Statement of the UN Resident Coordinator in Belarus Joanna Kazana-Wisniowiecki at the meeting of the National Sustainable Development Council

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for the invitation to this meeting of the National Sustainable Development Council of Belarus.  I want to acknowledge the National Coordinator and the Council members for continuing the work in this format. 

The Council plays a very important role in ensuring that development progress and cooperation on development remain a high-level priority for Belarus.

We live in interesting times.

Global development challenges including the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, social, political and economic inequalities create dangerous conditions in which development gains of the last decades can be easily wasted and destroyed forever. 

What is urgently needed is acceleration of development solutions and increased global, regional and national cooperation for sustainable development. 

Each country has to take concrete steps to stop the global warming, halt the spread of the pandemic and create conditions for equitable and inclusive growth.  

The crisis is also a moment of global competition – some countries are recovering faster than others and using the crisis as an opportunity to invest in human development by increasing their own spending in areas of critical importance to the wellbeing of the people and planet. 

Let me bring up a few examples of such massive development investments:

• The European Union COvid Response Plan called “Next Generation EU” provides 750 billion Euro worth of grants and loans to finance new social and economic initiatives and national priorities in all countries of the European Union.  These new resources will support massive change – a historic innovation revolution across Europe.  The funds will be spent on boosting local level growth, job creation, and economic and social resilience.  About 40% of the resources will be spent on programmes supporting climate action and environmental sustainability. It will also dramatically foster digital transformation for all and allow for development of smart policies for the next generation.
• Second example is the United States Covid-19 stimulus package of 1.9 trillion USD which provides direct payments to individual citizens, also tax credits for families with children, and hundreds of billions in bailouts for state and local governments, pension funds, small businesses, public schools, and healthcare providers.
• What stands out in the way China dealt with Covid-19 is the response of the business sector and corporations and the way they used ICT tools and technologies to effectively tackle the epidemic through.  Investing in new information dissemination platforms, Artificial Intelligence (AI), remote temperature monitoring, medical consultation platforms, AI-assisted radiological image interpretation, and big data analytics for epidemic prevention and control – these all have been fast tracked in the last 18 months.  China has advanced its supercomputing infrastructure for vaccine and drug development, and 5G-based robotics and infrastructure.   This will change medicine and public health and it will boost the economic and social development, thus turning the Covid-19 challenge into an opportunity for development and economic growth. 

These are just a few big examples of how much is changing globally, and how development accelerates – we like it or not. 

Belarus cannot stand-by or stay behind such global change. 

Hard work, financing of development innovations, fostering cooperation and implementation of development initiatives that accelerate growth should be a central national priority. 

The National Council for Sustainable Development can play an important role in coordinating the cross-sectoral implementation of the National Sustainable Development Strategy and the accompanying 5- years national plans and programmes. 

Partnerships between different segments of the society are key. Creating and protecting a free and enabling environment for civil society, also working with civil society organisations, developing capacity and using their expertise and knowledge while maintaining an open and inclusive dialogue on all issues - -this can be a powerful and winning strategy for sustainable development in the country.

As I said to this forum at the last meeting of the Council in December, development that is not human-centered and respectful of the rights of all stakeholders cannot be sustainable.

The UN System in Belarus and the 7 resident and 12 non-resident agencies that are working here are ready to continue supporting implementation of national priorities in the area of sustainable development. 

As you can see in more details in the UN Belarus Annual Report 2020, throughout last year the UN Country Team continued to actively participate in the work on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals The overall value of assistance delivered by the UN system in 2020 reached 21.5 million U.S. Dollars in core resources and donor funding.

We are proud of the partnerships around all projects — in 2020 we worked with over eighty government ministries and institutions, non-governmental organisations, scientific and educational institutions, international partners and donors, as well as local and regional authorities, healthcare providers, business and the media. Such cross-sectoral partnerships for development innovation and new initiatives will remain an important priority for our work in 2021 and beyond. 

Much of the work in the last year was focused on Covid recovery.  In cooperation with the Government and non-government actors, the United Nations Country Team’s COVID-19 Socio-Economic Response Plan for Belarus was developed and it was well received by our national and international partners.  The plan includes a range of innovations and new initiatives that, if implemented, will help Belarus take advantage of the pandemic to advance new and effective approaches to health, economic and social service provision across the country. 

As the previous cooperation framework and planning cycle came to an end, we have completed the preparation of the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2021-2025and we are ready to sign the new UNSDCF. 

In the next five years we are ready to provide support to the implementation of the key state strategies and programmes, the development of which was actively supported by the UN – this includes the national strategy of dignified longevity, State programme on health of the  population and demographic security, also programmes on SME development, national action plan on gender equality, National Programme on Green Economic Development, and others.

It goes without saying that development effectiveness depends on development financing. Through the ongoing project financed by the SDG Fund and the study of development financing, the UN system will try to demonstrate the current financial landscape in terms of availability of national budget and donor resources for development.

In the next few months at the UN globally all eyes will be focused on the issue of climate.  To prevent the increase of 1.5 C in average temperature we have to reach the target of 45% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050, as recommended by the latest IPCC report.  

This means that Nationally Determined Contributions to climate change mitigation have to be more ambitious and that all national plans and long-term development strategies need to be aligned with the 1.5 degree goal. 

With the upcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow, this SDG Council can play an important role in reviewing the progress in the area of climate action in Belarus, highlighting the contribution of Belarus to the global effort of cutting down emissions and also in making sure that climate action is a priority not only for the ministry of environment and the energy industry, but for every sector, starting from the ministry of economy and including the sector of housing and communal services, transport, education, health and others. 

In 2022 Belarus will be presenting its Voluntary National Review at the UN Ecosoc meeting in July.  The meeting will be an opportunity to present new strategies and how Belarus is delivering on its commitment in terms of national acceleration of development process and in terms of international cooperation for sustainable development. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

Agenda 2030 remains relevant and urgent action is needed, by all partners, to jointly meet the challenge that we are all facing together.

As UN we are ready to continue to support Belarus in this effort.  We are also interested to hear from you on what should be the priorities for the UN funds and programmes that will make our cooperation most relevant, strategic and useful in the context of national priorities of Belarus.

Thank you for your attention.