It is indeed a distinct
privilege to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Sam
Kutesa on behalf of the Government and the people of
Barbados on his election as President of the General
Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. It is appropriate
that I also commend his predecessor, His Excellency
Mr. John Ashe, for the aplomb with which he guided
the deliberations of the General Assembly at its sixty-
eighth session.
The theme of this year’s Assembly — “Delivering
on and implementing a transformative post-2015
development agenda” — is both timely and critical.
Fourteen years ago, world leaders placed the Millennium
Development Goals, a set of time-bound and measurable
goals and targets, at the heart of the global development
agenda. Today, we stand on the cusp of the unveiling of
a future global agenda for development. This must be an
ambitious, long-term project to improve people’s lives
and protect the planet for future generations. The 17
goals and targets proposed by the Open Working Group
on Sustainable Development Goals must form the
basis for the elaboration of the post-2015 development
agenda. This is especially so if we are to create a truly
transformative global programme anchored in the three
dimensions of sustainable development, with poverty
eradication as its central objective and overarching
goal.
The special vulnerabilities faced by small island
developing States (SIDS) and which serve to constrain
our development are well known. As such, the
international community recognized SIDS as a special
case in sustainable development in Agenda 21 — a
recognition that is echoed in the Barbados Programme of
Action; the Mauritius Strategy, the outcome document
(resolution 66/288, annex) of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20);
and, most recently, the Small Island Developing States
Accelerated Modalities of Action (Samoa Pathway).
Despite that recognition, the Rio+20 outcome
document indicated that SIDS have made less progress
than most other groupings, or even regressed, in
economic terms, especially in terms of poverty
reduction and debt sustainability. This finding was
repeated in the Samoa Pathway. The International
Monetary Fund has also acknowledged that, in the past
10 years, SIDS have slid down the ladder of progress.
In design, delivery and implementation, therefore,
the post-2015 development agenda must as a priority
address the unique and particular vulnerabilities and
challenges of small island developing States. It must
foster the resilience of SIDS as a key objective of
global efforts. A development agenda that ignores the
integration of SIDS-specific issues would be incomplete
and of questionable validity.
The post-2015 development agenda must also make
provisions for countries like Barbados, which is both
a small island developing State and a highly indebted
middle-income country. We continue to suffer the
devastating impact of the global economic and financial
crisis and have limited scope, capacity, fiscal flexibility
or policy space to respond effectively to them. We face
declining export demand and decreased investment
and demand for services upon which our economy is
dependent, including tourism. Fiscal and financial
stresses have forced us to make significant adjustments
to our expenditure programmes. Against that backdrop,
we face the daunting challenge of continuing to provide
adequate social safety nets for the most vulnerable of
our citizens in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Debt servicing and debt unsustainability far too
easily undermine the advances that we desire to make
towards our sustainable development. Too often, the
plight of middle-income countries is overlooked on
the presumption that by virtue of our gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita we do not require international
assistance. Barbados emphatically restates that GDP per
capita cannot be the sole defining criterion for access
to concessionary financing. The social, economic and
environmental vulnerability of countries such as ours
must be taken into account.
Barbados is therefore pleased to see that the
United Nations Development Programme’s Human
Development Report 2014, entitled “Sustaining Human
Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building
Resilience”, incorporates the concept of vulnerability
and places emphasis on strengthening the resilience
of people, communities and countries. It is our hope
that those factors will give a more accurate picture of
the challenges that developing countries face. On that
issue, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr. Freundel
Stuart, stated in his address at the Third International
Conference on Small Island Developing States, held in
Samoa in September, that
“the time has come for new approaches to be
designed to assist middle-income countries which
have been graduated from access to concessional
resources”.
I echo that call today. I implore the international
community to address the needs of middle-income
countries in the elaboration of a post-2015 development
agenda. Accordingly, Barbados welcomes the third
International Conference on Financing for Development,
to be held in Addis Ababa in July next year. The outcome
of the Conference must make provisions for the special
needs of SIDS and middle-income countries.
Barbados is fully cognizant of the responsibility
that developing countries themselves bear towards
achieving their development goals. However, the reality
is that, in seeking to meet those goals, the developing
countries are forced to do so on an uneven playing
field. The global financial and economic system and
the governance process that accompanies it continue to
operate in an exclusionary manner. Barbados reiterates
its call for a more transparent architecture that is
supportive of development objectives.
Barbados has developed and implemented a cross-
sectoral Green Economy Initiative, which is predicated
on the fragility of our small island ecosystems. The
Initiative prioritizes natural resource protection
intervention, business and investment choice, human
development programming and the facilitation of export
market development strategies. Barbados continues
to partner with the United Nations Environment
Programme and, more recently, the United Nations
Industrial Development Organization to promote a
transition to a resource-efficient green economy. We
have taken action to enact a series of incentives in
support of renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Our efforts to transition to a green economy will
be undone if the international community does not take
immediate and urgent action to address climate change.
The most recent findings of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change underscore, yet again, the
vulnerability of SIDS, particularly to the effects of
climate change, sea-level rise, ocean acidification and
extreme weather events. Together, they represent an
existential threat to SIDS. We therefore urge major
carbon emitters to take all necessary actions.
Barbados welcomed the holding of the Secretary-
General’s Climate Summit 2014 at United Nations
Headquarters on 23 September. We hope that the
momentum from the Summit will inject urgency into
the proceedings of the upcoming twentieth session of
the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20),
to be held in Lima in December. We also hope that,
beyond COP 20, it will ultimately galvanize political
will to conclude the negotiation of an ambitious, legally
binding international climate agreement in Paris in
2015.
If SIDS are to have an impact internationally,
particularly at this crucial moment during the design
and construction of a new global architecture for
sustainable development, we must ensure that our
voices are heard. We must be guided by the concept of
a SIDS collectivity that recognizes strength in unity.
We SIDS must speak with one voice at the international
level.
Any discussion on the creation of a new global
sustainable development agenda must have at its core
the means of implementation. Indeed, the means of
implementation must be the foundation on which
the agenda is based. We know that MDG 8, global
partnership for development, remains one of the least
fulfilled of all of the Millennium Development Goals.
The international community can therefore ill afford
to let the new development agenda fail as a result of
a lack of adequate and reliable means to implement
it. The means of implementation must encompass
far more than financing. As we use the sixty-ninth
session to complete the framework of the post-2015
development agenda, it is incumbent upon us to ensure
that definitive and durable partnerships are made to
facilitate the following elements — first, the provision
of adequate financial and other resources; secondly,
fair trade and market access; and thirdly, technology
transfer and capacity-building, particularly in the area
of data collection and statistical analysis.
My country sees peace and security as enablers and
indicators of sustainable development. They constitute
indispensable prerequisites for human, social and
economic development, as well as for progress and
prosperity. Barbados therefore views the continuing
crises and armed conflicts, including those in the
Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq and
Ukraine, with grave concern. Indeed, we view them
with grave alarm. Armed non-State actors and terrorist
groups continue to destroy lives, destabilize nations and
threaten national and international peace and security.
In the face of such hostilities and blatant acts of
aggression, the Security Council has been paralysed.
Barbados will continue to be actively engaged within
the Caribbean Community in negotiations on the reform
of the Security Council. We applaud Ambassador Ashe,
former President of the General Assembly, for his
initiative to move discussions on the issue forward. We
also welcome the summary of the intergovernmental
negotiations on Security Council reform prepared by
the Chair of the Open-ended Working Group. Barbados
calls on all Member States to work assiduously during
the current session to make substantial progress, if
not to finalize, the decades-long project of Security
Council reform.
My country reiterates its commitment to democracy
and the respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms. We welcome the discussions that will take
place during this session on the responsibility to protect.
Our position is motivated by principle and objectivity,
and we have no desire to see the issue politicized.
The Ebola outbreak constitutes a public-health
emergency of international concern and a threat to
global security. It also threatens the peacebuilding and
development gains of the countries most affected. It
is our sincere hope that the recently adopted Security
Council resolution 2177 (2014) and General Assembly
resolutions 69/1 and 69/3 will accelerate the mobilization
of resources to assist the affected countries and halt the
epidemic.
Barbados has long supported a negotiated two-
State solution to the question of Palestine, the right of
the Palestinian people to self-determination and their
right to live in peace and security in a Palestinian State
within pre-1967 borders. Barbados’s position is that
the State of Israel has a right to exist and the people of
Israel have a right to live in security and to do so with
the full and undisputed recognition of the rest of the
world. The Palestinians are also entitled to enjoy the
fruits of prosperity within their own sovereign State.
This year’s unprecedented escalation of the crisis in
Palestine revealed, yet again, the urgent need to reach a
durable, negotiated solution, and we call on all parties
to rededicate themselves to achieving that aim.
The long-standing economic embargo on Cuba
continues to be of serious concern to Barbados. The
Government of Cuba has always demonstrated a
willingness to assist the Caribbean, and indeed the
developing world, in our quest for development. We join
with the overwhelming majority of States Member of the
United Nations in opposing that unilateral action and
look forward to a time — the sooner, the better — when
it will be relegated to the pages of history.
In closing, Barbados believes that there is an
inextricable link among development, international
peace and security. As we stated in 1993, within the
context of an “Agenda for Peace”,
“Where access to food, clothing, shelter, education,
health and the opportunity for gainful employment
is denied, democracy cannot flourish” (A/48/PV.26,
p. 11).
We also hold the converse to be true. There can
be no real development without respect for human
rights, the rule of law and democracy. We hope that
much of the time and energy of this body at its sixty-
ninth session will be spent on delivering a post-2015
development agenda that will redound to the benefit of
us all. Barbados will continue to be in the vanguard of
that effort.