3rd plenary meeting - 64th Session of the Commission for Social Development (CSocD64)

Good afternoon, distinguished delegates. The third 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 a high-level panel discussion on the topic, "From Promise to Progress: Advancing Social Justice through Coordinated Action." I welcome you all to this high-level panel discussion, segment one, on coordination and governance, equity, inclusion, and participation. I now invite Ms. Sabina Alkire, Professor of Poverty and Human Development and Director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford, to deliver a keynote statement. You have the floor.

Please. Delegates, ladies and gentlemen, friends. In December 1998, when Amartya Sen was awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he delivered a lecture entitled The Possibility of Social Choice, which began memorably with camels. A camel, he observed, has often been described as a horse designed by committee. But Sen regarded this as far too rosy a picture of collective decision making. After all, camels are remarkable creatures capable of traveling long distances without food or water, physically well-coordinated, and on good days, surprisingly harmonious. Sen's deeper concern was that if a committee were charged with designing a horse that fully reflected the diverse wishes of all its members, the result might be far worse than a camel. Perhaps, as he put it, a mercurial creature combining savagery with confusion. Having acknowledged the profound difficulty of coordinating diverse priorities, the remainder of his Nobel lecture was upbeat and demonstrated not one but myriad constructive approaches with viability and reach. We gather today in the same spirit. The 64th session of the Commission on Social Development has in many ways set sail from Doha, Copenhagen and Agenda 2030. Our destination port remains equity and inclusion. But we soberly realize that many ports are under siege. Exclusion, discrimination are increasingly normalized. Countries face shared and intersecting challenges, the breakup of old alliances, geopolitical uncertainty, financial unpredictability, shifting political dynamics, threats of conflict, climate stress, technological disruption, and social fragmentation, to name but a few. What we need now are clear navigation charts, credible pathways with sense, viability, and reach that show how we move from where we are to where we promised to go next. This Commission has that formidable task. How, realistically, can we move forward? The UN Secretary-General's report drew on a wide range of country experiences, spanning small island developing states, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, Africa, conflict-affected settings, disaster-prone middle and high-income countries. He showed that successful cases have often embedded coordination at the heart of governance, overcoming fragmented decision-making and aligning economic, social, environmental, and digital policies around shared goals. Put simply, he held that coordination matters. Coordination reduces duplication, freeing scarce resources, It aligns energetic nodes of change, so health doesn't compete with education, nor social protection undercut inclusive growth. And coordination accelerates progress because tackling linked problems together is cheaper and more effective than addressing them one by one. But coordination does not happen by accident. It must enter our institutional architecture, but also our mental architecture, the way we conceive of problems and search for solutions. If this seemed difficult before, it is incredibly daunting now. But there is promise. To see the possibilities and promise, we need to be clear what coordination looks like. Let me illustrate coordination using social protection activities that reduce multidimensional poverty. Approaching 4 billion people now live in developing countries with official national multidimensional poverty indices. How does coordination use these? It starts by defining poverty together. A few weeks ago, Jamaica became the most recent country to launch their first official national multidimensional poverty index, or MPI. And to define poverty, they approached 17 urban and rural communities, youth groups, and community organizations, asking which aspects of poverty should we focus on. It asked the National Poverty Reduction Program Committee, the National Social Protection Committee, persons involved in population policy, social protection, academics, and other professionals. Incorporating diverse voices helps create many supporters. The Secretary-General's report also recommended embedding coordinated strategies, so Mexico and Panama were the first of many countries to establish MPIs by law. Costa Rica legally supported poverty budgeting. Legal supports help balance the challenge of political cycles. Laws provide a skeletal structure for coordination. Yet to inform coordination, data that makes poverty visible is key. Social protection hence locates who is poor household by household to create a less pixelated poverty picture. Vietnam used a poverty census. Thailand's multidimensional poverty map includes clear guidelines of who can access the data from different levels and parts of government. Nigeria's social registry ambitiously covers 70 million people. and everywhere merged data are on the upswing. But the frontline of social protection action is at the local level. Social workers in Costa Rica and those from both government and the NGO sector in Bhutan went door to door to make a plan for each impoverished family, talking through how to address their particular needs in the coming months until they graduated from poverty. This required training and connecting social workers upward to often newly coordinated policies and programs. So we do need these integrated policies that catalyze coordination. Botswana's government used their MPI to profile the poorest subdistrict to assess key drivers of poverty and map out existing and potential policy initiatives. India's midday cooked meal schemes responsible for its signal success in reducing multidimensional poverty. It fell from 25 to 15% in under five years. Ghana shares disaggregated data with local governments. Angola and Mozambique use it for targeting. Pakistan targeted flooded districts. Others focus on age cohorts, ethnic groups, gender, and those living with disabilities. Next, implementing these integrated policies requires inter-institutional coordination. As ordinary as this sounds, it requires silo breaking. Colombia set up a new ministry. In November 2011, the then president said, "Until now, efforts to fight poverty were, in a way, scattered across the state. But if we want the fight against poverty to be successful, it requires coordination at the highest level." The fight against poverty must be coordinated by a ministerial level entity. China's whole of government approach to targeted poverty alleviation came under its leading group of poverty. Others use high commissions on poverty and other structures. The point is that formal inter-institutional agreements that permit coordination require bureaucratic intelligence, patience, and vision. And these inter-institutional coordination mechanisms are also facilitated by management consultants who use poverty, employment, and social inclusion data and monetary poverty indicators as key performance indicators. And also technicians who do the background work, simulating budget allocation strategies and different routes towards success. And finally, what about the leaders at different levels who so often compete? In Colombia, the president and key ministers met in person. To motivate their cooperation, one meeting per year presented detailed updates of poverty in all its forms and inequality. On the spot, That committee, which had no delegates, would discuss the indicators that were lagging. No time to blame. They all put their minds together to come up with an integrated plan to unblock lagging indicators in their coming year. Why? The press were waiting outside. After that meeting, the committee went into a press conference. It's a great motivator. In this way, a committee of highly capable and ambitious ministers who could have spent their time blaming or competing, instead activated a team mindset. They saw that reducing poverty and building social justice was a team sport. None of them could achieve success alone. They had to play together. and they had to play to win for the government and for the people whose lives were at stake. This is what it looks like when coordination enters the mental architecture at any level, from the national to the local. But I'd like you to observe something. None of these examples are perfect. Each had its oversights. and will have its naysayers. Nearly all will be temporary, overturned or refashioned in some later phase. None address all the objectives set out in Doha and Copenhagen. And yet each had at its core a pragmatic, coordinated, problem-solving orientation that meant that in that domain, progress darted forward. Some people's capabilities expanded and governments learned firsthand how and why to coordinate. So how does such coordination begin in practice? Three weeks ago, our research center, OPHI in Oxford, were privileged to host an exchange with a senior delegation from an African country. The participants including ministers, belonged to poverty and social development related ministries, the private sector, and civil society. Some knew law, others accounting, finance, social protection, data or analysis, or communication. They were convened and the event was planned by a wise and strategic woman in the Ministry of Finance. Their aim was clear. to design a fast-tracked, evidence-based way to target monetary and multidimensional poverty and deliver social protection, so their national MPI and monetary measure would reduce swiftly, visibly, and sustainably. After five days of very hard work, they left with a concrete plan and strong sense of teamwork. DESA supports such workshops elsewhere. But coordination isn't all group work. It also requires one professional sitting alone in a room to solve coordination conundrums and cut costs. For example, a statistician patiently scours a questionnaire of their household or social registry and realizes it is possible to replace five weak questions that are never used with five questions that would permit them to target poor households accurately. Or a legal expert hammers out language that will require cooperation across previously siloed institutions. Or a manager of social workers proposes a multi-pronged strategy that cuts duplication so more families can be connected to eligible services even with fewer staff in times of austerity. So we might not be able personally or in our teams to manage all of Doha's aims, but somehow cunning, committed people manage to find something that is doable, and they simply do it. If you want more examples, Brazil's Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty is a virtual wellspring of such, as it seeks to break down traditional divides, experiments with pooled funding, and coordination action sprints. But after coordination, how do we track our progress? The Doha Declaration urged bold social policies woven into whole-of-government approaches, whole-of-society, people-centered strategies that would avoid siloed thinking. But integrated policies can be slow, bureaucratic, costly. Or integrated policies can be synergistic, catalytic, and effective. Data helps us check our own effectiveness. So data for coordination on the national and global poverty scene has four qualities. First, there are only a few headline measures that are always disaggregated by age, gender, disability, location, and migrant status, so no one is left behind. But those headlines can be multidimensional. Multidimensional poverty might cover health, nutrition, education, living standards, work, and so on. Decent work will cover its different domains. Second, poverty headlines include multidimensional as well as monetary figures. And they include globally comparable figures for an internationally valid perspective. but also official national statistics, employment likewise. Third, success must be tracked in different ways. Absolute reductions in poverty, where Africa, for example, shines, or relative reductions, such as cutting poverty rates by half, as the SDGs require, or looking at the sheer number of people who left poverty, which reflects human rights. Each lens captures a different dimension of justice and profiles success that's important in different ways. And last, household surveys and registries need to be updated regularly. Surveys every one to two years as they are in Vietnam, Colombia, Armenia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Ghana, and elsewhere. We must not leave poverty data behind if we want to showcase success and learn how to catch lagging areas. So, friends, this 64th Commission brings together extraordinary talent and commitment, actors who are keenly aware of how too many people are currently vulnerable, neglected, or feel themselves to be forgotten and overlooked in the ways the recent summits on social development profiled. Yet when teams focus their incredible collective insights on shared goals, even in tough and intractable times, even given our ongoing disagreements, breakthroughs are possible. It is true, as Amartya Sen noticed, that our best efforts at coordination may not always produce a perfect course. But with a new mindset that prizes the benefits of coordination, we can co-create navigation charts that may well surprise many by their wisdom, cunning, and human impact in real time. Thank you.

I thank Ms. Alkire for the insightful presentation. I now welcome our distinguished panelists. Ms. Anusha Karvar, French government representative to the International Labour Organization and to the G7/G20 Labour and Employment and Chair of the ILO Governing Body. Ms. Cynthia Samuel Olunjuwon, Special Representative to the United Nations and Director of the International Labour Organization Office for the United Nations. And Ms. Cecilia Schermeister, United Nations Representative at the Baha'i International Community and Chair of the Second World Social Summit Planning Committee. I now turn the meeting over to the moderator, Mr. Stefan Verhulst, co-founder and chief research and development officer at New York University. Mr. Verhulst, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Madam Chair and distinguished delegates, excellencies and colleagues. It's my true honor to be able to moderate this panel. And I had prepared a longish introduction, but after hearing Professor Alkire, I can be very short because I think Professor Alkire went straight to the point. If we want to achieve bold social policies, then ultimately we need to figure out how to coordinate, how to prevent fragmentation, and how to make sure that policies are integrated in order to really achieve that everyone benefits and that outcomes are equitable.

So coordination is the key essence of what we will talk about.

And as was mentioned, I'm the co-founder of an action research center here in New York, which is called GovLab.

And what we are focusing on is how do we transform the way we make decisions? How do we make them more legitimate and more effective? And indeed, surprise, surprise, in order to be both effective and legitimate, coordination is needed and is quite often lacking. And as a result, we don't achieve what we are set out to do. And especially in areas like social progress and areas of social development.

It's very hard to achieve that coordination, partly because sometimes the objectives are also vast and very ambitious at the same time.

So the question then is of course if we all agree that coordination is the bridge to achieve equity and to achieve effective and legitimate decisions, the question is of.

Course how to achieve coordination and that's the topic of this panel. And so as already was mentioned, we have three very distinguished guests and experts that will reflect on.

What are the institutions?

Arrangements that are needed to achieve and to strengthen coordination.

What coordination mechanisms are most effective in aligning action across ministries and levels of government?

How can integrated planning embed social priorities across the policy cycles? And how can participation, transparency and accountability build legitimacy and fairness in outcomes?

So these are the questions that were presented to the distinguished experts.

And first, I call upon Anouche Carvare, who is the French government representative to the ILO and the G7, G20 labor and employment and chair of the ILO governing body. Over to you.

Thank you very much. And I will continue in French, if you don't mind. I think translation is provided.

Madame Chair, moderator, ladies and gentlemen. There's no point in pointing out the two previous interventions, which were remarkable, to know that we are in a important context now. Social justice does not only depend on the force of our conviction or a political commitment, but on our capacity to act in coordinated, inclusive, and cohesive fashion. The Global Summit for Social Development of Doha marked an important moment. It showed that social progress needs to be at the forefront of our collective priorities, given the persistent inequalities, the precariousness of work, and the sweeping transformation, both demographic, environmental, and digital. Furthermore, it has thrown into sharp relief a major challenge that is changing political ambition into concrete, tangible progress for the population. Different ministries, programs, and levels of government have been all fragmented. And this fragmentation limits the impact of public policy and constrains access to the law and makes it hard for citizens to access citizens. Conversely, when political action is coordinated, it becomes more effective, more equitable, and above all, more visible and easier to understand for the population. Stronger coordination allows for an alignment of public priorities. It optimizes the use of resources, and it allows for a fairer response to be mounted to the multiple challenges, be they linked to gender, age, disability, revenue, origin, or migration status. This fosters integrated responses. addressing social services, employment, education, health, housing, social inclusion, rather than engaging in isolated interventions. This fits into my commitment as the chair in a global partnership with the alliance I am working in, a partnership together with the ILO, aiming to eradicate child labor, forced labor, contemporary slavery, and human trafficking. This experience has shown very concretely that multi-stakeholder coordination can transform ambitious targets into tangible results. In our alliance, Governments, international organizations, social partners, businesses, and civil society organizations are working together around a common goal. And several countries, 35 as of now, are committed here. And coordination mechanisms have allowed us to better shed light on public policies among ministries to bolster cooperation. between public and private stakeholders, and they've allowed for a national cohesive framework to coalesce around national strategies. This approach is based on principles that echo those of this panel, clear governance, shared responsibility, effective participation of stakeholders, and regular and rigorous follow-up of results. It has shown that coordination is not only an institutional exercise, but it's a concrete force in order to strengthen equity inclusion and the impact of public policy. More broadly speaking, our collective challenge is to build architecture for governance that is able to overcome administrative silos and to fit social priorities into the long term, and to better articulate public policies, financing, data, and evaluation mechanisms. Strengthening coordination also means strengthening trust. Public policies that are more coherent and transparent and participatory help to improve ties between citizens and the government, they allow for ensuring that transitions underway create opportunities rather than producing new forms of exclusion. France remains fully committed to promoting coordinated, equitable, and inclusive social policies, and we're committed to supporting multilateral action. aiming to strengthen the ability of states to act in concerted effective fashion if we really want to live up to the promise of progress then we need to need to make coordination a reflex and social justice needs to be a central criteria of our public policy I thank you.

Thank you so much for these remarks. I have one quick follow-up question, if I may, because I was very interested, and it was also Professor Alkire was also referring to that, and you also mentioned it in your remarks, that to a large extent, this is about breaking silos. And so eager to hear whether you have good examples on how silos can be broken in order to achieve the coordination that is needed.

Well, thank you for that question. Sabina, perhaps you'd like to respond as well?

Thank you so much. Again, I learned from the countries, I learned from the different people. But what it has seemed to take has been often leadership, either from a head of state or a vice president or a minister. that has the power and the authority to oversee a new set of inter-institutional agreements. Sometimes these are formal, as in Colombia, and this is documented in the book, The Battle Against Poverty, by J.M.

Santos.

Sometimes it is less formal and it takes place in a sense in a poverty commission or another committee. But it seems that there has to be a leadership, a voice and an energy that really drives a new set of activities between institutions.

And then there need to be clear management.

Structures, accountability structures that permit the sharing of data, the sharing of information and the give incentives for professional promotions.

To the architecture of human beings.

Yes, indeed, it's a great question. Let me just start with what Sabina just said about the involvement of heads of state or heads of government in the process and in the legitimacy that can be generated through the collective work of ministries and ministers altogether. The second thing is interministerial work. Indeed, None of the goals for social policies can work, can be obtained, and no progress can be made by one social minister alone. Other people need to get on board too, because the issues that we're dealing with in social policy, whether that's eradication of poverty or decent work or social inclusion, all of this covers a set of issues and and problems, it requires collaborative work within the government. In order to do this, furthermore, indicators for progress need to be shared throughout the government. But above all, the end results, if they're positive, then this needs to be an end result for everyone and not only for the Minister of Social Affairs. In the same vein, if there's any any gap that needs to be covered, any delay, then all of the ministries, all of the government need to bring their attention to bear onto the root causes of these results that are negative. So that's just putting it briefly what I have to say about this issue here.

Thank you very much. Let's go to the second panelist, Cynthia Samuel Oranje-Wong. who is the Special Representative to the United Nations and the Director of the ILO Office for the United Nations as well. Over to you.

Thank you very much, moderator, Chair, Excellency Kristina Hovind Sjen. I've been practicing how to call that name.

Thank you.

And Professor Akere, I mean, you've made my work so easy. I'm really happy that you set the stage excellently. It's a privilege and a pleasure to be with this distinguished panel. And of course, the chair of the ILO governing body on my right, and the person I referred to as WSSD true champion for the NGO community, on the other side. Excellencies, colleagues, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the Doha Political Declaration the World Summit for Social Development, the second one, reaffirmed that poverty eradication, full and productive employment, and decent work for all, and social integration are not only crucial, but they are interrelated, they are mutually reinforcing, and that progress depends on an integrated, people-centered approach that helps to overcome policy silos. I also fully align with the SG's report to this commission, which captures that equity and inclusion, may I say, anchored on full and productive employment and decent work for all, define the destination. So it's clear where we want to get to. Coordination, effectively and at all levels, is the bridge, and the moderator refers to this. And it is that bridge that allows us to get to the destination that we want to reach. I'm going to highlight three key issues at different levels. Part of it will complement what Ms. Kavar has said, and some of it will look at the institutions within the multilateral system, within the context of the kind of conversations that we're having right now. And thank you again, Prof. You have talked about social protection. At the national level, I'll give another example of where coordination is needed. And it piggybacks on what Anusha said earlier. When it comes to employment or employment policy, which is one of the central anchors of the Doha Political Declaration, we need a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach. The Doha Political Declaration recognizes that today's inequalities are not only overlapping, they are cumulative. They are shaped by gender, by age, by disability, by income, by migration status, and where you're born. Addressing them requires an integrated response across labor, social protection, care, education, health, housing, migration, and technology systems. A comprehensive pro-employment policy approach is needed to overcome the barriers that prevent people from equal access to opportunities, particularly for decent and productive employment. This approach should align with macroeconomic, sectoral, and enterprise interventions with basic education and skills development and active labor markets that incorporate equality objectives to address the structural barriers fully integrated, especially as it concerns women. So that's the first. And as I said, it's in synergy with some of the points that have been made earlier, particularly by Madam Kavarha. Second point, coordination, participation, and accountability are not optional. Whole of government approaches only deliver when coordination is backed by clear mandates, political leadership that was emphasized, and shared accountability frameworks. Effective coordination requires early integration at the policy design stage. And it has to be sustained through financing, implementation, and monitoring, and it should be anchored in medium and long-term planning frameworks, social dialogue, is a key governance mechanism for the promotion of social development and social justice, and it gives us a practical example of what inclusive governance looks like. The ILO has been in existence for 107 years now, and it's been anchored on tripartism. Once there's engagement, the process might take some investments, but once there's engagement, the decisions are owned. Whole of society approaches, including structured engagement with social partners and civil society, they strengthen legitimacy, improve policy coherence, and build trust in public institutions. Collaboration among government ministries, international organizations, social partners will allow for more holistic and coordinated responses to today's intertwined global challenges. Third, effective multilateralism centered on social justice is required. By positioning social development and social justice as a global priority and shared responsibility, The Doha Political Declaration reasserts them as foundational pillars of the multilateral system. The summit's success and lasting impact will hinge on how its conclusions are advanced, not only at the national level, but in ECOSOC, in New York, in CSW, and other relevant bodies, recognizing that, of course, CSW has been given the mandate for the implementation. Within the context of UN 80 initiative, especially as it concerns expertise on demand, ECOSOC and its different bodies, notably CSOC, should demand for more should demand for and more effectively utilize the expertise and networks of UN specialized agencies like the ILO. And I'm really pleased that this is taking place. The ILO's mandate for social justice through decent work, together with its tripartite governance structure, have an important contribution to make. The ILO, within its mandate, has given us, through the governing body, made-up of governments, workers and employers, they have given us the mandate as the Office to fully and visibly support the Commission in the implementation of the Doha Political Declaration. Indeed, the 355th session held immediately after WSSD2, has also given us the mandate as an office to integrate the decisions of the Doha Political Declaration into our program of work for 2006 and 2007. Finally, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Global Coalition for Social Justice are essential in advancing the case of effective multilateralism and social justice at its core. And this is recognized in the Doha Political Declaration. The Doha Political Declaration and the Seville Platform for Action recognize that countries need to expand social protection coverage by at least two percentage points per year in line with ILO standards. we're really pleased that through our engagement and working with other UN partners, we're helping member states, notably Nepal, Colombia, and so many others, to ensure that they move the needle significantly. For Nepal, it's moving the needle to 60% coverage for the entire population by 2030. For Cambodia, it's moving the needle to cover 70% of the population by 2028. Commitments can be be translated to tangible action through such institutions and such arrangements. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for these remarks. Another follow-up question, if I may. I mean, coordination is hard, but especially when it involves reducing intersecting inequalities. And so eager to hear how one goes about coordination in a context like that.

Thank you so very much. The ILO report on the state of social justice in the world, the very first one was published in September last year. And it shows very clearly that inequalities persist. The top 1% of the global population holds 38% of the wealth, 1%, 38% of the wealth. Globally, women on average earn 20% less than men. The report also shows us that 58% globally of workers are in informal employment. So this is just in terms of the data. These are interconnected. And in addressing them, there has to be effective coordination of policies and integrated packages. So I'll give an example of closing the gender gap very quickly. To close the gender gap, we need coordination around labor market regulations, around care services, skills policies, policies relating to digital technology and how it impacts on the world of work, working time arrangements, so many. And they need to work together rather than working separately and expecting that there will be a retrofitting. It has to be from the beginning. Another issue in terms of informality, tackling informality. And I think Prof also addressed that a bit. It requires that labor inspection, enterprise support, skills development, rights at work, these all, and social protection interventions are integrated. Data, data, quite important. And this was said excellently by Prof, are so important to ensure that our coordination does not just give national averages, but that the coordination and the specific targeting will address those specific groups, especially those who face multiple barriers. Social justice cannot be advanced without ensuring that policy domains and the institutions that govern them collaborate to seize not only opportunities, but to mitigate the risks. I'll stop here, moderator.

Thank you so much. Let's go to the last panelist, Cecilia Schermeister, who is the UN representative of the Baha'i International Community. The floor is yours.

Good afternoon, Excellencies, distinguished panelists. It is genuinely a pleasure to join you today. According to the Secretary-General's report for this session, equity and inclusion serve as a destination for social policies. while coordination is the bridge to reach it. I'd like to look deeper into how coordination, equity, and inclusion can serve both as the operating principle of development efforts and their outcome, so that our means are coherent with our ends. If the ultimate aim of any development endeavor is to respond more effectively to the needs and lived realities on the ground, Perhaps we should explore further, as Mr. Moderator articulated, how coordinated policies come about and where they come from. Or in other words, what are the fundamental collaborative arrangements amongst the different actors of society that when translated into coordinated action around a sense of responsibility for the collective well-being lead to coordinated policies? If we think of the key social actors in any population's path towards development, there are three that come to mind-- the individual, the community, and the institution. Experience around the world clearly demonstrates that social development advances most effectively when the efforts of governing institutions, local community groups, and individuals reinforce one another, rather than duplicate or detract. In practice, relations between these central actors are often animated not by reciprocity and collaboration, but rather by adversarialism, competition, and transactionalism. These types of relationships exacerbate a host of social challenges all too common around the world, manifested in falling levels of trust, hopelessness, and the want of a compelling vision for the future. Underlying the relationship between these actors today is often the assumption that we are destined to be at odds with each other, to compete for resources, to always have the orientation of an us versus them. So we keep designing systems based on this assumption, which breeds further challenges and inequalities. Now, our history through today is replete with injustice and crisis, so of course, these concerns are not unfounded. However, they miss part of a fuller story about what can emerge from within a population when social actors work together. The worldwide Baha'i community is seeing that in places where the relationships among the individual, the community, and the institution is animated by partnership, collaboration, and coordination, development is more responsive to the population's needs. What are some of the elements then that are part of this coordinated relationship? It includes social actors coming together to identify shared aspirations, to generate a common narrative about a shared vision for the future, to collaborate in a posture of learning, to operate with humility, knowing that none of us have the answers, but that both the questions and the answers have to be discovered with the people themselves in a collaborative process amongst the community and the institutions. This whole of society approach can foster a sense of joint ownership to participate in a collective process of transformation in which each individual and actor builds their capacity to contribute to a process that works for the well-being of the entire population from within. Where can this happen? We can find it in the environment created by the community. And how is this supported, facilitated, and given energy? The institutions help to strengthen systems of increasing coordination among stakeholders with diverse views. It is clear then that conceiving of these social actors and a redefined relationship between them in new, more collaborative and coordinated ways enables diverse actors to see their objectives as one. This can open the doors for alternative, more constructive social arrangements that lead to locally nurtured and collectively designed policies, ultimately leading to a culture transformed by a stronger social fabric to bolster a community's pursuit of its parallel material needs. As more collaborative patterns of relationship like this are created, the constructive capacity to coordinate is multiplied and the objectives of social development can be more effectively advanced.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. And again, a quick follow up question as well. You ended by referring to the fact that coordination will depend on a redefinition of the relationship among social actors. And so eager to hear whether you can unpack that further and perhaps provide an example as well.

Thank you so much, Mr. Moderator. Yeah, so I think that reconceiving of these entities that make up the institutions, the community, and the individual in society is a useful exercise for us to uncover potential within a population that is perhaps yet untapped. So let's take, for example, the community. We talk about the community a lot, but what do we actually mean when we talk about the community? Is the community just the sum of the individuals within it, or is it something more? The community can be a sphere of action. It can foster individual initiative and canalize individual initiative towards the common good. So we can think about a community as a space where individuals build the capacity to identify their own needs, to work towards their own needs, and to work towards the needs of the common good. So the community can nurture more noble aspirations than an individual may have for themselves, but also for the common good. It can also be a place to create a sense of belonging, of common endeavor, to identify the needs of a population, educational needs of a population, and to build on these collaborative relationships that allow a community to reshape their social identity around a common goal. And I think this is a question that we don't often discuss in these spaces, but if we explore the distinct contribution that the institution, the community, and the individual can have, especially when working in coordinated ways, I think that would do us well for further responding to these challenges. Thank you.

Wonderful. And thanks so much for all the panelists to be succinct, but also very inspirational in their comments and remarks. I have about 500 questions that I would like to ask to go deeper, but obviously that's not why I'm here. And so I'm here mainly to facilitate the conversations and the moderation. And so that's why I'm calling upon the delegations in this room who are wishing to make comments or pose questions to our distinguished panelists. If you want to do so, please press the microphone button and please, of course, keep your questions short and to the point to make sure that we can allow for maximum interactions as well.

But also please indicate if you have a question.

Or a comment to whom in the panel you are addressing your comment. With that, any questions from the delegates? Let me give the floor to the distinguished Minister of Labour and Social Insurance of Cyprus.

Thank you for the floor. Dear panellists, ladies and gentlemen, fair employment for social justice is a core priority for Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Cyprus presidency is promoting dialogue on how labour market policies can evolve to support fairness and inclusion in a rapidly changing world of work. We believe that an approach that reflects the principle of the European pillar of social rights and is consistent with the ILO's longstanding commitment to social justice as a foundation for peace and prosperity. The World Social Summit in Doha reaffirmed that multilateralism can deliver, but it also highlighted how slow progress remain in tackling insecure work. Today's green and digital transitions risk deepening this divide if they are not shaped by fairness, strong labour standards and effective social dialogue. For us, social justice means decent work, equal opportunities, protection for the most vulnerable and labour mobility that is fair and not exploitative. Turning commitments into measurable outcomes must now be our collective focus. It is a general question for you. Which World Social Summit commitments should be prioritized to deliver tangible progress on fair employment and social justice, particularly for young people and workers most exposed to inequality and unfair labor mobility?

Thank you so much. Let me, before we take that question, I'm going to take a few questions so that we can be efficient in answering all of them perhaps as well. So let me give the floor to the distinguished representative of India.

Honorable Chair, Excellencies, and distinguished delegates, as we delve deeper into this discussion, it is worth returning to the central question before us, How do we move from promise to progress? This answer lies clearly in coordinated action. India's experience shows that social justice cannot be ensured through isolated programs. It requires a whole of government and whole of society approach where policies intersect, reinforce, and supplement each other. For example, health and nutrition service delivery cannot be completed in isolation. Through Ayushman Bharat, we have delivered 93 million free treatments, making quality and affordable medical services a reality for all. Mission Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 integrate health, nutrition, and early childhood care, reaching 100 million people, including 17 million pregnant women and lactating mothers, helping break intergenerational malnutrition and poverty. In the informal sector, coordination is equally critical. The Namaste Scheme, implemented through inter-ministerial coordination, focuses on restoring dignity to sanitation workers through mechanization, rehabilitation, and social protection. Crucially, these workers are linked to Ayushman Bharat, ensuring health security. Over 85,000 PPE kits have also been distributed under the scheme. Under Startup India scheme, India has focused on expanding entrepreneurship among marginalized communities. The Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Castes has already supported 117 enterprises through concessional finance. Complementing this, the Entrepreneurship Skill Development Program targets youths from various marginalized populations who constitute nearly 40% of the beneficiaries. Recognizing coastal and tribal regions as foundational to India's future, 17 ministries coordinate under the Jan Jatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan scheme to bridge critical gaps in housing, healthcare, education, and connectivity for tribal-majority villages, a catalyst enabling Effective coordination is India's digital public infrastructure. Direct benefit transfers under the JAM trinity, coupled with UPI, has also revolutionized the digital business transactions. Today in India, over 18 billion transactions per month are held via UPI. India stands ready to work with partners, especially from the global south, to turn the commitments of Doha Declaration into impactful reality, truly leaving no one behind. Thank you.

Thank you. So much. Let me give the floor now to the distinguished representative of the Children and Youth International.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator, for giving me the floor. I take the floor on behalf of the major group for children and youth. We'd like to first express our deep appreciation to the panelists for their insightful remarks. From the perspective of children and youth, please allow me to raise several comments and questions based on the provided remarks. First, we believe that coordinated and inclusive action is essential to deliver social justice commitments made at the Second World Summit for Social Development. However, it is worth noting that young people are disproportionately affected by intersecting inequalities linked to gender, disability, income and many other factors. We believe that addressing these inequalities will require integrated, multi-sectoral responses that meaningfully integrate children and youth in all their diversity in the design, monitoring and evaluation processes of social development policies. This is crucial to ensure that rights holders' voices inform decisions on education, health, social protection and decent work. We also believe in the strengthening of multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships between stakeholders, right holders, and governments in order to allow the co-creation and co-implementation of social development policy. Now, we'd like to raise two questions to the distinguished panelists. First, we ask how children and youth can be meaningfully integrated to the creation and implementation of long-term frameworks for social development. and if there are any examples panelists would like to share. We also ask how cross-government coordination mechanisms can better address age-based inequalities, especially considering the limited legal rights and provisions that children possess in many different contexts. Finally, we'd like to highlight that there are many examples of effective use-led accountability efforts, such as budget tracking and policy scorecards. We believe that harnessing these efforts would be an important step towards institutionalizing participatory governance and community-led accountability. I thank you.

Thank you very much. So let's start with these first three interventions and questions. And then I see there are other representatives that wants to make comments and questions. So let's react quickly, perhaps, to some of the questions and some of the comments. Anyone from the panel who wants to react to the priority question that was formulated by the representative of Cyprus or react to what India said? Go ahead.

I will do it in French, sorry.

I'd.

Like to thank the Minister of Labour from Cyprus, but also the other speakers who addressed the issue of priorities. I think that you actually spelled out a priority which should be a priority for all of us. It was also echoed by the youth representative here in the room, and that is the issue of youth employment. And I'd just like to take an example of what Cynthia told us about social protection. She told us that in the Seville Declaration, there is a figured target of increasing expenditure on social protection by 2%. The Doha declaration didn't have a specific target figure, but no one or nothing is preventing us in follow-up mechanisms, following on from that declaration, from introducing such targets that could, for instance, be something that could be done by the Commission for Social Development to include that sort of target in forthcoming aims or objectives. Just to give an example, the G20 countries met in Turkey in 2015 and they set up a target for youth employment called the Antalya target and that figure said that the G20 countries in 2015 would by 2025 have increased youth employment in each of their countries by 15 percent Now, not only was that target pursued for 10 years and indeed the countries in a coordinated manner shared their public policies to reach that target, but South Africa, which actually chaired the G20 in 2025, took took this target on for itself. I was wondering, therefore, why we shouldn't have a figure, a target for social protection from the Seville Declaration, and also one that we could set together about youth employment at the global level and also within each of our countries. with a realistic, achievable target. So this, I think, is a cause that the youth representative group here could support and could pursue at the same time alongside the governments which need to make more and more progress in this area nowadays. So one solution here might also be to, in following up on the Doha Declaration, follow up with figures and targets which would allow us to measure our progress towards these aims. Thank you.

Go ahead.

Thank you very much. And thanks to the Honourable Minister from Cyprus. first for the great work you're doing and the importance attached to social dialogue. But that question that you posed as to which should be prioritized, it was difficult, really. I totally agree with what Anusha has said as it links to youth employment and the youth dimension. But I want to bring a slightly different perspective. In formality, is where we have the worst decent work deficits. Informality is also where you have young people overrepresented. If I go back to my previous life as the regional director for Africa, when we looked at the statistics a couple of years ago, some countries, more than 94% of youth in employment were in informal work. When you take the gender lens, women are disproportionately represented in the informal economy. And if we're able to formalize, to even add to that, we're now having the informalization of formal work, including thanks to technology. and other issues. So if we were to address the decent work deficits in the informal economy, it will address a lot of issues, including the youth dimension, the gender dimension. And this is an area that needs a lot of us coming together and moving from just talk to re-effective coordination, as was articulated by Prof. On the youth issue as well, in terms of youth engagement, thank you so much for bringing that to the table. I remember also when I was in the Africa region, I really struggled. How do we do this effectively that we're not paying lip service? It's easy to invite one person to be on the table. It's easy to say we're having one youth event. But real youth engagement first takes one decision, but also strategy and training those who would do it. Because it's one thing to want to, it's another thing to be able to do it. We have to invest resources in the Africa region and learn from those who have done it well. and worked with the organizations of young people. How do we do this? Let's do it together. So one of the things I'm really so pleased with here in New York is that last year in the third committee, there was a youth engagement, substantive you know, with effective participation. That's a good practice. And it was initiated by the group on children and youth. Is that all? Can we do more? Yes, but at least that's a good example. The last, what I would say, the last thing I would say is that we do have institutions, we do have bodies, like the Global Coalition for Social Justice. And in the previous conversation we had with the minister from Cyprus, gave us excellent examples of what the country is doing within the ambit of the Global Coalition. Because it brings not just member states, civil society, business, UN entities, yeah, so many people together to really co-create and to co-deliver. So thank you so much for all the comments that have been made.

Thank you so much. And let me, to close here, call upon the representatives of the European Union to be followed by the representatives of Cuba. Please be short because we are running out of time, but eager to hear your comments and your questions.

Thank you very much, Chair. Promoting social justice is one of our fundamental aims enshrined in the Treaty of the European Union. And we believe that the World Social Summit in Doha was an important step towards realization of this goal. However, we are still very much concerned with the slow progress in many areas, such as poverty eradication, ending hunger, eliminating child labor, reducing inequalities, ensuring decent work for all, in clean, healthy and sustainable environmental and climate conditions. On top of that, we also have additional challenges, such as during the past decades, life expectancy has significantly increased and the percentage of older persons among the population is rising. Managing the demographic transition is part of creating an inclusive society, and the European Commission will therefore present a strategy on intergenerational fairness in March 2026. In addition, we also need to ensure a just transition to a green economy that promotes social inclusion and provides opportunities for all workers, particularly in vulnerable and informal sectors, and guarantee equitable opportunities and protection for workers in the digital economy. So on top of the already existing major inequalities, we also have transformative challenges in the world, such as those posed by this green and digital transitions, which need to be inclusive, fair, and accessible, and thereby contributing to achieving sustainable development goals and social integration. My question to the panelists is the following. How do today's major transitions, namely the green, digital and demographic transition, affect social justice and how can the coordinated action address these transitions? Thank you.

Thank you so much. May I call upon the representative of Cuba?

Madame Chair, Mr. Moderator. Distinguished panelists, for Cuba, social justice represents a central part of our socialist project and our model of development. Our promise has always been to protect everybody, both in Cuba and in all of those countries to which we have contributed with our solidarity. This has led to active, coordinated action from all of the institutions in our country, despite the adverse economic conditions. Even though we have made unquestionable achievements in areas such as education, health, sport, science, technologies, gender equality, we haven't been able to reach our full potential due to the economic war of the US Government. The impacts of the economic, financial and commercial blockade have been unquestionable in areas such as trade, access to goods, services, technologies, investments, tourism, international financing, family remittances, making it even harder to achieve the sustainable development goals, the commitments for social development and the targets for social development. This is a result of the blockade and also the unfounded inclusion of the alleged list of state sponsors of terrorism. As a result of this, we continue to face challenges to support social programs and ensure social transformation. We firmly condemn the new new escalation of the US Government against Cuba. The recent announcement of the US President proposes a full blockade on fuel into our country. It directly affects hospitals and schools. It undermines the rights of our people, including the right to life and health. How can this country explain to parents and children around Cuba, or the patients who need intensive care, that they continued electricity cuts that continue to jeopardize their lives are a result of this policy. How can they explain to Cuban children that the lack of study materials for their materials is not a result of the blockade? We maintain that we will defend our sovereignty and our freely chosen model. We will not renounce to upholding our international and national commitments social justice and development. We highlight the value of multilateralism, cooperation and dialogue between nations to build a collective project of social justice for all. It is urgent to find a renewed commitment to peace and respect for peaceful coexistence. beyond the differences, if we want to talk even of development. Taking this opportunity, I would like to ask you what else could the UN do to ensure the full elimination of unilateral coercive measures? Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Thanks to all the delegates for their comments and questions. We're running out of time, but let me ask Cecilia Schermeister perhaps to give some final reflections or answers to some of the questions, and then I will give the floor back to Professor Alkire to also provide some reflections as well. Over to you.

Thank you so much, Mr. Moderator. If I may respond to the question that I believe was posed by MGCY. I think your question is a very good one, and similar to the other questions in the room, it comes down to how we conceive of development, how we conceive of our development approach. There's many ways to do it, of course we know that, but if development is conceived of as coming from the top down to the bottom, in an isolated way like that, then for a young person, You are naturally positioned in a challenge that somehow you have, the question becomes, how do I get into the room? How do I get a seat at the table? That's what the question becomes if we are positioning development as something that is coming from the top, right? I think if we are expanding our approach to development and we think about development as something that while it occurs at the top, to use those dichotomies, it also begins at the grassroots. It begins at the neighborhood. Whether or not you're part of an NGO, your neighbor is part of an NGO, it is the families living in a community, in a neighborhood, and that neighborhood, that community is full of youth. Of course. So then if we think about coordination and what is the role that young people can play, we have seen that young people can be protagonists. They can work shoulder to shoulder with people of many different ages in bringing about conversation with neighbors, in understanding what are the needs of the community, in building relationships with the younger and with the older. And as that, though it begins on a small scale, as that begins to become more sophisticated and it draws in the collaboration and the coordination from institutions, from municipal authorities, then if you're conceiving of development like that, then young people have a much clearer entry point. Because development cannot occur if all members of a community, if all members of a society are not part of the process from the very beginning, from where the concept and the needs of development emerge. So I think that question, it relates to all of them in a way because it's a bigger question of how we conceive of doing development. Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Thank you very much. Professor Alkire, you have the last word.

Thank you. I'll say three brief things. First, to the speaker from the EU who asked about green transitions. We with UNDP co-publish a multidimensional poverty index covering 109 countries and 6.3 billion people, 1.1 billion of whom live in acute multidimensional poverty. 80% of those persons live in a subnational region that in the year in which they were poor, experienced extreme heat, flood, drought, and/or air precipitate quality that was high. And so overlaying poverty and climate data gives, again, a visible way of understanding how they are interlinked in the lives of people and responding to it. Second, for the youth, again, with that global multidimensional poverty index, we find that half.

Of the 1.1 billion people are children under the age of 18.

In many countries, children are twice as poor as adults in terms of the percentage of children who are poor. And in around half of the countries for which we have data, which is about 6 billion people, children have not reduced poverty faster than adults. So statistics can be very useful to youth, but they have to be taught in schools. They have to be explained clearly so that children can be actors of change. Finally, to India, I'd want to recognize that India has indeed had tremendous progress. Using that same global MPI, India changed the lives of 415 million poor people. So if you're wondering if poverty can go down, between 2005-6 and 2019-21, 415.

Million people in India moved out of poverty.

Children had the fastest reduction, 200 million of those were children. The poorest groups, His Excellency mentioned tribal groups, were the poorest and had the fastest reduction, so did the poorest states. So that is an example to look at. And coming back to Cuba, we are secretariat of a 65 country South-South group. And when Cuba was considering multidimensional poverty, it invited five Latin American countries to share their experiences.

The delegation I mentioned from Africa has a plan to visit India.

So I think this dense interchange.

Of lived experience is a very good way of seeing coordination that works in action.

It requires innovation to bring it back to the home context, but it sparks ideas.

And as important as anything, it's deeply encouraging.

So I hope that that can go forward. Thank you.

Thank you so much. And so let me end by expressing our gratitude to all the panelists for their outstanding contributions and also inspiring remarks. And also thanks to all the delegations who took the floor and were part of this interaction as well. With that, let me hand over the role of the moderator to Professor Alkire and invite the panelists of the second session to the table as well. Thank you very much.

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, we have concluded the high-level panel discussion segment one, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to the high-level discussion segment two on coordinated financing and digital public infrastructure for social development. I now welcome our distinguished panelists. His Excellency Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy of Poland. Her Excellency Marguerite Saroufim Youssef, Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity of Egypt. Ms. Angela Kawandame, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services of Zambia. Ms. Maha Hammad Al-Atiyah, Director of the Department of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Social Development and Family of Qatar; and Mr. Stefan Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer at the Governance Laboratory at New York University. I now would like to turn the meeting over to the moderator, Ms. Sabina Alkire, Professor of Poverty and Human Development and Director of Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford. You have the floor, please.

Distinguished delegates, excellencies, colleagues, we move in this second segment of the high-level panel to build on the governance and coordination challenges we discussed earlier. but turn to financing and technological enablers that make the coordinated action possible in progress, in practice. So effective coordination requires not only strong institutional arrangements, as we've discussed, but also financing frameworks and digital systems that support integrated planning and also support timely service delivery and equitable access to services. So our focal question in this segment is how countries can overcome the fiscal and institutional fragmentation they face by adopting integrated financing approaches that ensure predictable investment in social development and timely support in periods of shock, recognizing that this is all the more difficult in the present context. We also will ask how can digital public infrastructure be a critical enabler of coordination? How can interoperable, secure, and inclusive data systems help improve policy coherence, strengthen service delivery across different types of actors, and ensure that no one is left behind if they lack the digital access or imprint?

In parallel with these, this session will reflect on the governance discussions of financing and digitalization, including data protection.

Inclusion, accountability, and trust, because we recognize that technological and financial tools must remain firmly anchored in people-centered and rights-based approaches, and they must be protected from difficult uses of those. And so, as we've heard for this section, we have five distinguished panelists, and they will share their different perspectives and experience in a brief presentation followed by a question. And then we will open the floor for an interactive exchange.

So I now invite our first.

Panelist, Mr. Sebastian, His Excellency, Mr. Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Policy in Poland, to share his experiences. Your Excellency.

Madam Chair, Excellencies, distinguished panelists, ladies and gentlemen. Let me share a few remarks on two crucial issues. The first, coordination between social and financial policies, one of the key challenge in every government. I would like to talk about how to align social goals with fiscal frameworks and budget capabilities. And the second, establishing and using public digital infrastructure for social development. As the Secretary General notes in the latest report, progress towards social justice calls for overcoming fragmented decision making and aligning economic, social, environmental, and digital policies around shared goals. The key challenge is coordination of active social policy, budgetary policy, and economic policy that enable achieve common goals for social and economic progress. In every government, the most visible tension always takes place between ministers responsible for social affairs and for budget and finance. Many people view social policies solely as a cost to the state, but in my opinion, it is worth to overcome this way of thinking And understand that if the social policy is well coordinated with budgetary, fiscal, and economic policies, it turns out that active social policy, including social transfers, subsidies, and public expenditure, is not only about higher spending, but also about higher income, GDP growth, and even bigger tax revenues. Shifting the perception of social spending from a cost to an investment remains a challenge for every country. In Poland, we observe that measures increasing household incomes, such as social benefits, family support, and access to public services, led to higher consumption. Stronger domestic demand stimulates production, raises businesses' revenues, and increases both indirect and direct tax recipes. Over time, this can offset initial public expenditure, boost economic growth, and consequently GDP. As an example supporting this argument, I would like to refer to Poland's system of universal family benefits, including 800+ program, Good Start, and Active Parent. We treat these schemes as an investment in human capital and the wider economy. Their key features are universality, there is no income threshold, meaning that all families with children are eligible, and administrative simplicity. What are the effects? We combated the risk of extreme poverty among families with children, support families that decided to have them, and constantly stimulated families' well-being, spending, and in effect, our economic growth. Coordination of social, budgetary, and fiscal policy can be also used as an answer to problems of labor markets and aging of societies. I would like to give an example from latest Polish experience. In Poland, we have very low unemployment rate, face labor shortages, and our society is obviously, like in many European countries, aging. That's the reason we decided to undertake coordinated measures to increase labor market participation among older people, including the first, the possibility of full combining a pension with paid employment without the risk of reduction or suspension of a pension. Second, the possibility to increase a pension due to economic activity upon reaching retirement age, and the third, a zero personal income tax rate for working seniors. and income tax exemption for those who choose to continue working instead of drawing their pension. What did we achieve? From year to year, activity of older people on labor market increases. For instance, among people aged 55-64, it increased from 29% in 2009 to roughly 60% today. Less older people decide to retire directly upon reaching statutory pensionary age, and as a result, older people earn more, pay more taxes, and more contribute to our economic growth. It is a consequence of well-coordinated measures from the area of social and fiscal policy. Generous social policy, full combining pension with paid employment is always generous solution, mixed with tax exemptions, if well coordinated, can mean economic growth and additional public revenues. And now I would like to share with you a few remarks on the second issue, establishing and using public digital infrastructure for social development. The Secretary General report identifies integrated data systems as a key driver of policy coherence. Today, data and digital systems are fundamental to state governance capacity. In my opinion, the key challenge is to, on the one hand, create public infrastructure, public digital infrastructure, but on the other hand, to gain an ability to use it to create coherent and comprehensive public policies. In our times, it is obvious to digitalize social security service. Every state does it. Every collects digitalized data concerning labor market, social benefits, and population. But the point is to make a step from just digitalization of public service in the area of social security to use it to create modern data-based policies. In Poland, the digitalization of social services is very advanced. It includes fully digitalized social and family benefit systems, automated benefit award processes, and centralized data systems. The scale of this efficiency is illustrated by the fact that in 2025, benefits for more than 12 million children were administered roughly by only 100 staff members. These solutions allow not only faster responses to social needs and reduce administrative costs, but also enable the design of policies based on reliable data. Our social security institution not only automatically administer the social security system, but has comprehensive information concerning incomes, contributions, economic activity of our residents, pensions, sick and accident allowances, family benefits and many others. Thanks to digitalization, Polish security institution has become a public data hub responsible for administrating the social security system and a key institution supporting the design of social labor market and public finance policies based on reliable data as recommended by the United Nations. I can say no one know about people more than social security institution and thanks to digitalization, this knowledge can be used for social and economic progress more than it was in the past. In my government, if someone asks who can know something, who can count something, who can check something that is important for creating our labor market or economic policy, the most often answer is social security. institution. And I think it is a very good direction if we can use this data collected by our social security institutions or other public authorities to create data-based policies. Both the Secretary General's report and the Doha political declaration led to a shared conclusion. Social development requires coordination. As stated, advancing social development and social justice requires embedding coordination, equity and inclusion at the heart of policy making. Poland treats this recommendation as a practical commitment, combining coordinated financing, social policies and the modern digital public infrastructure. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Your Excellency, for such an interesting talk, which gave examples in Poland of the universal family benefits and of how active pensions and tax policies for older people were able to address labor shortages, and then also raised the really extensive database policies benefits that occur at scale in Poland. I have one follow-up question, and that is, what are the key barriers to establishing and effectively using the digital public infrastructure for social development.

Thank you very much for this question. I think there are three or four key barriers. The first is a financial barrier because I think that always we start with a new solution with the question Is it worth, if we can afford, and I think that this question is always vital when we decide to establish digitalization in every area of public administration. So I think that people ask if it is worth to give money for digitalization. The second barrier is people, because in every public authority, we have people who are afraid of losing their jobs and being replaced by computer systems, by AI. It is a challenge of our times. The experience shows that it is not true, that if we decide to establish some informatical systems, data systems and or use or use AI, no one and no one loses a job. But it is important barrier, especially when you talk about when you talk with, for example, trade unions in public administration. And the third barrier, I think this is the most important concerning the topic of this session is awareness, because I mentioned that in every single country, we digitalize social security institutions, we have data systems and so on. But it is one step. But the second step demands awareness. Awareness means what we can achieve using this data that we collected. We can collect data for collecting data and to have them, we can collect data concerning, for example, labor market, taxes, contributions, pensions and allowances and so on, and use it to create a modern database policy. And I think that this lack of this awareness can be can be a barrier. And the last one, as always, is legal frameworks, because always we should have some regulations that enable us to use collected data, not only to have them, to collect them and keep them in, for example, social security institution, but to creatively use them to create public policies.

Thank you so much for a riveting and informative explanation of Poland's leadership on both financing and digital infrastructure, and also for this candid enumeration of the barriers that not only Poland, but I'm sure other countries will face. We now turn to Her Excellency, Margrit Surafem Youssef, the Deputy Minister of Social Solidarity of the Arab Republic of Egypt. You have the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Excellencies, distinguished colleagues. We often talk about the digital divide as if it is a gap we can bridge with a few more cables or cheaper smartphones. But the reality is that digital access is no longer a luxury, it is a foundation of social development. Egypt's experience demonstrates that social development at scale requires coordinated financing and strong digital public infrastructure, not fragmented programs or siloed budgets. We are moving from scattered digital projects to a unified, resilient digital public infrastructure. Over the past decade, we enhanced our integration across financing, delivery and data systems, ensuring that social protection, care and economic empowerment reinforce one another. A key lesson learned is that skill and coordination are essential. Egypt's decision to place social protection at the center of its national development strategy led to doubling of public expenditure, reaching 700 billion EGP in the 2025-2026 budget. Egypt has officially launched its integrated national financing strategy. to align financial resources with the sustainable development goals, utilizing a performance-based budgeting framework to ensure efficient public spending. This strategic initiative, spearheaded by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, focuses on enhancing fiscal transparency and diversifying funding sources to support long-term economic resilience. Excellencies, rather than treating social programs as isolated expenditures, Egypt has increasingly aligned them through a platform-based approach with cash assistance, Takaful and Karama, serving as the backbone for the multiple sectoral interventions. This is one of the biggest social protection programs in Egypt, reaching 8 million households in the past 10 years and benefiting 4.7 million households today. Integration with national initiatives such as Decent Life, in Arabic, Haya Karima, which bundles infrastructure services and social protection for 58 million citizens. While not framed formally as pooled funds, this approach reflects program level coordination, where financing decisions are aligned around shared social outcomes, poverty reduction, human capital development, and resilience. excellences steamed audience the transformation of the ke and the Kama into a legislated social rights governed by the amended social assistance law was a major step toward long-term financing certainty and institutional sustainability at the same time Egypt's system has proven shock-responsiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflationary shocks. The government was able to rapidly scale benefits, expand coverage, add hundreds of thousands of new families to the safety net. This was possible because financing was supported by strong registries and scalable delivery mechanisms, ensuring that resources could be deployed quickly and transparently when risk materialized. The key lessons is that predictable public financing combined with legal anchoring enables both stability in normal times and the flexibility during crisis. A modern social development system depends on inter and inclusive digital infrastructure. Egypt experience highlight the role of the United, the Unified National Registry and Social Registry, which serve as a backbone for identifying beneficiaries, coordinating services and scaling interventions. Digital integration across social assistance, health, education and economic empowerment programs. These systems reduce duplication, improve targeting, and strengthen policy coherence across institutions. Digital infrastructure also underpins economic empowerment and inclusion. Through the Manzuma which is the newly established national coordination mechanisms, beneficiaries are digitally linked to economic opportunities through a coordinated network of 34 partners, including regulatory and supervisory authorities, line ministries, banks and funds, civil society organizations and private sector companies providing access to financial services, microfinance and economic opportunities, as well as non-financial services market access. This linkage is further supported by RISE, which use digital platforms and the coordinated data system to connect rural producers and Takaful beneficiaries to financing, training, and markets, ensuring that digitalization supports inclusion rather than exclusion. Ladies and gentlemen, Lastly, Egypt's experience shows that coordinated financing and digital public infrastructure are enablers, not add-ons. of social development. By aligning large-scale public financing, legal frameworks, and interoperable digital system, Egypt has strengthened its ability to deliver integrated services, respond to shocks, link protection with economic empowerment, maintain policy coherence across sectors. The lessons for social development beyond 2030 is clear. Without coordinated financing and trusted digital systems, even well-designed social policies cannot reach their full impact. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Your Excellency, for that very clear picture of how Egypt doubled the finance, the public expenditure, so it focused on scale and coordination of its Hilal Karima, of the cash transfers, of the different programs to achieve huge gains. And I'd like to congratulate Egypt on having also multidimensional poverty indexes. but also how she showed how data, in particular, the unified national and social registry, augments and catalyzed the change, and how those data fed 34 producers, not only related to poverty, but also related to rural producers who needed connections to markets and to training. So that's really a wonderful case study of finance and data. I'd like to ask, what are the factors that contributed to the success of social protection programs in Egypt.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. The main factors, of course, after the efficient targeting, the programs have to be comprehensive. So it's not just giving the financial aid, but how can we integrate health education, the families' issues, nutrition, working with the children. So it's very comprehensive and and covering different items at the same time. Also, they have to be integrated with graduation strategy from its beginning. So, once we started to have the financial aid, we have to think about how can we help people to be graduated and how can we be really out of this system. Thirdly, and which is very important, and now our Monzuma or system, it's around this concept, the strong link with the economic empowerment. So we have to consider the people who are part of the safety net and the social protection scheme, they are fortune because they do have different skills and they have different passions. So we have to deal with this as really as a wealth, as a fortune. And we have to work for economic empowerment integrated with the social program from its beginning. Thank you.

Thank you so much. So the factors of success are comprehensive programs, helping graduates from poverty stay graduated, and linking to economic empowerment and social protection. We now turn to Her Excellency Ms. Angela Kawandame, the Permanent Secretary, Minister of Community Development and Social Services from Zambia.

Thank you. Moderator, excellencies and distinguished delegates. The Doha political declaration reminds us that bold social policies must be coordinated across institutions. They must be equitable in outcomes and inclusive in design. The Secretary General's report captures this very well by noting that equity and inclusion define the destination while coordination is the bridge that gets us there. From Zambia's experience, I would like to reflect on the two critical enablers of that bridge. That's coordinated financing and digital public infrastructure. First on coordinated financing for social development. One area where progress is evident is the use of program-based budgeting and medium-term expenditure frameworks to align policy priorities with financing. These tools strengthen coherence across sectors by shifting the focus from institutional mandates to outcomes, particularly within the human and social development sectors. In this way, social protection programs benefit from more predictable budgetary allocations and closer alignment with complementary sector investments in health, education, nutrition and livelihoods. This reduces fragmentation and improves the timeliness of support to vulnerable households, including during periods of economic stress and climate related shocks. Building on this, there's also a need to strengthen integrated financing approaches to further reduce fiscal compactimization. This includes improving coordination between sectors during budget formulation, enhancing alignment between national priorities and development partner support, and reinforcing medium-term planning to protect social spending. Importantly, there's a need to continue to strengthen financing frameworks that supports shock responsiveness, allowing social systems to scale up more quickly when households are affected by crises. Second, on digital public infrastructure as an enabler of coordination. A key enabler of coordination is strong foundational and sectoral information systems that support coordinated service delivery. For example, from Zambia's experience, our social protection digital payments platform has enhanced the efficiency and transparency of social protection delivery, improving reach and reducing the risks that are associated with cash payments. At the same time, improvements in administrative data systems across social sectors are enabling better planning, targeting and monitoring using digital tools. In this regard, there is a need to ensure digital systems are interoperable, secure and inclusive. In this manner, Targeting, for instance, will become easier with its associated costs reduced across social protection sectors such as health, education, nutrition, and livelihoods, particularly for households facing multiple and intersecting vulnerabilities. Looking ahead, Zambia is prioritizing the moving from sector-based social protection information systems to a national social registry, with a focus on improving data quality, interoperability, and use for decision making. Equally important is ensuring that digitalization does not negate the gains already achieved, but creates a platform on which inclusivity and accessibility is achieved by those facing digital barriers. Third, linking financing and digital systems to equity and inclusion. What is working well in this space is the recognition that financing and digital systems must reinforce each other. Predictable financing enables scale and continuity, while digital systems improve coordination, efficiency, and fairness in outcomes. Together, these enablers support more people-centered and life cycle approaches, allowing us to address intersecting inequalities related to gender, age, disability, income, and geography. They also strengthen the capacity of social systems to support just transitions by protecting vulnerable groups during periods of economic adjustments, climate stress, and structural change. Finally, on governance, accountability, and public trust, reforms must be underpinned by strong governance and accountability mechanisms. These may include systems such as parliamentary oversight of budgets and programs, independent audits, and structured engagement with civil society, which contributes to transparency and fiscal discipline. grievance redress mechanisms within social programs to further strengthen accountability and responsiveness at the community level. These measures are essential for building public trust, ensuring that coordinated financing and digital systems remain people-centered, inclusive, and fair. In conclusion, Zambia's experience affirms the Doha Political Declaration's core message That coordination is not a technical exercise, but a strategic enabler of equity and inclusion. By strengthening integrated financing approaches and investing in inclusive digital public infrastructure, we can build a more coherent, responsive, and trusted social development system, one that translates global commitments into tangible improvements in people's lives. I thank you.

Thank you so much for that very insightful case study in Zambia of how the financing helped to shift to an outcome-based, an outcome-focused orientation, how medium-term budgeting led to predictable budgetary flows, and this also helped the system to become shock-responsive. She also showed how the digital payments made a step forward from cash payments and how the improved data made the targeting more accurate, which saved funds. and also showed something we haven't heard elsewhere, how engagement with civil society and grievance mechanisms at the community level supported the digital infrastructure. I do have a follow-up question, and that is, in a sense, could you explain how Zambia managed to get this medium-term predictable financing that I think so many countries would like, and also some uses of the shock responsiveness? You mentioned life cycle, you mentioned climate and economic shocks, so we'd love to hear just that little bit more? Thank you.

Thank you for the question. The predictable financing is made possible by the deliberate government policy to prioritize social spending. So that has already been put in place and then we are going further and ring-fencing some of the revenue to make sure that this is specifically going to go towards the funding of the social sector. The other thing that has been very useful is also insurance instruments. We actually have insurance both at the local level for livelihoods, where we insure against droughts and floods, and then also we have that at a continental level where we are actually have been accessing insurance under the African risk capacity. So those have actually been on standby so that when there are any shocks, we are able to quickly come to the insurance instruments to get the financing in place.

Thank you so much for that texture and those details, the policy to prioritize social spending and to ring fence the resources that are required. It's something very inspiring and we do hope that others are able to go in that direction. We now turn to Her Excellency Ms. Maha Hamad Al-Ataya, the Director of Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Social Development and Family in the State of Qatar. You have the floor.

Thank you, Ms. Sabina. I will speak in Arabic.

Ladies and gentlemen, excellencies, it's my pleasure to be with you this afternoon in this second segment to look at coordinated funding and digital public infrastructure. This is particularly important because coordination allows us to pool our efforts to to achieve results in social justice. I'd like to thank all of the panelists for their detailed briefings. I would love to talk about coordination and social development, particularly in digital public infrastructure, because This represents the bedrock of ensuring effective public policies. We need to mobilize funds, coordinate how they're used in a sustainable way. That's how we can transform these measures into sustainable policies. Ladies and gentlemen, coordinated financing is essential for national and international level development projects. It ensures that we need to plan so that we can respond quickly during crises and shocks. It's important also to move from traditional financing models to more exhaustive, comprehensive models. When we set up budgets, we should link results to the levels of financing so that we can finance projects effectively. It is also important to ensure that all stakeholders are involved in planning and that we have an overview of all of the sources of their financing and to ensure that they are in line with national social development policies. so that we can be sure that we have the necessary funding and can provide the right support at the right time for the most vulnerable households. Ladies and gentlemen, digital public infrastructure is a main instrument of good public governance. This is why we need integrated database systems. In this regard, my country has taken steps to modernize our data management systems to ensure that we can exchange data between ministries to ensure greater planning and inter-institutional coordination. In addition to this, we've set up shared platforms between the different social development services, healthcare, education, etc. In addition, we have prioritized national capacities to protect personal data. We've done this through our national policies and through capacity building. We've also been able to include the most vulnerable households by giving them access to services. And we have done this because we're convinced that appropriate financing and good digital infrastructure could help us to make a qualitative leap forward in Qatar. It will also, I think, allow us to provide better services while ensuring that we leave no one behind. To conclude, my country will continue with what it has already been doing at the national and international level. We call on all of our partners in the UN and all partner states to cooperate through investment to ensure that we have sustainable social development. Thank you.

Thank you so much for drawing our eye not only to the national leadership of Qatar, but also to your work internationally and how you advocate these topics of financing and digital public infrastructure, looking at them to be shock responsive, comprehensive and involving all stakeholders, and also raising the issue of how to protect personal data. I'd like to ask follow-up question, which is in the state of Qatar, how can coordinated financing and digital public infrastructure work together to accelerate social development?

Thank you for your question, Ms. Sabina. In Qatar, the combination of coordinated financing and digital public infrastructure has had a clear accelerating effect. on social development, aligning public funding, development finance, and private investment around shared national priorities. It reduces fragmentation and allows resources to be deployed more efficiently. At the same time, strong digital public infrastructure enables faster service delivery, better data integration, and more targeted social interventions, particularly in areas such as healthcare, education, and economic participation. When financing and digital systems move in step, scale and impact increase, while costs and duplication decrease. This approach supports inclusive growth, strengthens institutional capacity, and helps translate long-term national strategies into a tangible social outcome, in line with the Qatar National Vision of 2030. Thank you, Ms. Sabina.

Thank you so much. Again, just very clear examples of how coordination and the digital public infrastructure can increase the scale, the impact, decrease the fragmentation and the costs. So a very hopeful message in tough times, but one based on the experience of Qatar. And we heard how their experience did increase, did indeed share data across the different social development ministries. So our last speaker is Mr. Stefan Verhulst, the co-founder and chief research and development officer at the GovLab in New York University.

Thank you so much, moderator, for giving me the floor. And I will try to focus on one particular element that we have worked on that could help also achieve the objectives of social development. And I have a presentation, I don't know whether the presentation can go up. There we go.

So I will focus on something that typically is not really addressed in.

Fora like this, which is really about how can we start using non-traditional data in order to improve social development.

Again, as was mentioned, I'm the co-founder of a few organizations.

One is called GovLab.

And so here we focus on how do we transform the way we make decisions. in order to make them more effective and more legitimate. And typically, our work starts from a few observations. The first one is that the world is becoming more complex and dynamic. Clearly, we have many more challenges that are interdependent and that not only require coordination, as we have discussed today, but also require innovation. And that leads us to the second observation, that in addition to society becoming more complex and dynamic, society is also becoming far more datafied. Clearly, digitalization, as we have seen in many countries, not only has made services more efficient, but we clearly have a lot more data as a result of digitalization. And that data not only is increased in volume, what is interesting about the data and especially about digital data is that we also have a massive amount of new variety of data, such as shopping data, data that is collected when you're online, data when is collected on social media and so on. And in addition to that, we also have a lot more unstructured data. In the past when we talked about data, It was typically about structured data, but today we have massive amount of unstructured data that, thanks for instance to AI, we can actually start leveraging to generate insight that we didn't have before as well. When we talk about variety of data, I talk about data resulting from consumption, data resulting from communication, and so on and so on. And to a large extent, what we can see is that this non-traditional data, as we typically call it, that is digitally captured and often privately held, can actually contribute in a variety of ways because of its characteristics, such as long timeliness and especially the scale of the data that we are talking about. And we've seen this during COVID. This is, for instance, one of our research that we've developed during COVID where we were very active in actually trying to leverage non-traditional data, such as, for instance, mobility data, in order to understand mobility patterns so that we can really target those that are in need and that might be infected. But also other data, such as, for instance, social media data, in order to understand to what extent vaccinations, for instance, were taken.

Seriously as well.

Here is another research that we recently conducted with the Wellcome Trust, where we basically analysed more than 300 studies that had used non-traditional data, which in total was 51 data sources, in order to advance health and wellbeing research. I'm not going to go into detail, but it suffices to say that we can start using non-traditional data to understand health outcomes, to understand the determinants of health and wellbeing, and to understand, for instance, structural drivers that explain why, for instance, we have.

Certain kind of health conditions, such as, for instance, mental health as well.

This is some of the research that we have done. For instance, we've used telco data to understand to what extent urban mobility is gendered in Chile, where we clearly saw that women travel differently than men, and that we also, if we want to develop urban mobility plans, that we actually have to take a more gendered approach. Other studies that we've done looked into search data where we could understand keywords that might be indications of suicide ideation so that we can be ahead of the curve as opposed to dealing with massive mental crisis that we have. And then we have a whole variety of other sources and other projects such as Big Data for Migration Alliance, where we actually, together with IOM and with the European Commission, are looking into non-traditional data to understand migration better. Now, all of this potential is there. Unfortunately, what is currently the case, and that's of course nothing new to many of you, is that while there is a huge potential and while there is a huge demand for that data, obviously the supply is quite often not reachable. And we see this massive gap between demand and supply, the massive supply of data that is being collected through digital means and the massive demand, but unfortunately we have not figured out how do we match demand and the supply. And so we see this kind of emergence of a data asymmetry. Data asymmetry meaning that those that need data don't have access to the data that is already collected and could be reused for actually public interest purposes. We have a variety of data asymmetries, which I'm not going to go into detail, but what we have done is try to deal with those data asymmetries. And one of the innovations that we have been advocating for is data collaboratives, which is kind of a new public-private partnership around this kind of non-traditional data where the private sector quite often shares some of its data in order to really advance public interest objectives. Many, again, types exist of data collaboratives, and I'm not going to go into full detail of what all those might be, but it suffices to say is that there is no one way to bridge this kind of data asymmetry. Now, despite the fact that we know that we can, this kind of data collaboratives succeed, the problem has been how do make those data collaborations more systematic, sustainable and responsible. What we have seen is that once you have a data collaborative, quite often it doesn't become systematic. It is a one pilot and we've seen most of the data collaboratives that were created during COVID, for instance, have all gone. So we don't have this kind of more systematic, sustainable approach to making data collaboratives actually sustainable. And then the last challenge that I will focus on is that despite the fact that we know that we have massive potential and despite the fact that we have actually increased access to some of that data, the last two or three years, actually, we have seen a decline in access to data, which I have called the emergence of a data winter. We have an AI summer, but we have a data winter. We have less access to data than we've had before. And as a result, we are actually worse off when it comes to leveraging the amount of data that is available and that is generated in society, but is unfortunately not available for unlocking that for public interest. So what can we do and what are some of the areas that we need to collaborate and coordinate in order to really make data collaboration more systematic, sustainable and responsible, and to also prevent of the data winter to become worse than we currently have. And the first one, and you will see none of this actually requires very heavy technical investments because I think the technical aspect can be figured out fairly quickly. But the first one is that we really need to strengthen the demand for non-traditional data. What we have seen is that quite often we have a lot of conversations about data, but what are the questions that should be prioritized for which we then can collectively go to the data holder and say we need access to that data because now we have a set of prioritized questions. It's very interesting to hear about the index because that's kind of one way to prioritize what data we need. But we need in many areas, we need this kind of questions prioritization because without that and without having a clear consensus what those questions are, everyone knocks on the door of data holders, but they don't know whether actually the data they have serves priority questions as has been defined as well. And one initiative that we developed was, for instance, the 100 questions initiative. And I would argue that especially as it relates to social development, it would be good to have 100 questions that matter so that we can make progress and really can have access to the data that we need. The second element that we need is not just data scientists. I mean, we've done a lot of investment in kind of the capability to generate insights from data, but we actually need data stewards, people that are, or teams that have a sophistication to really understand what data is needed for what question, and also can then get that data. So we need the human infrastructure. We quite often talk about digital public infrastructure, but we actually need the human infrastructure to unlock that data that quite often is ignored. Data stewardship is still very much a early kind of function and is not really innovative in the way that we should have as well. Now, the third area is that we can actually start using AI to unlock some of that data. And so AI has the potential to really democratize data and to make data more available, which we call the fourth wave of data. The fourth element, and I'm almost done, is that in order to access that data for reuse, we actually need to go back to those that are in the data and acquire a social license, because we're talking about reusing data that was collected for one purpose, we're now collecting it for another purpose without actually having a social license for that reuse. And so we need to come up with new mechanisms to obtain that social license that quite often goes beyond consent, but is really more collective. And then the last element I would say is that not only do we need more data, we actually also need capabilities to then act upon the data. Too often we see the creation of insights and then nothing happens. So we need to move from data intelligence to decision intelligence. And these are the elements that from my perspective enables us to really go and leverage the data that is already there and that we really enter an era of data collaboration and also an era of a new paradigm of data stewardship.

Thank you so much for joining our Attention not only to the need for coordination, but the need for innovation, for teaching us a new word, at least me a new word, datification, which is the increase in data and the new kinds and sources of data, showing how this can bring insights in topics of health and migration, arguing for data collaboratives where the private sectors or non-traditional data providers can meet with the public demand. And then enumerating the challenges and the ways forward to develop this channel of data communication further and the human infrastructure needed to do so. Thank you so much. A follow up question, very brief, please, because we're over time, is how would one go about prioritizing questions that data collaboratives can address? And what you mean by data stewardship within the context of data sharing. I'm particularly interested, of course, in the poverty issues.

Thank you.

Yeah, and I will be very have data equity, we also have questions equity, meaning who determines what are the questions that matter?

And so we need a new participatory platform to actually be able to source the questions.

Not only by the experts, but also by those that are experiencing poverty, for instance, what are the questions that they care about?

And I think too often we actually ignore that kind of question prioritization.

Now on stewardship, I have a whole bootcamp five-day boot camp on data stewardship, so I'm not going to go into the detail, but suffice to say is that stewardship is needed because we need to provide and seek access to data in a more systematic, going beyond the pilot, sustainable, really figuring out how do we actually.

Make this sustainable both financially and environmentally and then also responsibly. And that's what I mean by data stewardship, is to achieve those three goals while unlocking data.

Thank you so much. Friends, we've had five very invigorating presentations, and now it's time for you.

So I would like to invite delegations wishing to make.

Comments or pose questions to our distinguished panelists to do so by pressing your microphone button. I'd request that you might keep your questions or comments short and to the point to allow for many interactions. And please also indicate to whom in the panel you are addressing your remarks. I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the Deputy Minister for Family and Social Services of Turkey, to be followed by representatives of Algeria and of the Children and Youth International NGO. So, Turkey, you have the floor.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to address this panel on behalf of Republic of Turkey. As the Minister of the Family and Social Service, we have made a clear promise to stand by women, children, persons with disabilities, elder persons, and all at-risk groups. Today, I would like to share how we work to turn these promises to progress. From our perspective, the shift depends on one key factor, coordinated actions. This means aligned family, education, employment, health and social protection policies around shared social outcomes. With the approval of our President, the Family and Population Decade has been declared. Within this framework, we continue our practice to empower social justice. Under the leadership of Minister, Her Excellency Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, our ministry approaches social assistance as a policy tool that empowers social justice and social welfare. At the center of the social justice stand the family. where solidarity begins and where care, equality, and resilience are formed. As Turkey, we regard the protection, support, and empowerment of families as a fundamental human responsibility. Today, demographic change, low fertility, population aging, and changing lifestyles directly affect social justice. In response, we support families through a comprehensive set of social services led by targeted economic assistance. We offer incentives such as housing support and marriage loans to make it easier for young people to start a family. Through our birth allowance system, we stand by families who wish to have children. For working mothers and fathers, we promote work and family balance by offering maternity and paternity leave, childcare support, and flexible working hours. Dear guests, today, Global stability has become more fragile while normative values are under growing pressure. With the strong commitment of militarism, Turkey act not only regional stakeholders, but also a global actor. As stated by our president, his excellency, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the foundation of Turkish foreign policy rest the humanitarian values. Guided by the understanding, we continue to prioritize human-centers and compassionate policies. We are committed to combating inequality and discrimination while ensuring that no one left behind. We deliver our social service through integrated social service centers so that people in need receive support under one roof. Through family support centers, we shortly say ADEM, and social solidarity centers, we shortly say SODAM, we supported individual participation of life and economic independence. We have introduced protection model for children in need and expand foster family services. We share the responsibility of assistance and care for persons with disabilities and older persons. We empower women in all areas of social life as a key priority, and it empowers both families and society as a whole. With the integrated social assistance information system that we developed, we provide a robust infrastructure for social assistance progress. Dear guests, as Turkey, our experience confirms that condition is not a technical detail, but a political choice. It's a choice that transforms promises to progress. Yet social justice is not a responsibility for a nation only. Through strengthened global cooperation, can policy respond effectively to crisis and ensure that everyone is included. Let this forum reaffirm our shared responsibility to move this valley from the promise to progress and from policy to people. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Turkey for emphasis on the at-risk groups, people living with disabilities and elders, for seeing the family as a place where solidarity begins and care and resilience are realized, and for, again, emphasizing the theme of coordination with the One Roof social solidarity program and integrated social assistance. We now move to our distinguished speaker from Algeria.

Mr. Moderator, my delegation would like to emphasize three priority areas on which the Algerian government is currently working to strengthen its social development policy. First, the project to develop Algeria's social map. which aims to establish a decision-making tool to implement an integrated planning, coordination, and monitoring system, aiming to efficiently guide public policies and financial resources towards priority development programs, both nationally and locally. Second, in matter of digitalization, Algeria is implementing an important program of digitalization of the ministerial sectors, with the aim of strengthening transparency, combating bureaucracy, and facilitating equitable and efficient access to information public services. Third, my country is also developing a national digital services portal called Zaire Digital Services, offering different services for citizens, thereby improving the quality, the services quality and efficiency, while simplifying administrative procedures, in particular through the establishment of unified access to digital public services. This national platform also will consolidate digital exchanges between sectors, ministerial sectors, enabling greater transparency in public policies. Thank you.

I thank the distinguished representative of Algeria for sharing three priorities of that government, social maps for decision making and monitoring and evaluation, digitalization for transparency and efficiency, and national digital services providing a unified and simplified framework to citizens. We now turn to the Children and Youth International NGO. You have the floor.

Thank you very much, Madam Moderator, for giving me the floor. We would like to first reiterate our deep appreciation to all of the panelists for their insightful remarks and also thank the two moderators for their tireless facilitation of these important and timely discussions. Distinguished colleagues, we consider the question of coordinated financing for social development to be an extremely relevant to the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and the work of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation. Children and youth have continued to advocate for a sustained focus on financing as a critical means of implementation for social development, and this is one of the key outcomes of the FFD4 Youth Assembly held in Seville last year. We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that this year's ECOSOC Youth Forum will include a particular focus on how financing and technology can unlock development outcomes and the role of young people in pushing for economic and social justice. We invite all member states and stakeholders to carry these perspectives forward and ensure that they are meaningfully reflected in national and local social development policy. I would like to address two critical questions to the distinguished panelists. Firstly, what do you think is the nexus between the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and the Second World Summit on Social Development, and how can these intergenerational perspectives be integrated to the implementation and follow-up of these two agendas? Our second question is, what do the panelists think about the role of domestic public resource mobilization and tax reform in ensuring predictable investment in social development? And what more needs to be done to ensure expanded fiscal space for social protection and essential public services such as health and education? I thank you.

Thank you so much for that intervention, reminding us of the strong voice and energies of youth in advancing social justice and asking two questions to the panelists. This concludes the interventions from the floor, so I would like to return to the panelists in the order in which they presented and invite them to give a brief one-minute concluding remarks and address the two questions of the youth panelists if those are part of your remarks. So we turn first to the distinguished speaker from

Poland.

Madam Chair, thank you very much. Thanks for these questions. I think the most interesting from my point of view is the second one concerning expanding fiscal space to cover social spendings. I think that if we talk about this fiscal space, we cannot only think about social spendings as a cost because if we it is a kind of investment and we can if we hire social spendings we then can have more consumption then we have more taxes and then we can have more space to cover a social next social spendings and to cover to social costs. On the other hand, if we well shape and well coordinate social spendings, creating new allowances or benefits, we can also remove some social, some social, some social needs, and then as a result, has have smaller, smaller needs to cover. So I think that we should be we should be courage, we should be courage, and we should be courage and have and create, in creating new public spendings. Sometimes the answer for this new public spending is new taxes, sometimes are debt. But the question is how we use this money, because social spendings can also mean, in good circumstances, more tax revenues. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Now we turn to Her Excellency, Ms. Marguerite Sarafem Youssef of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

First of all, I would like to just comment quickly on the marvelous you know, interventions we heard. And I am actually for the data storage, which I really liked so much, and the data collaborations, because we need to have an open mind and interrelated work to invest and to, you know, have an open space for data sharing. And we need also within this data sharing, we need to keep the privacy for the people. So keeping the privacy and having the bridging between data collective, it's very important. For the social spending and for the taxes, the important thing is to highlight what are the major areas we need to invest in. So people, by having this, we need to listen to the people. So placing the people in the core of even the way we plan for the social spending is very important. So having new taxes or whatever the sources are, the main issue is how can we spend this money into the social corner stores as the people really need. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We turn now to Ms. Angela Kawandame from Zambia.

Thank you. I'll also speak to the domestic resource mobilization and expanding the physical space to cover social spending. I think the important thing about social spending is it's very important to understand that it's an investment in human development. It's actually a hand up and not a handout. So at the end of the day, it's actually something that is going to add value to both the beneficiaries and to the people when they're contributing to maybe new taxes and can see that this has been done in transparently and it's accountable. Like when you're spending the money, there has to be a high level of accountability because that is very important to build trust and also to heighten social cohesion when people can see that we are transforming livelihoods. Thank you.

Thank you so much. We now turn to Ms. Maha Hamed Al-Ataya.

Thank you, Ms. Sabina, and thank you for the question. I will also address the second question that you have mentioned. Social protection, health, and education are all essential for life existence. And I think the best way to go through all of these or to have healthy well-being of life is by having them either for a nominal amount of money or free of charge. And by this, I mean given by the country for their own citizen. And this is an experience that we have in the state of Qatar. And I see that it works well for us. And yeah, it's a great way to do it. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Maha. And now to Stefan Verhulst.

Thank you. Yeah, I will just make some final reflections following the two sessions, actually. And I think, anyway, one big takeaway is that coordination, and especially the work that I do, data collaboration, is not easy. And then actually we will require change management, and I think we really need to start focusing on how do we actually develop change management in the social development sector, and I think it will require at the minimum three elements. leadership.

And I think we do need to emphasize that leaders need to constantly recognize that without access to data, much progress won't be made.

And so we need to really have a leadership call to have access to data that really is taken seriously.

Secondly, recognition. I always say is that we make more progress not by naming and shaming, but by naming and faming. And actually, if we should, and also already was done, celebrate good practice and also even potentially have an annual prize for the data steward of the year that has made progress on social development, we will actually see a lot more activity in that space and people will try to be recognized and aspire to start sharing data as opposed

to hoarding data, which is the current phenomenon that we see.

And then thirdly, we do need to take incentives into account. What are the incentives to coordinate? What are the incentives to collaborate? And I think there are a whole range of incentives that quite often not get recognized, including, for instance, reciprocity. I give something, I get something, and I think we need to really start emphasizing those mutual interests in order to make coordination more feasible and, as it relates to data, make data collaboration more systematic.

Thank you so much. There'll be no more questions, just a few observations from such a rich afternoon. We had a stimulating session and we learned a great deal from the different actors. And a few things stood out. One was political leadership. And as Stephane has said, and as we all have yearned for, we saw it in action. So we saw Egypt doubling their finance. We saw Zambia ring-fencing social development and making medium-term predictable financing for the priorities of social development. And that type of leadership, which we have seen in other countries, needs to be echoed, known about, discussed, and profiled so that other leaders know how to do it if they have that as a desire, so that when they come into office, they're able to actively advance these different types, and they know concretely what to do. Another thing we saw was the need to link social protection and economic empowerment, which we heard from Egypt, hand up and not handout, which we heard from Zambia, but really the need to bridge the social development and the inclusive growth agendas, because that will build alliances and that also changes the rhetoric from social development to being something that could be cut to it's been an investment in a vibrant society and a vibrant economy. Another thing was the inclusion involves elders. And we heard a lot about care. We heard, for example, from Poland, the active pensions, the need to have tax incentives so that elders enter the labor market. But care and the ability to include not only what Turkia emphasized of the people living with disabilities, women, and marginalized groups, but also the elders is going to be a priority in many places going forward. And we heard then also about the new types of data. And we saw very lived experiences where unified data structures then enable household targeting, enable a much more better coordination across ministries. So we saw in action how the digital infrastructure supports the coordination that we were discussing in the previous section and how that can be used as a tool of governance, but also how it can be with appropriate safeguards catalytic for other actors outside governments. I'd like to observe that the 100 questions that we heard about in the datafication conversation, that the floor is open for your questions. The global MPI rests on 43 questions, and we could perhaps put those forward. But I think that that's a very concrete way to think about bridging and accessing the private sector's data and their interest in entering this space. I'd like to end by, in a sense, returning to Stefan's point about naming and faming. I work on poverty, and often when I say that, people recoil, and they think I'm going to make them feel guilty. And the idea of prizes, of celebrating progress, Thailand, cutting poverty by half, Vietnam from 18 to 3%, Costa Rica from 26 to 12% in 13 years, India from 55 to 16.4% in 14 and a half years, profiling success, showing that it is possible and showing that people who do their job professionally in areas of social development of decent work and a poverty reduction that this is profiled, recognized, and it can lead to professional promotions. I think that's very key for changing the dynamic around this work and look forward to seeing national and international prizes going forward. So this ends this particular segment, and I am very grateful to you for your participation. I'm very grateful to each panelist for wonderful insights, and I now hand the floor back to the Chair, Her Excellency Ms. Kristina Hajiovska. You have the floor.

Thank you very much. Distinguished delegates, we have reached the end of this high-level panel discussion segment two, and I thank the moderator, Ms. Alkire, for very skillfully guiding the discussion. I would also like to thank the distinguished panelists and the delegations for the participation and interesting and valuable exchange of views. The Commission has thus concluded its programme of work for this afternoon session. I would like to remind delegations that tomorrow at 10 a.m. the Commission will continue its consideration of agenda item 3A to hold a ministerial forum. I also take this opportunity to remind delegations that the deadline for inscription in the list of speakers for the general discussion is tomorrow afternoon, 6 p.m. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much.