I wish to begin by conveying
the warm greetings of His Majesty the King of Bhutan.
It is an honour for me to be present in this grand
assembly of nations. Great men and women of our time
have graced this rostrum. Yet the magnitude of the
challenges we are called on to address today remains
formidable — greater than any person or any country
we represent.
The United Nations was founded to unlock the
potential of our collective endeavour to promote the
peace, prosperity and progress of succeeding generations
of humankind. As we approach the seventieth
anniversary of the founding of our Organization,
the considerable gains we have made on the social,
economic and political fronts give us many reasons to
be hopeful. However, we continue to be confronted by
grave challenges. They include the festering wounds of
age-old conflicts that threaten to spin out of control;
new tensions and the resurgence of violent extremism;
the irrefutable evidence of the menace posed by climate
change to life on our planet; and the unconscionable
inequities and injustices that contribute to the fact that
millions are deprived of such basic needs as food and
shelter. All of these are compelling issues that remind
us that we have yet to heed the tragic lessons of the past,
and that we are far from realizing the world envisaged
in the Charter of the United Nations.
We commend the President for his choice of
the theme for this session, “Delivering on and
implementing a transformative post-2015 development
agenda”. This is an opportune moment to redefine a
new era in international development and cooperation,
one that can build on the successes and shortcomings
of more than three decades of internationally agreed
development goals, and the Millennium Development
Goals in particular. The process must activate real and
meaningful change for all countries if it is indeed to
be transformative. For this to happen, the agenda must
be anchored to the need for breakthroughs to address
the hard realities on the ground in individual countries,
especially with regard to capacity and financing for
development.
Accordingly, a collaborative approach, based
on an appreciation of the unique circumstances and
experience of each country and driven by the desire for
true working partnerships among and within countries,
will be vital. Such an approach would require changes
in our development paradigm, in our beliefs regarding
the sustainability of the world’s current trajectory,
and in our behaviour as individuals, which shape our
national character and our destiny as an international
community of nations.
A small, least developed, landlocked country like
mine, with many less-than-ideal indicators, has to get
its development priorities right. Given our small size
and unique circumstances, the lessons Bhutan has
learned are not universal, but certain principles may
have relevance. It is in a spirit of humility and modesty
that we share our experience and aspirations.
First and foremost, we believe that development
must be guided by a clear, home-grown vision. Ours,
championed by successive monarchs, identifies people’s
welfare and happiness as its central objective. Secondly,
it takes good governance to unlock the full potential
of a country and its people in the pursuit of effective
development and peace. Thirdly, within the broader
development objective, the eradication of poverty must
remain an overarching aim. Eliminating the scourge of
poverty must therefore form the central purpose of the
post-2015 development agenda.
Fourthly, strong partnerships are the key to
delivering on the post-2015 development agenda. In
our experience, nurturing and maintaining strong
partnerships with our donors, based on trust and mutual
respect, has been critical to our progress. Last but not
least, there is the conservation of the environment,
which is related to the issue of sustainability. A
decent standard of living, with adequate education,
health care and employment, is essential for people
to live with self-respect, dignity and hope. But if the
most basic necessities of life, air, water and food are
polluted and contaminated, a decent standard of living
is unsustainable. The wanton exploitation of natural
resources, without any care for the health of our planet,
clearly cannot go on.
In a world riven by challenges of epic proportions,
the centrality of the United Nations as the only truly
global organization cannot be overemphasized. Yet
efforts to reform its highest organ, the Security Council,
remain deadlocked. While a consensus-based decision
is the most desirable way forward in multilateralism,
we cannot allow its absence to obstruct progress
indefinitely, especially in the crucial area of peace and
security.
We are heading into a momentous year during
which the international community will craft a new
development agenda that will lay the framework for
transformational change and shared prosperity. In the
final analysis, no matter what brilliant concepts we
introduce and breakthroughs we achieve on paper,
nothing of lasting value can be achieved without a
transformation of mindsets and hearts. It is there,
perhaps, in our hearts and minds that we really need a
paradigm shift.
In the words of His Majesty the King of Bhutan:
“This is a world that is shared, not between
Governments and nations but among the peoples.
No nation today can stand alone in achievement.
There can be no lasting national progress if it does
not fit into a future of global peace, harmony and
prosperity. The world must progress together or fail
together.”