By Asmau Ahmad
President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Collen Kelapile, said its role in promoting development has become “even more critical” as a way of guiding and informing COVID-19 pandemic response worldwide.
Kelapile, who said this on Friday, underscored the importance of international solidarity in recovering stronger and forging ahead with the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Despite the challenges faced, we can maximise the reach, relevance and impact of the Council, its segments and subsidiary bodies to recover stronger from this pandemic,” he said.
Kelapile, who served as Vice-President to the outgoing top official, Munir Akram, said this as the world continued to grapple with the unprecedented crisis, the current surge of COVID-19 and its more transmittable variants threatening to further derail global economic recovery.
Kelapile, who also served as Botswana’s UN Ambassador, while addressing the council, said ECOSOC’s role had become even more critical in helping to navigate out of the pandemic and beyond.
“ECOSOC must rise to the occasion and wage a spirited war against disease, poverty and inequality, impacts of climate change, as well as mobilise global action and resources during the Decade of Action to accelerate implementation of all the SDGs,” he said.
He also underscored how it could contribute to the struggle against global geostrategic tensions, mistrust and “the dark side of the digital world”.
As the world inches through a “fragile and imbalanced” recovery, Kelapile cited the International Monetary Fund in saying that the pandemic had increased SDG financing needs by an average of 2.5 GDP percentage points per year, across all low-income developing countries.
“At the same time, vaccines and well-funded stimulus packages are leading developed and emerging economies towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
“One of the most critical lessons we are learning during the ongoing pandemic is that global solidarity, multilateralism and cooperation are indeed our greatest assets.
“When we work together, our ability to overcome hardship is unparalleled. By the same token, divisiveness stands as one of our biggest threats. Failure to address differences among nations will only worsen geopolitical and socio-economic tensions,” he said.
The Botswanan Ambassador outlined some of the broad pillars of his presidential agenda, beginning with “swift recovery” from the pandemic.
Before convening the 2022 High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), the UN’s key international forum on sustainable development, he vowed to hold a dedicated meeting to gauge progress and map out how universal access to the COVID-19 vaccines could be bolstered.
As the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities within and between countries, Kelapile believed that ECOSOC should decisively address the root causes of persistent disparities and reinforce national and international efforts to promote equality.
The president said while advances in science, technology and innovation had accelerated during the pandemic, so too had the need to close the digital divide or risk festering and further widening inequalities.
In addition, he planned to leverage the role of ECOSOC to assist countries emerging from conflict towards long-term and sustainable development and encourage efforts to incorporate climate resilience into COVID-19 response and recovery initiatives.
The incoming ECOSOC president said HLPF 2022 would examine in-depth, SDG Goals four, on education; five, on gender; 14 on oceans, 15 on biodiversity and 17 on partnerships.
He said interlinkages across the global goals were critical and upheld his firm belief that the forum would recover stronger from the pandemic.
Outgoing ECOSOC President, Munir Akram, also Pakistan’s Permanent Representative, outlined the challenges of leading the Council in the midst of the greatest economic and social crisis that had confronted the world in a century.
He explained that as the world was in the COVID lockdown, ECOSOC was at the centre of the “intense international discourse” on ways to respond to the pandemic, and its consequences.
Akram said the council was doing those, while also continuing to implement the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs and averting the existential threat of a climate catastrophe.
“I am confident that under the able leadership of Ambassador Kelapile, the ECOSOC will respond actively and boldly to meet these challenges during the next year,” Akram said.
