‘Double Down and Deliver’ on Sustainable Development Commitments, Deputy UN Chief Urges as Economic and Social Council Begins Coordination Segment

'Double Down and Deliver' on Sustainable Development Commitments, Deputy UN Chief Urges as Economic and Social Council Begins Coordination Segment

"Raw power" is testing the resilience of multilateralism, the UN's Deputy Chief warned the Economic and Social Council today, urging Member States to "double down and deliver" concrete action to unlock financing for development, ease debt burdens and accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"Over the past eight decades, [this Council] has been an engine of progress for sustainable development and human rights around the world," said Amina Mohamed, Deputy UN Secretary-General, speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, at the opening of the Council's annual two-day coordination segment.

Many States made major commitments at recent development conferences, but with just five years left to achieve a 2030 Agenda that remains "alarmingly off-track", they must now build on that momentum, she implored.

Multilateralism Under Attack: Time to Demonstrate its Effectiveness

"We are called to not only unequivocally reaffirm the centrality of multilateralism but to also demonstrate its effectiveness," added Paruyr Hovhannisyan (Armenia), Council Vice-President. At a time of overlapping crisis, coordination is indeed no longer a procedural aspiration but a testimony of collective credibility. "The Economic and Social Council system is complex by design, yet that complexity and diversity of mandate, expertise, and perspective is also its greatest strengthen," he reminded.

This year's Coordination Segment under the theme "Transformative, equitable, innovative and coordinated actions for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for a sustainable future for all" will contribute to the in-depth reviews of the high-level political forum on sustainable development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6 (clean water and sanitation), 7 (affordable and clean energy), 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and 17 (partnerships for the Goals).

Today's segment featured two panel discussions. Chaired by Mr. Hovhannisyan and moderated by Melissa Fleming, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, the first panel - "ECOSOC at 80: Lessons learned and important milestones" - heard from five speakers: Ivan Šimonović (Croatia), President of the Council's 2002 session; Paula Narváez (Chile), President of its 2024 session; Harish Parvathaneni (India), Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations; and Maritza Chan Valverde (Costa Rica), Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women's seventieth session.

Disrespect for UN Charter, International Law Increasingly Normalized

"The global context has deteriorated sharply," Mr. Šimonović warned, adding that disrespect for the UN Charter and international law is increasingly normalized, leaving the UN Security Council paralysed as crises multiply. He pointed to real achievements inside the Economic and Social Council but also stressed that structural weaknesses continue to limit its impact. "Humanitarian action is still insufficiently connected to peacebuilding, human rights and development planning," he said. The remedy is for the Economic and Social Council to coordinate and shift from optional coordination to institutional coherence and from "lip service" to delivery. "Multilateralism will not be saved by declarations. It will be saved by results," he said.

Ms. Narváez said that multilateralism is questioned because it has not always delivered timely and consistent responses. At the core of her presidency, she said, was the conviction that sustainable development is a fundamental requirement for preventing crises and conflicts. "There can be no lasting peace without inclusive development," she said, calling for strengthening the Council to anticipate, articulate and coordinate collective responses with clearer leadership, mandates and inclusion of civil society. Pointing to emerging risks, she said that AI is an economic and social phenomenon with major implications for jobs, gender equality and social cohesion. "The greatest risk […] is not innovation per se, but a transition that risks deepening existing inequalities," she stated.

Greater Coordination, Stronger Accountability on Commitments Made

Quoting the Economic and Social Council's first President, India's Ramaswami Mudaliar, Mr. Parvathaneni, recalled the founding vision of securing human happiness, human progress and prosperity. "The ECOSOC has not only been willing, but has been able," exercising its role with great effect, particularly through the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs. Asking "How do we take the development dimension forward beyond 2030?", he said it should include greater intra-UN coordination with the Bretton Woods institutions and international financial institutions - stressing that it is vital to not "belittle the importance of the private sector".

Ms. Valverde recalled how the "Pact for the Future" asked the Council to explore options to revitalize the Commission on the Status of Women to advance implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, establishing a blueprint for protecting and promoting women's human rights. "This has the potential to bridge the gap between global commitments and the realities of women and girls," she said.

The reforms aim to tighten follow-through, she said, emphasizing the need to strengthen accountability on commitments made, notably through dialogues where Member States present lessons learned, challenges and best practices. For the first time, the Commission will "rotate its focus on a set of critical areas", beginning with violence against women and girls in 2026, women's economic empowerment and poverty eradication in 2027, and women's participation in decision-making in 2028, she said.

Improving Transit, Transport and Connectivity Critical to Keep Pace in Changing World

In the afternoon, the Council held a panel discussion on the theme "Keeping pace with a changing world and translating commitments into coordinated action". Moderated by Council Vice-President Paruyr Hovhannisyan (Armenia), it featured an array of panellists and respondents and focused on ways to ensure that recently adopted global agreements are translated into concrete, coordinated and effective action.

Rabab Fatima, UN High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, discussed the implementation of the Awaza Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries, adopted in late 2024. The world's 32 landlocked developing countries - home to more than 600 million people - face serious geographic, logistical and transport challenges, often compounded by economic and climate shocks. To better support them, the Awaza Programme's key deliverables are already taking shape. For example, the Secretary-General will soon launch his High-Level Panel on Freedom of Transit.

Tatiana Molcean, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, agreed that improved transit, transport and connectivity are critical for all nations. Cooperation on technical standards can generate both growth and sustainability and bring countries together for their mutual benefit, she said, citing several positive examples from the European region.

Muhammadou M.O. Kah (Gambia), Chair interim of the twenty-ninth session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, described that body's creation of a multistakeholder working group on data governance and aimed at implementing the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society's 20-year review. The working group brings together a range of experts to set data governance standards and eliminate duplication in the UN's data work, he said.

Key Aspects of International Financial Architecture Reform

Juan Jose Martinez Badillo, Chief of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) New York Office, focused on ways the UN system is implementing the 2025 Sevilla Commitment on financing for development. "Credit ratings are one of the factors that can stem the flow of development finance to where it's needed," he said. Underlining the need for more transparency in how countries' credit ratings are assigned, he also described trade disruptions as another serious barrier. "We need to combine all these ingredients in a way that gets to the desired result," he said.

Robert Powell, Special Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the UN, reflected on ways to reform the international financial architecture in the wake of the Sevilla Commitment. The IMF's mandate - helping countries achieve economic stability and growth - is a prerequisite for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, he said. The Fund recently reviewed its contributions in that arena and developed a new Global Policy Agenda that focuses, among other things, on sharpening economic surveillance, improving programme design and addressing national debt challenges - including through debt restructuring, when needed.'

Pivotal Moment for Poverty Eradication, Decent Work, Social Inclusion, Climate Change Mitigation

"Today we stand at a pivotal moment," said Khrystyna Hayovyshyn (Ukraine), Chair of the sixty-fourth session of the Commission for Social Development, who explored ways to concretize the outcomes of the 2025 Second World Summit for Social Development. Spotlighting the three pillars of social development - poverty eradication, decent work and social inclusion - she said the world already has the tools needed but must collaborate much more closely and demonstrate the political will needed for them to bear fruit.

Isselle Medrano, a representative of the civil society organization "The Inclusivity Project", said communities facing entrenched and systemic discrimination do not view coordination as a mere procedural objective. "It is a condition that determines whether political commitments translate into real action on the ground." She spotlighted policies around climate change mitigation, labour and other sectors, which often remain disconnected from realities on the ground when marginalized communities remain invisible. "Effective implementation therefore requires deliberate action to dismantle discrimination […] and meaningful access to justice," she said.