach on jobs for prosperity, anchored in productivity. We must be honest. As I said earlier, simply having a job is no longer enough if that job keeps you poor. The true drive of wealth creation and the only exit strategy from poverty is productivity. Through this work we're going to be doing in the future, we are working beyond standard livelihood, support to target investment in small and medium enterprises, the backbone of local economies. We are prioritizing policies that inject technology, management capacity, and market access into these SMEs and entrepreneurship. Our goal is to transform low-yield informal activities into high-value engines of growth. When we boost the productivity of SME, we do not just help one business survive. We create a ripple effect of higher wages, better working conditions, and sustainable revenue that lifts the entire community. Third, we are unlocking private capital for the creation of jobs. Public funds alone cannot solve the jobs crisis. We are using our platform as an integral national financial framework to de-risk investment in sustainable industries. We are telling the private sector, if you create decent green jobs equally for all in these communities, we will help create the regulatory environment that the skill force you need. This is the P in UNDP that our new administrator often speaks, partnership. We are the platform where governments and private sector, civil society, my colleagues in the UN can come together to solve the equation of development. Colleagues, excellencies, unite for inclusion means unite for opportunity. It means a strategic plan that refuses to accept a world of haves and have-nots. It means a relentless pursuit on jobs, jobs, and jobs, because that is where hope lives. Let us build together prosperity. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Neto, for important perspectives of UNDP in this discussion about social development. With that, I would like to turn to Mr. Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization, who speaks on behalf of Mr. Choe Dong-hyu, the Director General of FAO. Mr. Torero, you have the floor.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mrs. President. Excellencies, Chair, distinguished delegates, colleagues, and friends, thank you for convening this pivotal dialogue. The Doha Political Declaration gives us a renewed momentum to strengthen multilateralism and to act together to be able to resolve the challenges that we are facing today. Let me just put my time. It is time to end hunger and poverty, reduce inequalities, strengthen social protection, and accelerate the achievements of the 2030 Agenda and realization of the right to food. My speech will focus on very pragmatic issues so that we can come up with quick solutions to problems that we are facing and doesn't allow us to resolve these challenges. First, agri-food systems are central to this transformational agenda. They are a vital source of livelihoods for billions of people, exactly what my colleague from UNDP was saying, and a cornerstone of economic social inclusion. Globally, 44% of working youth are employed in agri-food systems, compared with 38% for working adults, and youth unemployment and exclusion are pressing challenges. With over 20% of youth not employed, education or training and young women twice as likely to be in this group. Addressing this could increase global GDP by an estimated amount of $1.5 trillion, nearly half of which will come from agri-food systems if opportunities were expanded. Likewise, women play a central yet undervalued role across agri-food systems worldwide. Roughly 36% of working women globally are employed in the agri-food systems. Yet women often face insecure employment, lower pay, and limited access to productive resources compared to men. Closing the gender gap in productivity and wages could increase global GDP by about $1 trillion and reduce food insecurity by 4 million. The United Nations has proclaimed 2026 the International Year of Women Farmers, to which is spotlight these realities and catalyze action on gender equality and women's empowerment. These numbers underscore the importance of rural employment, which constitutes a significant share of overall employment and is essential for inclusive growth. They also highlight the urgency of prioritizing actions to reduce exclusion and discrimination. and the need for coherent evidence-led policy making for youth and women alike. FAO is fully committed to advancing this agenda through our strategic framework and its vision of the four betters-- better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better life, leaving no one behind. FAO will support member states in implementing the Doha Political Declaration through several pathways. First, to contribute to food security and nutrition We will accelerate country support so that everyone has access to healthy, safe, nutritious, and affordable food. This includes homegrown school feeding, mother and child nutrition programs, national food safety reforms, and targeted strategies to reduce food loss and waste. To address the root causes of poverty and exclusion, FAO is supporting inclusive rural transformation by expanding the coverage of social protection systems into rural areas, linking shock-responsive social protection with productive inclusion and promoting decent rural employment, as my colleague mentioned before. And this is particularly for youth and women. We are also scaling our Hand in Hand initiative to target the poorest territories and align investments for maximum impact, where we basically de-risk investments through information and also financially working with the IFIs private arms. This is now scaled up to more than 83 countries in the world. To empower rural people and small-scale producers, FAO will deepen support to countries and rural institutions to promote equitable land tenure and secure access to land and natural resources. A foundational step for reducing discrimination and strengthening rural economies. We will enhance access to finance and service tailored to small-scale producers, micro and small enterprises, women and youth, and build producers' organization capacity. FAO also continues to serve as a co-secretariat of the UN Decade of Family Farming, scaling solutions that boost family farmers' resilience and economic empowerment. In line with Doha's commitments on climate and disaster risk reduction, we will scale climate-smart agriculture, anticipatory action, water-stress resilience, early warning systems, and integrated One Health approaches. That's why we're using as efficiently as possible all the vertical funds. FAO investments in early warning include systems such as the Global Information Early Warning System and partnership with the Financing for Shock-Driven Food Crisis Facility, an innovative anticipatory financing mechanism launched to help prevent food crises before they escalate into severe food insecurity. We will also continue to expand anticipatory action partnerships and support countries to integrate climate and disaster risk considerations into social protection and rural development planning. ensuring communities, especially youth and women, are better prepared and more resilient. On markets and price volatility, which is central because it creates a significant impact, especially on the poorest households, we will continue to work on bringing information to reduce excessive volatility, extending transparency, improving data coverage, and enhancing evidence use for policy responses to food price shocks and trade disruptions. Tools such as the Agricultural Market Information System, which is a partnership coming from the G20 of Paris, play a critical role in reducing the symmetry of information and guiding policy and private sector decisions. To advance global partnerships and coalitions, we will work together with our partners and international organizations to elevate partnerships like the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an innovative vehicle launched by the G20 of Brazil for advancing multilateral action. And we are proud to host the host alliance support mechanism and to act as an active technical leader together with other UN agencies like UNDP and other colleagues, supporting policy development, implementation plans in diverse contexts and policy basket guidance. FAO will continue to strengthen inter-agency cooperation and policy coherence, aligning our work at the country level, deepening collaboration with Rome-based agencies, contributing to the Global Alliance, and support of the UN Food System Summit follow-up through the UN Food System Coordination Hub and the recently launched, during the UN Food System Summit plus four, the Accelerator for Agri-Food System Transformation. FAO also support countries in implementing their national pathways for the food system transformation. We will advance the Doha Declaration, and as I mentioned before, bringing the hand-in-hand system in place and working to leverage the role as a custodian of 22 SDG indicators. FAO is committed to support countries to implement the Renewal Global Framework and the Compromise of Seville. So just to finalize, the Doha Declaration calls us to accelerate social development, inclusion, and justice. FAO stands ready through its leadership and agri-food system transformation, its robust technical assistance to countries, and its active roles in the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty and the UN Decade of Family Farming and the UN Food System Coordination Hub. to support member states in developing and delivering concrete and lasting results for the people and the planet. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Torero, for that presentation. I would now like to invite Ms. Rosemarie Kalapurakal, Deputy Director of the Development Coordination Office, speaking on behalf of Mr. Oscar Fernandez Tarranco, who is the ASG of the Development Coordination Office. So, Ms. Kalapuraka, you have the floor.

Thank you, Excellency. Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, delegates, all protocols observed. You've been listening patiently to colleagues from across the UN system, explaining how social development is supported by the mandates, capacities, commitments, enthusiasm of the entities that comprise our wonderful UN development system. And thank you for being patient with me as your last speaker. The panel is entitled, United for Inclusion, UN System Leadership for Inclusive and Integrated Policy Solutions. And at the country level, you as member states have an asset, a dedicated asset that can help in this respect, known as the UN Resident Coordinator System. Every day, UN resident coordinators lead UN country teams to help convert global commitments into local action. They bring the disparate UN actors together with others who may rarely sit at the same table elevate voices that often go unheard, and connect the dots between data, community experience, and policy. So your UN Resident Coordinators, as the chairs of the UN Country Team, serve as conveners, connectors, and catalysts. In the lead-up to the World Social Summit last year, under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator, UN Country Teams supported governments and countries to build real national momentum organizing inclusive consultations, guiding national delegations in preparing their positions, and aligning the Summit's priorities with national development plans and SDG acceleration efforts. Now, as we move towards implementing the Doha Political Declaration, please do rely on us to ensure that the UN support to governments truly delivers the integrated policy advice and high impact joint programs that leverage the best capacities from across the system. Such support will be instrumental also to localize the Doha commitments with national planning instruments and shaping the next generation of collective UN priorities and programming. Let me highlight four concrete areas of support that will be pivotal in this respect. First, effectively deploying UN system assets and joint programs to accelerate sustainable development efforts. Take, for example, the Global Accelerator for Jobs and Social Protection, the UN system's collective response to support the creation of decent jobs that Marcos was speaking to. Primarily in the green, digital and care economies, 19 countries are now being supported to design national roadmaps to expand social protection coverage, driving legislative reforms and developing financing frameworks to extend support to vulnerable groups. Meanwhile, the Spotlight Initiative has shown that such cohesive UN and whole of society approaches are 70 to 90 percent more effective than siloed efforts, helping position ending violence against women and girls as a national priority. Second, strengthening integrated policy and data capacities, which is so emphasized in the Doha Declaration. Your ask of the resident coordinators is to convene the entire UN system and relevant technical expertise around key entry points in this respect. Take climate action. You see the strong collaboration between the resident coordinator and technical expertise from UNDP and others, which is enabling 107 countries in preparing their new climate plans, the so-called nationally determined contributions, or NDCs. 96% of which show meaningful integration of gender equality and social inclusion. In a similar vein, resident coordinators are championing integrated approaches that my FA colleague was speaking to, linking food systems transformation with social development outcomes and digital transformation. Third, mobilizing innovative financing and partnerships for social development. Your marching orders to RCs are clear. Help ensure a UN country team focus on mobilizing innovative financing and partnerships, from outcome-based financing for adolescent health in Kenya to blended finance facilities in Suriname. and to support smallholder farmers, excuse me, to over 1.6 billion raised in Indonesia in 2024 alone through green sukuk and SDG bonds. Fourth, we are committed to help ensure that all UN country team work advances inclusion and the leave no one behind principle that you have heard emphasized by all the colleagues on this panel, but especially UN Women and UNFPA. This includes embedding disability inclusion, gender equality, youth engagement, and human rights-based approaches. I have a lot of examples, but I don't think we have time. But I will just say the ability of the UN to deliver such results depends on flexible catalytic investments from different sources, including pool funds, for example, the Joint SDG Fund. And since 2019, the Joint SDG Fund's integrated social protection portfolio supported 147 million people across 39 countries and $70 million in investments. These programs ensured coordinated UN support to help governments expand shock-responsive social protection coverage during COVID-19 and advanced digital service delivery innovations. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, The Resident Coordinator System and UN country teams stand ready to help countries translate the Doha commitments into action, grounded in your national priorities, powered by the UN system-wide expertise, and focused on delivering, especially for those most at risk of being left behind. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Kalaburaka, for for those important messages. And I would really like to thank each of the panelists. I think each one of you has really highlighted how we, as different members of the same UN family, work together to support member states in translating those commitments that you made in Doha into change, into social development, and into social justice. With that, I would like to open the floor for interventions. We'll take as many as we have time for, because I would like to turn back to the panel for a few final reflections for each of the panelists, but it will be interesting now to get your interventions. There's no pre-established list of speakers. Please hit the talk button on your microphone, and you'll get the floor in time. And as in the first session, I would like to encourage you to be succinct, to ask a question, or to bring an example or a specific reflection to the discussion. So with that, I give the floor to the European Union, followed by the United Republic of Tanzania. European Union.

Very much. Madam Chair, distinguished panelists, at the World Social Summit, we are committed to placing social and sustainable development at the heart of the global agenda and to accelerating the implementing of the 2030 agenda. The Doha Political Declaration underpinned by the Seville Commitment forms the basis of a renewed global social contract grounded in solidarity, in international cooperation, in human rights, and in social justice. It is a clear demonstration that multilateralism and multilateral cooperation not only delivers, but remain indispensable. Only by working together can we eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, ensure decent work for all, and maintain the global climate and environment habitable for humanity. The world requires solidarity and multilateral cooperation to give momentum towards the implementation of SDGs in all their dimensions and to address the gaps of the Copenhagen Declaration and its program of action. Building on the consensual adoption of the Doha Declaration, the momentum continues towards advancing the social agenda globally. Therefore, we need an effective and efficient UN system more than ever, including at country level. This means increased alignment and collaboration among UN entities under the leadership of the UN resident coordinators in order to ensure a more strategic and integrated support to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, especially for developing countries. And I would have a question to the distinguished panelists.

On.

What are the main obstacles, in your opinion, to overcome and to improve synergies and better cooperation among UN entities. Thank you.

Thank you very much to the European Union. And I am now pleased to give the floor to the United Republic of Tanzania, to be followed by Egypt. Tanzania, you have the floor.

I congratulate the presenter from the UN entities. The United Republic of Tanzania is committed to work with the UN entities in implementing the political declaration on promoting social development, inclusion, and social justice. I'm going to contribute on the two areas. The first is the UN Women. We really appreciate the support as the country have been getting from UN Women in terms of promoting gender equality at all walks of life. In Tanzania, we are working closely with the UN office to ensure that we really mainstream gender issues in politics, economics, supporting the gender responsive budgeting at all levels. social protection in all walks of life as I stated earlier. Now, and we have reached at the point whereby women are climbing the ladder in all government structures, but also in the government organs. And for instance, in the recent election, women in the National Assembly have gain city up to the 40 percent of the members of the national assembly, but also at different levels, local government authorities, interns, and we have been evidencing increasing participation of women, not only in politics, but also economics and other related activities, and their workforce even in the agricultural sector, which is employing more than 35 percent of our population. Now, the issue which need to be paid attention to by the UN, women and all member states is that we have put much emphasis in investing on issues of women empowerment. But we need also to consider issue of empowering men as the agent of change, but also that they are part and parcel of all the intervention. This is the challenge I can see it is coming up, that we have put more emphasis on girls and women. We are left behind boys and men. They need all to be empowered to have really mainstreaming issues of the gender mainstreaming. The other area is from the speaker of WHO. We appreciate, and Tanzania is taking robust steps to ensure that we have universal health coverage. We are now, we have enacted the Universal Health Act of 2025 to ensure that all the vulnerable groups, elderly, women, children under five, And those suffering from chronic disease are now covered, where the government has located enough funds to cater for that. But I think from the WHO, we need to work closely to ensure that there is no double standard in terms of the medicine that are produced. Vaccines that are supplied to least and developing countries need also to meet the standard, but also the caution that may be given. in terms of preventing other disease, they have to be looked at because the experience we draw from COVID, it was not good and cannot apply uniformly. And on the side of... Food and Agriculture Organization, we really appreciate the support as the country have been getting and Tanzania is investing heavily in terms of promoting agriculture, but ensuring that it is more sexy even to the youth, because that's another challenge. You find most of the youth in our respective countries do not want to be engaged in agriculture. So I think we need also to work closely to ensure that agriculture, for instance, in my country, it's among the backbone of our economy. We make it sexy by... investing every to ensure that it continue to produce and ensure food security in terms of producing enough food that can feed our population in the neighboring country. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much to the delegate from the United Republic of Tanzania. Before I give the floor to Egypt, may I encourage if there's any delegate who is thinking of taking the floor and haven't asked for it yet, to do so while the next speaker speaks. And with your permission, again, I would like to close the list after the next speaker so that we have time to turn back to our panelists for some last comments. But we do have a few more interventions from the floor. I would be pleased to give now the floor to Egypt, followed by the Philippines. Egypt, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, and my intervention is going to be interactive as much as I can. Thank you for all the speakers, the panelists from the UN agencies, funds, programs. We always value this interaction because it gives us an insight into how the UN system is interpreting what us as states put in documents. and to be able to identify whether there's a gap in interpretation or we are aligned in the interpretation. So this discussion is very important. I'm glad we started with health because, believe it or not, COVID-19 was a defining moment in this century as a shock, not necessarily a crisis. We have other crises that are ongoing, but COVID-19 was defining moment. And how we went into it, through it, and post-COVID, we are still in the lingering impacts of COVID. And if, I don't like coining terms that haven't been properly defined, but if I can say that there is a discussion about global social justice, we can discuss how we addressed COVID, how we were able to respond to the crisis across the globe, bringing in developing and developed countries in that discussion. Has the COVAX facility been able to bridge the gap in the provision of vaccines? In the aftermath and the proposal by the DG of the WHO to establish the forum, the multi-stakeholder forum for the local production of medicines and other health technologies. So we come to the discussion about transfer of technology, access to knowledge. This is how you build and cross bridges and narrow the gaps, not only build the bridge, but cross that bridge as well. So this is only an example of how we discuss that issue. If we go to food security, and it is another issue of concern because we have trade-offs in governments, how they address food security, how they address rural development, how this links up with population and development, also a very crucial issue to discuss. Then we have a discussion about what kind of crops and seeds do we have access to. whether the small farmers have access to markets as well. So it's not only about the local production and food subsistence at the national level or the local level, but also the wider context. It links to the trade negotiations. Do we have agricultural barriers? Do we have other trade barriers? So this is also a question to be asked. Regardless of the color that we give the economy, we call it green, blue, purple, whatever the colors, we give those titles. But do we go into the discussion about how we are going to address that, technically speaking, again, the issue of access to technology and access to knowledge, and whether that can be translated into developing countries to be able to cross the bridge? So it is a wider context than the national context or even the regional one. So these are all issues to discuss. I'm glad that the UNDP, for example, spoke about the productivity aspect of it. It's no wonder that Copenhagen spoke about productive employment and decent work for all. It's not only about job creation. It's about decent life. It's about empowerment. It's having the economy moving, but also having the social development perspective into that discussion. Human rights are good, but they are part of the wider social development agenda. They are not the main determinant of that discussion, although they are very important. And this is why, for example, in Doha, we spoke about the right to health, the right to education, adequate housing, and water and sanitation. These are all couched in human rights language. I know I'm taking long, but there are lots of issues to be discussed here. Care and support systems, is it only about the economic determinants? Is it only about gender equality, regardless of the sector, or is it about a holistic, integrated approach to care and support systems to those who have not been in the job market, who cannot join the job market? It's a life course approach. Kids are not in the job market. Older persons are not in the job market. But a social protection system has to function for their sake. And it's not only about women. Define empowerment of women. It's about education, about health, about true empowerment, and then when we speak about individual choices being dictated or not by circumstances, reality check, they are, so we change the circumstances. So we need to do some benchmarking for ourselves to see if we've been able to address all those issues and whether we have delivered, which is not necessarily the case. Thank you.

Thank you to the delegate from Egypt. The speakers list is closed. We have three interventions on the list to be able to turn back to the panel for reflections. I would like to encourage the speakers to stick to about two minutes, if you can. The first speaker on the list is the Undersecretary in the Department of Social Welfare and Development of the Philippines, followed by Iraq. Undersecretary, you have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Moderator, Excellencies, distinguished panelists and colleagues. The Doha Political Declaration reminds us that social justice and inclusion must remain at the heart of sustainable development. From the Philippine perspective, our mandate is clear. Institutionalized social protection, strengthen care and support systems, and ensure poverty eradication is not only a national priority, but a shared global commitment. The lessons from our flagship programs demonstrate that integrating education, health, and livelihood support empowers families and disrupts intergenerational poverty while illustrating how comprehensive rights-based approaches deliver measurable social impact. Our policy approaches are coordinated and inclusive, reflecting the interconnections between poverty eradication, decent work, social protection, education, health, gender equality, care systems, and digital inclusion. Universal social protection floors, Gender-responsive care and digital platforms that extend services to rural and underserved communities are key instruments. Aligning social welfare with labor, health, and education policies ensures interventions are holistic and equitable, reaching those often left behind. The Commission for Social Development plays a central role in follow-up and review. We commit to sharing lessons from national programs, providing evidence-based recommendations, and engaging in peer learning to enhance accountability. Implementing the Doha Declaration with urgency, strengthening cooperation, and mobilizing resources and partnerships. ensure that no one is left behind, not only in 2030, but for generations to come. My question is addressed to Ms. Shoko Ishikawa. With regard to the Doha Political Declaration, what coordinated and inclusive policy approaches will be prioritized by your entity in support of poverty eradication, decent work, social protection, and gender equality? Thank you.

Thank you very much to the Under-Secretary from the Philippines. With that, I give the floor to Iraq, to be followed by the final speaker, which is the delegate from Benin. So please, Iraq, you have the floor.

Thank you. I would like to ask Mr. Margos a question. You have mentioned that providing social protection might encourage individuals to develop their own skills and choose better jobs. In your perspective, what are the benefits that national economies might gain by providing effective social protection systems? And do you have specific examples of mechanisms that can be implemented by states? Thank you.

Thank you for that very precise question. With that, I give the floor to Benin.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, Madam Moderator. We'd like to thank you for giving Benin the floor, particularly because we asked for the floor at the last minute. I would like to express the warm greetings of the Minister of Social Affairs and Microfinance who, within the country, leads the head of state's vision in the area of social protection. We would also like to thank all of the members of the Commission for electing Benin to this Commission for Social Development, and we are pleased that, following that election, we are able to participate in this 64th session. Benin, is a country that is trying to make progress as much as possible and has done so in recent years with a head of state that has a strong vision in that regard. For some time now, we have been able to see significant progress in the fight against poverty and in improving the socioeconomic situation of households because we have used a number of levers, a number of tools, first of all, to strengthen the fight against violence against children. to combat violence against women and girls, particularly gender-based violence, by strengthening the legislative framework and also by strengthening policies and programs to make sure that women and girls can live in a safe environment. There is also a great deal of work being done to combat repression. There is also the improvement of poor and extremely poor households that is now based on a single social revenue system with monthly monetary transfers and also microfinance products with work done in the field to improve financial literacy and solidarity activities to allow those households to be more resilient. We've also deployed at the national level universal health insurance, which is In A preparatory phase, but we are now in the phase of expanding that, and we very much hope that with this experience, our communities will be able to benefit from healthcare that is near them, near where they are. I won't go on for too much longer, but I would like to comment on. the subject of inclusion of persons with disabilities and improving their situation. And I think that Benin has been a pioneer in this regard, particularly in West Africa of late, because we've been working not just on employment, but also in education. Benin is making progress in that area. We currently allocate 5% of places in the public administration for employment of persons with disabilities. And we have also taken age into account, because we often note The persons with disabilities are delayed in their schooling, so we try to support them in that regard. Employers are also recruiting, uh, persons with disabilities, and if they do, they benefit from a payment from the state, and we are currently… supporting persons with disabilities by giving them installation payments for companies and adapted loans. So overall, we hope that we will be able to see greater progress, particularly in the context of the 2060 vision that was launched this week or last week by the head of state, His Excellency. We very much hope that technical and financial partners that we have. And here I would like to take the opportunity to say that we appreciate their commitment and above all the engagement of the UN system agencies in our country that have allowed us to go a long way. We very much hope that this new vision for Benin will be supported by them. We would like to thank you for your patience. Thank you.

Thank you very much to the delegate from Benin for that intervention. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Since this is an interactive session, I thought it was important that we hear from those delegations who wanted to provide us with their input. The challenge we now have is that I'm going to turn back to the panel for some responses as part of the interaction. We also have to be finished by 1. Unfortunately, that means that each of the panelists will only get one minute for your response. Questions that were asked are large and complex and of course, you know, require maybe some more time to unpack. We will have opportunities to do that outside of the session. For now, I hope we can turn back to the panel. We'll do it in the same order as you spoke originally, except I know, Deanna, you wanted to speak. Okay, we can start with WHO and then we can take it in the order that you are seated. So I'll go to Dr. Obermayer from the World Health Organization first, and then we'll just move down in the order that you are seated. Please, Dr. Obermayer, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, and apologies for the brevity. In terms of obstacles in UN collaboration, I must point out that earmarked funding does remain a big obstacle, a challenge for all of us. WHO works very well with everyone on this panel and beyond. We understand, as everyone does, that health equity requires working across health climate, education, social protection, labor, digital technology, many different sectors. And so it is in everyone's better interest to collaborate in the UN system. At the same time, one must also look at collaboration among the member states, because health inequities are not inevitable. They are produced by economic, social, and environmental policies, and therefore they can be prevented through public policy. Maybe in the UN system, we need to do more to support governments in that regard. In terms of the cost of medication, we are updating our essential medicines list, which will make procurement much lower cost and allow for pooled procurement as well, specifically in African countries. Africa is one region where we have succeeded in establishing regional manufacturing hub for vaccines. It is actually a very big blot on humanity that we have not been able to do it in other regions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Obermeier. I think without further ado, we'll move swiftly to UN Women. You have the floor.

Thank you so much for the questions, observations. Let me try and respond on what's the main obstacles to improve synergies and cooperation in advance. I think the greatest obstacle right now is the doubt that looms around gender equality, even just the terminologies that we use. And we have been talking about the pushback, but that is, and I appreciate that the UNFPA Executive Director is also nodding on this. I think That is the greatest obstacle that we have come so far, but the doubt and the pushback really is hindering and it cripples. also, and it seeps into our UN conversations also. And so holding a common line within the UN system around gender equality, women's empowerment, holding on to our commitment to Beijing, to ICPD, to the SDG 5, I think that is essential. On a more practical level, I think that we need to continue to tackle the persistent social norms. The indicators tell us that we are really still nowhere close to gender equality. Even though women's representation may have advanced, we still have staggering numbers of gender-based violence, the number that I also mentioned on unpaid care work. So women may be in the labor market, the women may be leaders, but then they have to turn home and then they are doing the double duty of taking care of the child and trying to manage the household at the same time. So the social norms and the way that the care systems are built around those are challenging. Last point I would make is the financing and thank you for mentioning the earmarked funding that also creates challenges for us. Flexible pooled funding, as Rosemary had mentioned, is important, but within that, also safeguarding gender equality funding within those flexible pooled funding is essential. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Marcos, do you want to-- Let me, in terms of just take the question from our distinguished delegate from Iraq. I think what I was talking about is how do we modernize a very important tool, which is social protection, in a way that it's organized more around, like the delegate of Egypt mentioned, around the life cycles of an individual rather than static moments. examples. For example, in Bangladesh, we've worked with the government to include inside the social protection system of Bangladesh, climate shocks. So a country highly vulnerable to climate, nowadays, social protection triggers come with a climate shock. Colombia, a country that almost every part of the population is in the national registry for social protection, how do you then use that registry to create different policies that provide different opportunities for them to move into entrepreneurship and other aspects. So those are a few examples of the approach that we are taking going forward, which is to use social protection as an engine for growth, rather than just as a backstop for trouble.

Thank you, Marcos and UNDP. Diana Keita, UNDP.

Thank you. Thank you very much. EU, I have spent 25 years of my life on the ground in different country, in different continent. There is no competition between us. We do the job very properly. So when, as member state or donor, you find a competition, come back to us so that we can deal with. I think that's very important. I'm talking about real life experience here. And we may be repeating because we have for some other spaces. And the example given by Egypt and by Philippines are very good into that. Health and food security goes together. But if you want to look at only at the economic empowerment, you refuse to look at that the number of women dying in your country for preventable reasons. You don't look at that. You don't know that nutrition is as important as everything else to make sure that they don't die, there will be no economic empowerment or gender equality in those countries. So we are there to help you, to support you, and that's what matters most. So use us the best we can on the ground to make that happen. And that's why the RC system is important in and the link, the fact that every mandate is important the way it is and cannot be hidden in other bigger term. I'll stop there.

Thank you very much, Diana. I think that's a great segue to DCO, Rosemarie.

Thank you very much for all the thoughtful interventions. I was listening to the delegate from Egypt, and you know in Egypt you have the social protection initiative, Aya Karima, which aims to lift 60 million people out of poverty. And there, the resident coordinator was able to bring 15 UN agencies and mobilize nearly 200 million US dollars for education, primary health care, and livelihoods. leveraging data and digital, looking at the link to forward-looking climate smart investments, and crowding in World Bank investments. Why do I say that as a response to the EU colleague who said, what are the obstacles? You need these kinds of enabling conditions if you want to have the kind of results that we are speaking about in this particular example. And the fact is that when we have fragmented asks from governments, when we have overlapping mandates or fragmented governance for the UN system, when we have lack of sufficient funding to deliver those, including core unearmarked funding for the agencies to deliver on their mandates, we asked, and we have lack of willingness by banks and financial investments, investors, lack of willingness to invest in our developing countries. We have barriers to effective support. I'll just put in a closing plug for the UN80 initiative, which has a lot of analysis of these issues, as well as proposed solutions.

Thank you to DCO. Mr. Torero, FAO, you have the final. The final floor.

Okay, so very briefly, the problems that we are facing are enormous, so one agency cannot resolve the problem. And that's where cooperation and partnership will be central. That does not mean that we do not cooperate. Of course, agencies cooperate. But I think there are two elements which should be central on this. And let's abstract a little bit about core and non-core funding. I think we need to find ways in which we can put the proper incentives respecting our mandates to gain complementarities and synergies. But we need to understand that it's not just the UN. There are significant players outside of the UN with which we have to make partnerships too. That includes, of course, civil society, but also private sector. That's the only way we can crowdsource information and work together to get the objective we have. And finally, on the instruments, social protection is a set of instruments. But we cannot complicate the instrument too much. We cannot bring more objective to one instrument. We need to be careful on that. What we need to figure out is how we can phase out of a situation which is for critical conditions into a situation which is more sustainable, from social protection to employment and to good employment. And that's where I think we need to put our efforts, especially on mechanisms of graduation and how to create the capabilities. to be able to move away of one instrument which complies objective to another which is a true sustainability and well-being of individuals. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you to the panelists. Thank you to all the delegations for your collaboration in this important interactive discussion. With that, I would like to hand back to the chair.

Distinguished delegates, we have reached the end of an interesting, indeed, interactive dialogue with senior officials of the UN system. And I thank Ms. Sankir for excellent guidance of our discussion. I also thank our distinguished panelists and all the delegations for very valuable contributions. The Commission has thus concluded its program of work for this meeting. I would like to remind delegations that the Commission will continue its consideration of the item 3A to hold the multi-stakeholder forum this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The meeting is adjourned.