Virtual
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Hello, everybody.
Seven years ago, while serving as the U.S Ambassador to the UN, I had the privilege to help negotiate the revolutionary 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
And while the United States remains committed to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, today we find ourselves in a very different world.
The COVID-19 pandemic has eroded development gains made over the previous years and thrown an additional 97 million people into extreme poverty. The climate crisis continues to wreak havoc around the world, especially in nations with the smallest carbon footprints. Authoritarians are not just poisoning democracies through corruption and disinformation, they are actively attacking them.
And Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked further invasion of Ukraine is compounding inflationary pressures and disrupting the stability of global food and fertilizer markets, causing a surge in food prices that threatens to exacerbate instability around the world.
These challenges are daunting, and while the U.S remains the largest donor of Official Development Assistance, disbursing $42 billion in 2021, we know no amount of foreign assistance will be enough to overcome them and meet the SDGs.
So, the United States is working to grow private investment in emerging nations that will help us continue to make progress.
We’re sponsoring delegations of non-traditional investors like pension funds to travel to Africa, spurring investments in small and medium-sized African businesses. We’re using loan guarantees and grants to encourage private investment in everything from vaccine manufacturing to green energy infrastructure. And we’re working with partner governments to strengthen their institutions, harmonize their regulations, and fight corruption, creating the kind of enabling environments that foreign investors desire.
If development is only seen as the province of governments and foreign aid, then we will never achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. But if we broaden our aperture and welcome the private sector and other non-traditional donors into our work, then we will create a better, more prosperous, and more sustainable future for everyone.
Thank you.