The Economic and Social Council this afternoon held a panel discussion under its Coordination Segment on effective sustainable development strategies: country level experience.

Somduth Soborun, Vice-President of the Council, introducing the debate, said countries had struggled for years to achieve sustainable development. Achieving this goal often required balancing competing interests and priorities, which could find their place only in comprehensive long-term development strategies. A panel discussion focusing on country experiences would give the Council an opportunity to understand the challenges that countries faced in formulating and implementing effective strategies and achieving sustainable development - this was especially important in the current context where recent and emerging challenges required innovative thinking. It would also be an opportunity for the Council to identify ways in which the United Nations system could support these efforts, and how its approach could be strengthened to provide an effective response to specific national needs and priorities.

Laszlo Pinter, Director of Measurement and Assessment at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, moderator of the discussion, said the focus of the panel was to look at the country level experience in developing sustainable development strategies, and in promoting cross-sectoral approaches in developing national strategies. One of the key challenges of sustainable development strategies was to decide on the criteria of various policy initiatives, and whether they met in a sustainable and equality driven way. Incorporating sustainability in all sectors and strategies was necessary. Promoting participatory networks to address such issues as water scarcity, land degradation and climate change at the national level was important.

Ramadhani M. Khijjah, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said the National Action Plan of Tanzania had identified land degradation, water shortage and pollution, urban pollution, deterioration of aquatic resources (marine and fresh water), loss of wildlife habitat, biodiversity and deforestation as major environmental issues of concern, and, the Government had formulated a number of policies and strategies. From the assessment of the implementation of the national policies, challenges still remained, including the need to increase community-based programmes for managing natural resources that impacted on livelihoods and growth, reducing vulnerability to environmental risks, and producing environmental monitoring and evaluation reports. Tanzania and many other developing countries were now facing challenges emanating from the world financial and economic crises, constraining the Governments' efforts to implement effectively the sustainable development strategy.

Dana A. Kartakusuma, Assistant Minister for Technology and Sustainable Development of the State Ministry of Environment of Indonesia, said Indonesia had developed a document entitled Agenda 21 in 2007, as well as implemented initiatives which included: Paving the Way for Sustainable Development 2002 as a report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and a National Strategy for Sustainable Development 2008. In terms of policy strategy and programmes, capacity building and awareness building within local parliaments had also been a priority. The Government had established the National Council for Climate Change, which could be used to promote sound and cross-sectoral decision making processes. The decision process needed to be improved, involving the highest possible level of Government; strong leadership was needed. Indonesia needed to develop and research technology in order to break away from its dependency on high technology from overseas and to turn towards more affordable technologies that could be sustained locally.

Tariq Banuri, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the purpose of sustainable development was to remove humanity from slavery to defunct economists. Sustainable development had been an idea of synergies, a bridge between many facets, including North and South, present and future generations, between Governments and the private sector, and many others. The purpose of this bridge required a way of thinking to utilise those synergies and thinking over the recent years was on how to make this happen. There was a lot of progress that had been made - but also a lot of failures. Increasingly, countries were making sure that their development strategies were based on sustainable development. All Governments and policies needed to move towards integrated strategies, such as integrated water resource management. However, there was a large gap between actions and outcomes - there was a lot of the former, and not so much of the latter.

Delegations taking the floor during the debate raised, among other things, issues about how did countries deal with the trade-off of the other pillars in which sustainable development was based on; issues related to green energy; how the principle of sustainable development which had been introduced into the United Nations system at a later time had given a certain primacy to economic growth over environmental growth and a request for comments on this issue; with regard to consumption and production issues, was anyone measuring the consumption patterns taking place and the lack of consumption of others; could there be reassurance given that there was a balanced approach taken throughout all sectors to deal with the crisis; and what was the experience of the panellists in regard to the revival of marine species following a ban on fishing.

Speaking during the discussion were the representatives of the Netherlands, Kenya, Algeria, the Philippines and Venezuela. Also speaking was the representative of the World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civicus.

The next meeting of the Council will be at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 July, when it will begin consideration of agenda item 3, its Operational Activities Segment, following which it will hold a round-table debate on the economic crisis, the food crisis, and the climate change crisis and their impact on the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals: the role of support given by the United Nations system to country efforts.

Opening Statements

SOMDUTH SOBORUN, Vice-President of the Econmic and Social Council, introducing the panel discussion, said countries had struggled for years to achieve sustainable development. Achieving this goal often required balancing competing interests and priorities, which could find their place only in comprehensive long-term development strategies. Recognising the long-term, complex, and urgent nature of sustainable development, the world leaders who gathered at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development had called on all countries to take immediate steps to make progress in the formulation and elaboration of national strategies for sustainable development and begin their implementation by 2005. Since then, although the target had not yet been achieved, several countries had reported they were implementing a National Sustainable Development Strategy. Many of them had also developed innovative mechanisms that had led to more comprehensive and strategic approaches to sustainable development, which could be replicated in other countries. A panel discussion focusing on country experiences would give the Council an opportunity to understand the challenges that countries faced in formulating and implementing effective strategies and achieving sustainable development - this was especially important in the current context where recent and emerging challenges required innovative thinking. It would also be an opportunity for the Council to identify ways in which the United Nations system could support these efforts, and how its approach could be strengthened to provide an effective response to specific national needs and priorities.

LASZLO PINTER, Director, Measurement and Assessment, International Institute for Sustainable Development, moderating the panel discussion, said the focus of the panel was to look at the country level experience in developing sustainable development strategies, and in promoting cross-sectoral approaches in developing national strategies. One of the key challenges of sustainable development strategies was to decide on the criteria of various policy initiatives, and whether they met in a sustainable and equality driven way. Incorporating sustainability in all sectors and strategies was necessary. Promoting participatory networks to address such issues as water scarcity, land degradation and climate change at the national level was important. The questions posed to the panel included: how could national understanding of environmental, economic and social impacts be better linked; how could countries build capacity in an integrated manner to better understand impacts and issues; how could countries better coordinate between sectors to ensure that national strategies were mutually reinforcing and what were the issues that existed in those experiences?

Statements by Panellists

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said the global diplomacy for sustainable development dated back to 1992 in Rio, where Heads of State and Governments reached a landmark agreement on the linkages between development and environment by adopting Agenda 21. Further processes resulted in more programmes and strategies. While these processes were on the right track at the time, the unprecedented growing challenges of climate change, coupled with the recent global financial and economic crises, compelled the world to re-think expeditiously collective innovative complementing approaches. In Tanzania the sustainable development agenda was embedded in the National Development Vision 2025, and the Zanzibar Development Vision 2020, both of which aimed at achieving high quality livelihood, peace, stability and unity, good governance, a well-educated and learning society, and a competitive economy capable of producing sustainable growth and shared benefits.

The National Action Plan of Tanzania had identified land degradation, water shortage and pollution, urban pollution, deterioration of aquatic resources (marine and fresh water), loss of wildlife habitat, biodiversity and deforestation as major environmental issues of concern. To foster the implementation of the sustainable development agenda, the Government had formulated a number of policies and strategies. From the assessment of the implementation of the national environmental policies, challenges still remained, including the need to increase community-based programmes for managing natural resources that impacted on livelihoods and growth, reducing vulnerability to environmental risks, collecting data for poverty and environment indicators, and producing environmental monitoring and evaluation reports. Tanzania and many other developing countries were now facing challenges emanating from the world financial and economic crises, constraining the Governments' efforts to implement effectively the sustainable development strategy. Tanzania had taken measures to mitigate these impacts, and believed that sustainable development was possible, but, given the increased level of challenges, it would be difficult for individual countries to manage them. Global coordinated action was needed to resolve these challenges.

DANA A. KARTAKUSUMA, Minister’s Special Advisor for Technology and Sustainable Development of Indonesia, said the presentation would focus on what Indonesia’s experience had been in promoting sustainable development. Indonesia had participated in various related international fora, which included the Stockholm Conference on Environment 1972; Earth Summit 1992, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002. Indonesia developed a document entitled Agenda 21 in 2007, as well as implemented initiatives which included: Paving the Way for Sustainable Development 2002 as a report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and a National Strategy for Sustainable Development 2008. In terms of policy strategy and programmes, capacity building and awareness building within local parliaments had also been a priority. The Department of the Environment created the ‘Towards Green Indonesia’ programme which envisaged re-greening, re-plantation and reforestation measures. Energy was a main source of pollution, and therefore there had been a push towards developing new forms of cleaner energy and new sources for energy. Now the Government had been developing a policy on Mass Rapid Transport.

In terms of constraints and challenges, the decision making process in Indonesia took a sectoral approach rather than a cross-sectoral approach; and during national elections politicians were focused on five year plans, but sustainable development was a long-term vision, which had to be addressed. Natural disasters and their causes experienced in Indonesia resulted in a push towards development of sound management policies, said Mr. Kartakusuma. In Asia there were many types of councils, all of which had been competing with one another. The Government had established the National Council for Climate Change, which could be used to promote sound and cross-sectoral decision making processes. The decision process needed to be improved, involving the highest possible level of Government, and strong leadership was needed. The increase of awareness in various ministries should be used in mainstreaming sustainable development, which included the Ministry of Finance, the Coordinating Ministry for Economics, and the Ministry of Trade. Indonesia needed to develop and research technology in order to break away from its dependency on high technology from overseas and turn towards more affordable technologies that could be sustained locally.

TARIQ BANURI, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said John Meynard Keynes once said the ideas of economists and political philosophers, whether right or wrong, had far more importance than realised, as practical men, who believed themselves exempt from influence, were usually the slaves of a defunct economist. The purpose of sustainable development was to remove humanity from slavery to defunct economists. Sustainable development had been an idea of synergies, a bridge between many facets, including North and South, present and future generations, between Governments and the private sector, and many others. The purpose of this bridge required a way of thinking to utilise those synergies and thinking over the recent years was on how to make this happen. There was a lot of progress that had been made - but also a lot of failures. The idea of sustainable development as a bridge and approach to policy was very much the calling-card of the United Nations, having been developed and fermented within the system, originating from the Stockholm Conference, following which it was developed in subsequent conferences.

Increasingly, countries were making sure that their development strategies were based on sustainable development. All Governments and policies needed to move towards integrated strategies, such as integrated water resource management. Actions by all actors had taken the form of sustainability-based action - corporate social responsibility had increasingly included sustainability concerns. Significant experiences were mostly found in pro-poor programmes, which were among the first to take on sustainability concerns. A number of new institutions had developed, including Governmental institutions, and this was progress that had taken place over thirty years, with large numbers of trained individuals working in these institutions, although there was a need for more persons. Use of market-based incentives had been increasing, and a new process of eco-taxation had largely developed in OECD countries, having been widely experimented with in developed countries. However, there was a large gap between actions and outcomes - there was a lot of the former, and not so much of the latter. There was a need to set long-term targets, and bend the curve completely, taking the world back to a sustainable domain.

Discussion

JEROEN STEEGHS (Netherlands) raised a question on the country level experience of Tanzania and Indonesia, as presented by panellists, which addressed the issue of sustainable development as it seemed from a environmental perspective; however there were three pillars to sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. How did those countries deal with the trade-off of the other pillars on which sustainable development was based on?

DANA A. KARTAKUSUMA, Assistant Minister for Technology and Sustainable Development of the State Ministry of Environment of Indonesia, responding to the question of the Netherlands, said this was because when the Stockholm Conference was held, Governments sent economists to the meeting. In Indonesia, the other factors of development were not necessarily aware of sustainable development in the beginning, and the Minister of the Environment had had to change this. There were now three coordinating bodies, and they were pushed to advance sustainable development. In the future, Indonesia wanted all sectors to be in the same boat, and this could be realised through a decision-making process of all sectors related to sustainable development.

TARIQ BANURI, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in response to a question raised by the Netherlands on what seemed to be an environmental approach towards sustainable development in Tanzania and Indonesia, said countries went through different stages as they approached sustainable development strategies. One had to think of this as gradual progression in the country, its strategy and policies. The different processes and how the thinking had matured in this regard were very important to consider. The same process took place at the global level. There were different speeds in which this was being done. It also depended on the enlightenment of the political leadership and the civic will – civil society groups and others to influence change in the agenda.

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said Tanzania's experience showed that this issue was to be looked at from the long-term perspective, and could not be tackled in one time-frame. Economic, social and environment issues were interlinked, and for Tanzania, which was at the tail-end of poverty, addressing poverty through protecting the environment was a goal that was not necessarily the best one to target. People were not aware that cutting forests caused environmental hazards - they needed to be taught, and there should be curricula in the school teaching the importance of the environment. The problem was clear, but action needed to be strategised, first examined, and then the time period for solving planned. All these actions needed to take place over time - Tanzania's resources were insufficient to move forward the entire population at one time.

CAROLINE MUGWE (Kenya) said for Indonesia, water availability depended on the climate, in Kenya they had experienced a lot of climate change effects, for instance with the many cases of floods. Hydro power constituted 60 per cent of the current power generating capacity in Kenya which had been affected by floods. The current economic and financial crisis had also given Kenya an uphill task with respect to energy production. Green energy was highlighted in the presentations, and it was Kenya’s hope to learn from such experiences.

DANA A. KARTAKUSUMA, Assistant Minister for Technology and Sustainable Development of the State Ministry of Environment of Indonesia, responding to the question of Kenya, said climate change had aggravated the disasters in Indonesia, which had experienced many disasters, including land slides, and had suffered from land and forest fires, with results on public health. The cost consequences of these disasters had been considerable. Activities from the private sector, such as forest clearing, had contributed towards these disasters. This had been a lesson learned for the economic sectors, and the Government was learning how difficult it was to impose the environment into mainstream sectors, as there was often contradiction. Imposing development without taking into account the environment and social consequences could be disastrous, and this was why it was important for all factors to be taken into consideration, including climate change.

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said what was happening to Kenya also affected Tanzania, where Mount Kilimanjaro was experiencing drought. As far as the Government was concerned, contributions could be created through the form of an emergency fund with the cooperation of civil society. There were so many lakes and rivers in Tanzania which could be used with more emphasis on irrigation. Ninety per cent of agriculture was rain fate, therefore food and cash crops would be in danger without an alternative considering the fact that drought was becoming a continuous reality. Investment in irrigation systems was a priority, despite the fact that large-scale systems were too expensive, small-scale systems were adequate and cost-effective.

TARIQ BANURI, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said there was a fundamental difference between a conventional approach and a sustainable development approach. The sustainable development approach required more time. Energy was a central issue - developing countries were energy-poor countries. Kenya used less than fifteen kilowatt/hours per capita, and the average need was generally above one hundred. However, the per capita income was something like ten dollars a day - if energy were produced at fifty cents, then three quarters of the income would be spent on energy. Energy needed to be produced at low cost, and thus the production sustainable energy required support from outside the country. Unless there was a big global investment in alternative energies, then the situation would not improve. Focusing on energy and affordability and sustainable forms of energy should be a central part of any sustainable policy. Climate change was the easiest problem to solve - the problem was that the world was running out of finite resources such as biodiversity, and needed to make a sustainable change that was truly profound. For energy, the technology existed, both in the laboratory and the field - the problem was that they were too expensive, and a pathway needed to be found to lower costs. Energy was very central to solving all other problems, if consumption was to become sustainable and there were to be sustainable production patterns. This required a very significant level of global cooperation, and this had not yet taken place.

MOHAMED FAIZ BOUCHEDOUB (Algeria) said concerning environmental protection, with regard to the fact that a number of experts had carried out studies analyzing efforts within the United Nations system with respect to the environment, they showed that there was a lot of overlapping of work. With regard to the conferences held in Stockholm and Johannesburg as well as the Rio Declaration, there was a feeling that there had been a reduction of the environmental element. The principle of sustainable development which had been introduced into the United Nations system at a later time had given a certain primacy to economic growth over environmental growth. Algeria asked for the panellists to comment on these two points.

TARIQ BANURI, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said there was overlapping - it was true that a number of programmes had been started that overlapped, but over the last few years there had been a concerted effort to remedy this and to bring them together. The Secretary-General was very supportive of the idea of delivering as one, not just on climate change but on a whole range of other categories, and the Executive Board supported this. Not only as far as the mandate but also as far as the interpretation of the mandate was concerned, there was a clear division of work between the Commission of Sustainable Development and other United Nations bodies, funds and agencies. That division of labour had always been clear. When thinking of the international community, there were two significant problems: income levels in rich countries were twenty times or more the income levels in poor countries, and narrowing that gap had been a consistent effort since 1945. Narrowing the gap required higher group in developing countries, and this was the development agenda. In the last ten years, the gap was narrowing fast, but now the financial and economic crisis had brought back the issue of sustainable development. Sustainability was important, and a new way of social progress should be found that enabled the world to respect those boundaries. Progress needed to be sustained without impacting on sustainability and without using more resources. This was a common agenda.

ERLINDA BASILIO (Philippines) said as the incoming Vice-Chair of the Commission on Sustainable Development, this discussion was of particular importance to them. At this session it was heard that today’s crisis provided an opportunity for a paradigm shift or new opportunities. With regard to consumption and production issues, was anyone measuring the consumption patterns taking place and the lack of consumption of others?

TARIQ BANURI, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, responding to the question of the Philippines, said sustainable consumption and production was in the next biennium. This would be the major focus of sustainable development over the next century. Sustainable consumption and production were being looked at synergistically, with an effort to build bridges between the two and come up with a common way of dealing with them. It was in the strategy that, over the next two years, as awareness had been created on climate change and the other challenges, agreements would be reached on sustainable development.

DANA A. KARTAKUSUMA, Minister’s Special Advisor for Technology and Sustainable Development of Indonesia, said with regard to the question raised by the Philippines, on under consumption and development patterns, where some countries consumed more and some consumed less, developing countries were consuming less despite their need for economic growth, and in order to experience that growth may have consumed more of their natural resources. Experiences of other countries had proven that economic growth could be promoted with a more balanced focus on development, protection of the environment and social welfare.

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said the issue was complicated, due to the combined effect of climate change and the financial and economic crises. Countries could not produce more measures - the issue was not that consumption was limited, it was that production was not there. Most of the developing countries used to produce what they were not consuming, but were producing raw materials for the industrialised world, which they did not consume themselves in large amounts. When the financial and economic crisis came, it created a problem with regards to this production, and one of the lessons learned by developing countries was not to depend upon the market for raw materials. The issue was not to produce enough home-grown crops to feed the population, and this had to change. Developing countries needed to examine this issue, as people in the developed world now had less money to spend.

RENATE BLOEM, of CIVICUS, said with regard to the question raised by the representative of the Netherlands on the trade-off, the economic crisis had not yet hit developing countries; however once it hit developing countries, would the approach of gain more spend less be applied as part of structural adjustment strategies; could there be reassurance given that there was a balanced approach taken throughout all sectors to deal with the crisis?

TARIQ BANURI, Director of the Sustainable Development Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said that he could not assure Civicus of this, but the existence of trade-offs was the sign of Governments' failure, not a sign that the trade-off was necessary. John Meynard Keynes had proposed a solution to this issue. However, the problem had recurred at a global level. A similar crisis had been felt in the 1970s, leading to a crisis in development. The Washington Consensus had forced cuts and pro-cyclical measures, creating the Lost Decade of Development. What was needed now were counter-cyclical measures. If people walked away, throwing the developing countries to the wolves, this was a problem of governance, not a problem of trade-offs, which were not inherent in the process as of themselves.

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said in a point of clarification where a speaker noted that the developing world had not been affected by the economic crisis, in Tanzania they were in fact already affected. Since the banks in the country were independent there was no collapse of the banking system in the same way it affected other countries; however banks had provided credits for crop purchases and lost money in that business. The marketing boards who received these loans remained unable to re-pay, and therefore would not be eligible to receive additional loans in future rounds, and thus crops had not been realized. That was how the economic and financial crisis had in fact affected Tanzania.

JUAN ARIAS (Venezuela) said following the quality of the presentations and the specific cases, he wished to ask a question relating to Venezuela's experience. Venezuela had been seeking to recover marine species that had already disappeared, and had been preventing trawl fishing, leading to media attacks led by powerful economic groups. When Venezuela took the decision to end this fishing, it was supported by successful experiments in other countries which had had positive results in recovering species. What was the experience of the panellists in regard to the revival of species, Venezuela asked.

DANA A. KARTAKUSUMA, Minister’s Special Advisor for Technology and Sustainable Development of Indonesia, said with regard to Venezuela’s experience with the extinction of marine species which it tried to develop again, Indonesia was part of over 17,000 islands, where some had disappeared due to the rising sea levels, but where fishing was also an important component in the country. As such there was a ministry devoted to marine and fisheries in Indonesia. With the activities from the land, many of their marine ecosystems like mangrove and coral had been destroyed, which had led to the reduction of injection of revenues from the fisheries. Indonesia had experienced similar experiences as Venezuela, and tried to rehabilitate these ecosystems, and to protect them from further destruction. For example, there was a national park in Indonesia where there were large coral reefs and protections were applied, and this region could not be altered.

RAMADHANI M. KHIJJAH, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs of Tanzania, said the problem was not setting the policy decision - the problem was implementation and enforcement. Marine species did not live in isolation, so when it came to enforcement, it had been seen that enforcement instructions or instruments went beyond the species needing protection, and this invariably infringed on the rights and needs of some individuals. Politicians then became involved, as they depended on the individuals for votes.

TARIQ BANURI, Director, Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, said the experience of media opposition was what made it difficult to make change at the industry level. It was important to engage with the people who opposed measures. For instance in Pakistan the Government wanted to apply a pollution charge, if just imposed it would have created difficulties for acceptance at the industry level; however the Government through a consultative mechanism found it much easier to get this done. In some cases no matter what you did there would be opposition, and there needed to be a path of transition, but the law was overarching. A common solution was important and central to this approach.

LASZLO PINTER, Director, Measurement and Assessment, International Institute for Sustainable Development, in concluding remarks on the discussion, said the discussion had become quite complex, but this reflected the many many different but practical and useful directions that the international community could go towards from the nation of sustainable development strategies. Sustainable development and sustainable development strategies were an opportunity to explore trade and synergies. There was an implementation gap - many strategies had been put in place under the label of sustainable development strategies or similar concepts, but the problem was that many targets and outcomes were not achieved. This was basically an implementation problem. There were many interesting initiatives starting on a small scale, and mainstreaming these initiatives beyond the environment was what was required. There was increasing interest on the part of economic, development and sector Ministries to engage with this, as they recognised the potential in considering and negative consequences of not considering environment and social issues within the context of sustainable development. Climate change was a challenge, but it was also an opportunity, particularly for countries that were without means to cope with climate change. One of the core issues in sustainable development was equity, both in the sense of the have and have-nots, and also in the context of present and future generations. If these issues were not addressed through strategies, then they could become constraints for reaching outcomes that were sought.

SOMDUTH SOBORUN, Vice-President of ECOSOC, in concluding remarks, said the key messages that emerged from the discussion over the past few days included that the impact of the global economic and financial crises, through coherent and coordinated policies, should work within the framework of sustainable development - short-term sectoral polices with long-term sustainable development policies. The United Nations system had an important role to play here. There was a need for more work to be done in certain areas, and also for a fundamental re-think. Governments also needed to provide coherent guidance in various Government bodies. Inter-agency mechanisms like UN-Water and UN-Energy should be fully taken advantage of. The current crisis provided an opportunity towards changing the path towards economic growth, and if not taken there would be dire consequences in the area of climate change. This session highlighted that the challenges ahead for the United Nations in strengthening its efforts in sustainable development was not just about scaling up activities, but about coming up with comprehensive approaches to these challenges.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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