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Hello everybody, dear students.
Once again I want to introduce myself as an Austrian Baibras living in Vienna.
And I was teaching political science and
contemporary history at the University of in Hingsbroke.
And my political career was more than 30 years a member of the Austrian parliament,
and 12 years serving as the speaker of the parliament,
and afterwards 12-years president of our republic.
It is a great honor and pleasure for me to contribute to the open online courses
of Yonsei University dealing with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
And now in particular,
with goal 17 namely,
partnership for all the goals.
You know that the Sustainable Development Goals are a group of
17 global goals and contained in United Nations Resolution,
RES 701 of September 2015.
The United Nations-led process elaborating this historic resolution
involved its 193 member states and the global civil society.
The resolution is an intergovernmental agreement
acting as the post-2015 development agenda.
It means that worldwide cooperation for
the realization of the 17 global goals is necessary.
In detail, it refers to political partnership,
economic partnership, social partnership, scientific partnership,
cultural partnership, and last but not least,
the feeling of individual responsibility for our global future.
Human beings regardless of their race, nation language, religion,
political conviction must respect each other,
must respect the human dignity for every human being,
and must be active for partnership.
The world population now, in 2018,
has reached 7.6 Billion human beings,
and further growth is expected.
This is one of the reasons why it is so important to
work on the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The final objective is a human society where the chances for
a decent life are distributed as fairly and reasonable as possible.
That means, for instance,
that in every nation,
a fair distribution of wealth and income should be on the political agenda.
And it also means that rich countries should and must
contribute more for international partnership than other countries.
The agreement that developed countries should contribute between
0.7 and 0.9 percent of their GNP,
gross national product, to the developing countries
and to the least developed countries must be fulfilled.
At the moment, in the European Union and as I mentioned,
I come from a member country of the European Union.
Sweden is the number one country as far as
solidarity with developing countries is concerned.
They spent 1.4 percent of their GNP for that reason.
The top five in the European Union are Sweden,
Luxembourg, Denmark, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Global Partnership also means to strengthen and increase
the export possibilities for the developing countries namely for goods and services.
Since September 2015, the exports of
goods and services from developing countries are rising.
But the population is also rising.
And in some cases,
rising faster so that no progress has been reached
so far if we consider exports per capita.
Global partnership has also the goal to reduce forced migration.
At the moment, in 2018,
an estimated number of more than 60 million human beings are forced migrants.
To reduce forced migration,
not only peace and rule of law is needed but also
the improvement of living conditions in the least developed countries,
the creation of jobs and the decent life perspective.
And the chances for a decent life perspective are
closely connected with the chances for education.
And that means education for boys and equally for girls.
So it is evident that each and every one of
the 16 sustainable development goals had it's very high relevance but goal number 17,
partnership for the goals is the overarching bridge for all the other goals.
We need peace. We need to fight against poverty and hunger.
We need the creation of jobs, good schools,
gender equality, measures to protect our climate and our environment,
and several other goals.
But in particular, we need also partnership in the interest of our common goals.
And it is possible for every human being to contribute to this partnership.
Here are some relevant facts and figures.
From 2015 to 2016,
official development assistance, the so-called ODA,
globally rose by 8.9 percent in real terms $242.6 billion,
reaching a new peak.
But despite this progress,
bilateral aid to least developed countries fell by 3.9 percent in real terms.
For a decade, starting in 2000,
debt service as a proportion of exports of goods and services
declined significantly for low and lower middle income countries.
Increased export earnings and hence debt management and
attractive borrowing conditions in international markets contributed to this improvement.
Outright debt relief also eased the burden for countries,
but much more needs to be done.
In 2016, about 80 percent of the population in developed regions had Internet access
compared to 40 percent in developing
regions and 15 percent in the least developed countries.
Closing the technological gap is crucial.
In 2014, financial support for statistical capacity in developing countries
namely $338 million accounted for only 0.18 percent of total ODA.
Statistics are necessary to track and monitor
developments and to see where assistance is needed most.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aims to
improve the lives and future prospects of everyone and everywhere.
Our challenge now is to mobilize action that
will bring these agendas meaningfully and tangibly to life.
We all have to call on governments and stakeholders to
recognize the gaps that have been identified in implementation,
financing, and political will,
and to join hands to fulfill this vision and keep the promise of the SDGs.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
dear students, in this year 2018,
the General Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of
the United Nations in forty eight celebrates its 70th birthday.
In seven years from now,
the United Nations itself will celebrate its 80th birthday.
And in 2030, twelve years from now,
we have to answer the questions of millions
of young people in different parts of the world,
as to whether we have done everything we could to reach
the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in
a free and peaceful society on the basis of partnership and cooperation?
We have to do whatever we can to give
a good and reasonable answer to these questions. Thank you.
Ban Ki-moonDistinguished Chair Professor
