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Opening

Setting the scene and taking stock of the situation regarding the achievement of the SDGs: progress, challenges and way forward.

  • Opening and Welcome Remarks

    H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th session of the General Assembly

  • Statement

    H.E. Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations

  • Statement

    H.E. Ms. Mona Juul, President of the Economic and Social Council

  • Adoption of the political declaration

  • Fireside Chat on the Global Sustainable Development Report

    Moderator:

    • Dr. Joannie Marlene Bewa, Physician, Public Health Researcher, United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Founder, Young Beninese Leaders Association (YBLA)

    Scientists:

    • Mr. Peter Messerli, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland
    • Ms. Endah Murniningtyas, National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), Republic of Indonesia
    • Ms. Eun Mee Kim, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
    • Mr. David Smith, Institute for Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI)

At 15:55, Leaving No One Behind Video Message: Women and Girls will be highlighted.

Biographies
Dr. Joannie Marlene Bewa
Physician, Public Health Researcher, United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Founder, Young Beninese Leaders Association (YBLA)
Dr. Joannie Marlene Bewa

Physician, Public Health Researcher, United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Founder, Young Beninese Leaders Association (YBLA)

Joannie Marlene BEWA is a physician, a global advocate for girls, women and reproductive health, who is passionate about health, gender equality, rights and empowerment. She has over ten years of experience in global advocacy, healthcare, public speaking, international development, community mobilization, and policy. She has been appointed in 2018 by the United Nations Secretary General Special Envoy on Youth as a United Nations Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to support the UN system, governments and CSO efforts in implementing the SDGs.

In 2016, she was featured on Melinda Gates’ list of six influential women on the topic of global access to contraception and was invited in 2017 by Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a panel during which, he announced a 650 million dollars for women’s health globally. She is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Merck for Mothers, Merck's 10-year, $500 million initiative focused on improving the health and well-being of mothers before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth. She co-led the creation of the UNFPA Youth Panel in Benin in 2014 and joined in 2015 the advocacy for the creation of the Adolescent and Youth Constituency in the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, Children’s Health (PMNCH). She is the current observer, representing the Adolescent and Youth Constituency in the PMNCH Academic and Research Institutions Constituency. ​ She founded the Young Beninese Leaders Association (YBLA) in order to help solve some of the issues she was witnessing in Benin. Since 2010, YBLA is actively working in 3 focus areas: Health, Youth Leadership and Entrepreneurship and Gender Equality. In 2011, YBLA collected over 2000 signatures which led to the adoption of the anti-gender-based violence law in Benin. YBLA reached more than 10 000 youth on reproductive health and HIV, and 3000 girls on leadership with the support of the First Lady Michelle Obama Young African Women Leaders Grant Program.

As part of Benin Government official delegation, Joannie attended to various negotiations at the United Nations Headquarters on Population, International Development and Health. Joannie is a Women Deliver Young Leader Alumni, a state department IVLP / YAL alumna and Secretary Clinton Women in Public Service Project Fellow. She collaborated with governments such as Benin, Canada, US, served as a technical consultant for the United Nations Fund for Population UNFPA Benin, One World UK, OXFAM, HIV Young Leaders Fund, and as an expert with the United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (UN NGLS), Merck for Mothers, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the "Safe Mothers and Newborns Leadership Workshop" led by the Harvard School of Public Health Maternal Health Task Force and the Barcelona ISG School of Global Health. ​ Joannie is a U.S Senator William J. Fulbright Scholar, who holds a doctorate degree in Medicine from Faculte des Sciences de la Sante, Universite d'Abomey Calavi (Benin Republic), a master degree in public health, specialized in Maternal and Child Health at the University of South Florida (U.S), where she is currently pursuing a PhD in public health, in order to solve health issues through an activist and scholar lens. She is a research assistant at the Florida Prevention Research Center (FPRC), a CDC supported research center and at the Lawton Rhea Chiles Center for Mothers and Babies (LRC), at the College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa.

H.E. Mr. António Guterres
Secretary-General, United Nations
H.E. Mr. António Guterres

Secretary-General, United Nations

António Guterres, the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, took office on 1st January 2017.

Having witnessed the suffering of the most vulnerable people on earth, in refugee camps and in war zones, the Secretary-General is determined to make human dignity the core of his work, and to serve as a peace broker, a bridge-builder and a promoter of reform and innovation.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres served as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015, heading one of the world’s foremost humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious displacement crises in decades. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Yemen, led to a huge rise in UNHCR’s activities as the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution rose from 38 million in 2005 to over 60 million in 2015.

Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres spent more than 20 years in government and public service. He served as prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was heavily involved in the international effort to resolve the crisis in East Timor.

As president of the European Council in early 2000, he led the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs, and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He was a member of the Portuguese Council of State from 1991 to 2002.

Mr. Guterres was elected to the Portuguese Parliament in 1976 where he served as a member for 17 years. During that time, he chaired the Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Planning, and later the Parliamentary Committee for Territorial Administration, Municipalities and Environment. He was also leader of his party’s parliamentary group.

From 1981 to 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he chaired the Committee on Demography, Migration and Refugees.

For many years Mr. Guterres was active in the Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic political parties. He was the group’s vice-president from 1992 to 1999, co-chairing the African Committee and later the Development Committee. He served as President from 1999 until mid-2005. In addition, he founded the Portuguese Refugee Council as well as the Portuguese Consumers Association DECO, and served as president of the Centro de Acção Social Universitário, an association carrying out social development projects in poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon, in the early 1970s.

Mr. Guterres is a member of the Club of Madrid, a leadership alliance of democratic former presidents and prime ministers from around the world.

Mr. Guterres was born in Lisbon in 1949 and graduated from the Instituto Superior Técnico with a degree in engineering. He is fluent in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. He is married to Catarina de Almeida Vaz Pinto, Deputy Mayor for Culture of Lisbon, and has two children, a stepson and three grandchildren.

H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande
President of the General Assembly
H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande

President of the General Assembly

On June 4 2019, the United Nations General Assembly elected the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations as President of the 74th session.

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande has had an outstanding career as a scholar and diplomat. He received a BSc (Political Science) from Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria (1979); an MA (Political Science) from Boston University, United States of America (1981); and a PhD (Political Science) from University of Toronto, Canada (1987).

He started his academic career at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Nigeria, rising from Graduate Assistant in 1980 to full Professor in 1998, and ultimately to Vice-Chancellor, in 2004, a position he held for five years. During his tenure as Vice Chancellor, the University, with about 20,000 full-time students in various faculties, ranked first in the accreditation of academic programmes in Nigerian universities (2007).
Between 2000 and 2004, Professor Muhammad-Bande served as Director-General of Le Centre Africain de Formation et de Recherche Administratives pour le Développement (CAFRAD), in Tangiers, Morocco. Established by African governments in 1964, CAFRAD is the continent’s premier intergovernmental Centre for governance reform. Under his stewardship, the Centre improved much-needed training for senior African public servants, conducted specialized research on African governance issues, and worked with a variety of partners, in particular the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.
From 2010 to 2016, he held the position of Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Nigeria’s most reputable policy institution for training leaders from the public and private sectors, including high echelon officials of Nigeria’s Armed Forces. In that capacity, he inspired a marked improvement in the quality of the Institute’s programming and activities. One of his signature initiatives in that regard was the establishment of the Political Parties Policy and Leadership Development Centre, the first of its kind in Africa.

As Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2018-2019), Professor Mohammad-Bande worked with colleagues from all regions of the world to achieve common objectives. He served as Vice-President of the 71st session of the General Assembly and was active in several forums, including as Chair of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C34), Member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre, and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Group.

Professor Muhammad-Bande was an assessor for the National Merit Award (Nigeria) and for professorial positions in universities. He has won merit awards and honours from institutions and governments, including the Government of the United States of America and the Government of China. Most notably, he was named Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), one of Nigeria’s highest national honours.
He is married with four children, and his hobbies include swimming, soccer, field hockey, farming and music.

H.E. Ms. Mona Juul
Seventy-fifth President of the Economic and Social Council
H.E. Ms. Mona Juul

Seventy-fifth President of the Economic and Social Council

Her Excellency Mona Juul was elected seventy-fifth President of the Economic and Social Council on 25 July 2019. Ambassador Juul is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations in New York.

Ambassador Mona Juul was previously Ambassador to the United Kingdom (2014-2018), Director General for Security Policy and the High North in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2011-2014), Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York (2005-2010) and Chair of the 1st Committee of the 61 session of the United Nations General Assembly (2006).

She served as Ambassador to Israel (2001-2005), accredited to Cyprus for the same period. State Secretary/Deputy Foreign Minister at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2000), Special Advisor/Ambassador/Middle East Coordinator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1997-2000) chairing the AHLC (Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on Assistance to the Palestinians). She was Minister Counsellor at the Norwegian Embassy in Tel Aviv (1994-1997). Her first posting was at the Norwegian Embassy in Cairo (1988-1990).

Mona has been with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1986, during which time she has gained broad diplomatic experience. This includes working in the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992-1993) and member of the small Norwegian team that facilitated the secret negotiations between Israel and the PLO leading to the Oslo Agreement.

She holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Oslo.

Ambassador Juul was born 10 April 1959 and is married to Mr. Terje Rød-Larsen. They have two children.

Mr. David Smith
Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University Consortium for Small Island States (UCSIS), and the Caribbean Chair for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Jamaica
Mr. David Smith

Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the University Consortium for Small Island States (UCSIS), and the Caribbean Chair for the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Jamaica

Dr David C. Smith is the Coordinator of the Institute for Sustainable Development. He is also the Caribbean Coordinator for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN) and Coordinator of the University Consortium of Small Island States (UCSIS). He is a member of the Independent group of scientists who will prepare the UN Global Sustainable Development Report to be published in 2019.

Dr Smith has almost thirty years’ experience in academia, civil society, the private sector and the United Nations, focusing on Sustainable Development, Biodiversity Conservation, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Reduction. He initiated Jamaica's first debt for nature swap and played a key role in establishing the Jamaica National Parks Trust Fund and the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica. He was instrumental in the successful development of proposals for a number of UWI projects in sustainable development research, distance teaching, knowledge management, disaster risk management and hazard mapping. He is also one of the Principal Investigators for the Enhancing Knowledge and Application of Comprehensive Disaster Management (EKACDM) Initiative, a regional project.

Dr Smith worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Jamaica Country Office, from 2002 to 2008 with responsibility for Energy, the Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Management aspects of the programme. He also Co-Chaired the UN technical team on disasters in Jamaica.

Mr. Peter Messerli
Director of the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland (Co-chair of GSDR)
Mr. Peter Messerli

Director of the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Bern, Switzerland (Co-chair of GSDR)

Peter Messerli is professor for sustainable development at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the director of the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE). As a land system scientist and human geographer his research interests lie in the sustainable development of social-ecological systems in Africa and Asia. He focuses on increasingly globalized and competing claims on land, rural transformation processes, and spatial manifestations of their outcomes. Peter Messerli is the co-chair of Future Earth’s Global Land Programme (GLP) and has been appointed in 2016 as the co-chair of the group of 15 independent scientists drafting the UN Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR).

Ms. Eun Mee Kim
Dean of the Graduate School of Ewha Womans University, Korea
Ms. Eun Mee Kim

Dean of the Graduate School of Ewha Womans University, Korea

Professor Eun Mee Kim is Dean of The Graduate School, Professor in the Graduate School of International Studies, Director of the Institute for Development and Human Security and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls at Ewha Womans University. She is also an Honorary Professor at International Institute of Korean Studies in University of Central Lancashire. She served as President of the Korea Association of International Development and Cooperation (2011, 2012). She has served as a member on the Committee for International Development Cooperation under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Policy Advisory Committee in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Policy Advisory Committee in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. In 2012, she received the Service Merit Medal from the Republic of Korea for her contributions to the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan. In 2013, she received the first research grant to a university in South Korea from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on her research project entitled, “Advocacy for Korean Engagement in Global Health and Development.” In 2016, she received a second grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a project entitled, “Korea Global Health Strategy.” In December 2016 she was appointed by the UN as one of 15 scientists in the world to work on the Global Sustainable Development Report 2019.

  • Research interests: Economic development of South Korea and East Asian countries, International development cooperation, Globalization, Multiculturalism.

  • Major Publications:

    • Human Security and Cross-Border Cooperation in East Asia (Co-edited with Carolina G. Hernandez, Yoichi Mine, and Ren Xiao, 2018)

    • Promoting Development: The Political Economy of East Asian Foreign Aid (with Barbara Stallings, 2017)

    • The South Korean Development Experience: Beyond Aid (Co-edited with Pil Ho Kim, 2014)

    • Adapt, Fragment, Transform: Corporate Restructuring and System Reform in South Korea (Co-edited with Byung-Kook Kim and Jean Oi, 2012)

    • The Sociology of the Economic Crisis: Transformation of the Developmental State and Business Group Networks (with Dukjin Chang and Mark Granovetter , 2005)

    • The Four Asian Tigers: Economic Development and the Global Political Economy Development (edited, 1998)

    • Big Business, Strong State: Collusion and Conflict in South Korean Development (1997)

Statements
Statements
H.E. Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations
H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad Bande, President of the 74th session of the General Assembly
H.E. Ms. Mona Juul, President of the Economic and Social Council
United Nations