The United Nations Country Coordinator Mr. Gustavo González; our Cabinet ministers, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ricky Manalo and our NEDA Secretary, Secretary Arsi Balisacan; the officials and personnel of the DFA, NEDA, and the United Nations Country Team; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
Let me begin by commending the DFA, NEDA, and most of all the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office for crafting the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework that deepens, expands, and elevates the partnership between the Philippines and the United Nations.
As a founding member of the United Nations, the Philippines strongly supports the UN as a beacon for multilateral approaches for making lasting peace and progress a reality for all peoples, for all nations.
At the UN General Assembly last year, I underscored that no nation stands alone. The achievement of our national ambition requires a global environment that creates conditions that allow nations to thrive and to navigate the challenges of the 21st century.
Beyond building better from the pandemic and for resilient communities, the world needs a transformative agenda to bridge divides, address inequalities, and foster growth that carries everyone forward. Especially in this complex global environment, we certainly need the United Nations to thrive in its important work including at the country level. Here in the Philippines, 17 UN entities served that task as with the entire UN development system across the world.
Our new Cooperation Framework covers the period of 2024 to 2028, which coincides the timeline of this administration. As it is oriented to support Philippine government policies and priorities embodied in the 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda, the Philippine Development Plan and AmBisyon Natin, it enjoins UN agencies in the government’s determined pursuit of the highest aspirations of our people.
We look forward to vigorous engagements and key issues that bear on the future of our communities including food security, health, education, climate action, decent work, digital transformation, and disaster risk reduction.
We invite new approaches to help promote innovation driven by climate smart and sustainable growth at all levels. We also are fostering access to green financing, lasting peace, and better public services across the archipelago.
With the UN delivering us one fully cognizant of the Philippine needs and context and the voices of its partners including civil society, our partnership can be a catalyst for the accomplishment of our shared goals in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
As the UNSDCF is among the first of its kind under the reformed UN development system, our collaboration will showcase the best and finest the UN development system can offer the world with programs that provide solutions and have far-reaching impact, and provide good models of co-ownership, transparency, and accountability.
The UNSDCF brings with it not only the legacies of the Philippines’ constructive and long-standing engagement with the United Nations. It also signifies our role in shaping more inclusive and effective multilateral institutions that embrace and bring tangible results to us all.
The UNSDCF also acknowledges how the Philippines’ best practices and experience, which we have established over decades can help the achievement of the SDG agenda elsewhere through South-South Cooperation platforms.
The UN recognizes that peacebuilding milestones in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao offer valuable [unclear] for peacemaking across the world.
Our advocacies in the Indo-Pacific and in the global arena for the rule of law and the peaceful settlement of disputes also provide opportunities for a more substantive engagement with the United Nations.
These novel aspects of the UNSDCF show how our partnership has evolved. It is now infused with a more mature and outward-looking synergy of efforts, serving the interests of both the Philippines and the United Nations as we work for a safer and more prosperous world.
It is truly fitting that we embark on this new journey together as we celebrate the founding of the United Nations 78 years ago.
This daunting and profound enterprise of making our collaboration deliver meaningful change and transformation on the ground lies before us.
Again, I extend my warmest congratulations to the Department of Foreign Affairs, to NEDA, the UN Country Team, of course, for an excellent job.
I look forward to hearing many more success stories of the Philippines-UN partnership under this Cooperation Framework.
Thank you very much and good afternoon to us all. [applause]
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