A/67/PV.89 General Assembly

Members will recall that, at its 2nd plenary meeting, on 21 September 2012, the General Assembly allocated this sub-item to the Second Committee. Members will also recall that, at its 63rd plenary meeting, on 22 January 2013, the Assembly agreed to consider the sub-item directly in plenary meeting, proceeded immediately to its consideration and adopted decision 67/555, entitled “Open Working Group of the General Assembly on Sustainable Development Goals”. We shall now proceed to consider draft decision A/67/L.70. The Assembly will now take action on draft decision A/67/L.70, entitled “Intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing”. *1337038* 13-37038 (E) May I take it that the Assembly decides to adopt draft decision A/67/L.70?

Before giving the floor to the speaker in explanation of position, may I remind delegations that explanations are limited to 10 minutes and should be made by delegations from their seats. I now give the floor to the representative of the United States of America.

The United States thanks the delegations of Norway and Kazakhstan for their balanced and stoic facilitation, leading to the consensus adoption of decision 67/559, which establishes the composition of the intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing called for in the outcome document (resolution 66/288, annex) of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20). We were pleased just now to be able to join the consensus on this important decision. The United States strongly supports the international community’s discussion of financing for development. Member States have identified a distinguished group of experts to participate in this process, and we have every expectation that they will produce a report that effectively informs the discussion surrounding the post-2015 development agenda, including sustainable development goals and the broader financing for development process. We take the floor today to outline some concerns we have with the approach taken in establishing this intergovernmental committee of experts. We remain uncomfortable with the large-scale seat rotation and replacement arrangements adopted by regional groups. We see these as inconsistent with the terms set out in the Rio+20 outcome document. At a practical level, effectively bringing in a much larger number of participants through such arrangements would appear to defeat the purpose of selecting a defined expert body that can help direct the broader United Nations membership towards consensus. Member States should reconsider the wisdom of such hybrid intergovernmental expert approaches to working groups in the future. Finally, we take this opportunity to reiterate our understanding that the report of the intergovernmental committee of experts shall, in addition to informing the various strands of the Rio+20 follow-up and the post- 2015 development agenda, be an important contribution to the General Assembly’s broader consideration of financing for development. Indeed, the committee’s work must be fully integrated into the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council’s financing for development process, which began in Monterrey, Mexico, at the International Conference on Financing for Development.

We have heard the only speaker in explanation of position. The General Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 20.