The new President of the United Nations General Assembly, Dennis Francis, announced four core priorities including peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability to ensure that global challenges are addressed meaningfully.
In his opening speech at the 78th session of the General Assembly late Tuesday, Francis said that the intersecting challenges of climate, conflict and poverty make achieving peace more difficult, noting that the Assembly “bears a special responsibility to ensure that our efforts are based on a strong multilateral system” to enhance everyone’s participation in formulating decisions.
Regarding prosperity, Francis stressed that “the General Assembly must throw its weight behind strengthening finance, technology, debt sustainability, and capacity building in places that suffer from a development deficit and where assistance is most needed.” He also went on urging the Member States to follow up on the implementation of the Addis Ababa Action Plan on Financing for Development and seize other key opportunities to increase investment and expand financing for development.
Francis pointed out that the Sustainable Development Goals Summit held this month will be a crucial opportunity to correct this shortcoming and breathe new life into the entire process of sustainable development goals.
The new President also touched on the involvement of regional groups in the field of global cooperation, expressing his hope that the General Assembly “will address the range of challenges it faces in the most effective and comprehensive way possible.”
Source: Kuwait News Agency
