Foreign Secretary’s speech at the UN High Level Political Forum – GOV.UK

In 2015, 193 countries agreed to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This was a historic multilateral achievement, to chart our course towards a fairer, healthier and more prosperous world by 2030.

However, today at the halfway point, we are on track to miss a staggering 88% of the goals we set.

This is clearly unacceptable.

We cannot continue as usual if we want to end poverty, improve health and education, increase prosperity or curb climate change.

But if we act together, we can still get the SDGs back on track.

so what should we do?

My top priority is to reform development finance and direct it to areas that will accelerate progress, such as food security, health, renewable energy, and the empowerment of women and girls.

This is not my idea. It is what my fellow foreign ministers from developing countries tell me we have to do.

That’s why the UK supports the ambitions of Mia Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative.

We need multilateral development banks to free up trillions more for developing countries by implementing the G20 independent review of capital adequacy frameworks.

We need more investment from the private sector, particularly in clean energy, water and sanitation, and climate-resilient infrastructure.

We need all creditors to offer climate resilient debt clauses, to stop loan repayments when disasters strike, as UK Export Finance is doing in 12 African and Caribbean countries.

And we must ensure that developing countries have strong public finances through better tax collection and tackling illicit financial flows.

Our international financial system must become more receptive to shocks, so that we can help the poorest and smallest countries, especially those at risk from natural disasters, sustain development gains and avoid setbacks.

We can’t stop floods, we can’t stop droughts, we can’t stop hurricanes. But we can stop economic crises and the debt spirals they cause.

I recognize that the UK does not have all the answers.

But we are committed to working with all our partners to urgently accelerate progress towards the SDGs over the next 7 years.

We must all recommit to the Sustainable Development Goals at the next UN General Assembly Summit in September.

Because we will need political will and partnership to build bigger, better, and fairer international financial systems that meet today’s development needs.

And we can translate our joint political ambitions into concrete reforms through the G20, the World Bank, the IMF and at COP28.

It’s time for us to go further and faster.

Let’s seize the opportunity.

Thank you.