A/68/PV.54 General Assembly

With respect to agenda items 14 and 118, members will recall that the Assembly adopted resolution 68/6, entitled “Outcome document of the special event to follow-up on efforts made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals”, at its 32nd plenary meeting, on 9 October. I now give the floor to the representative of Indonesia.

I would like to express my delegation’s gratitude to the Secretary-General for his comprehensive reports (A/68/493, A/68/230, A/68/120) pertaining to the agenda items under which *1357245* 13-57245 (E) we are deliberating this morning. In line with the reports, Indonesia believes that States have the primary obligation to ensure the promotion of the rights to water and sanitation by enacting relevant policies and legislation that uphold gender equality, vulnerable groups and anti-discrimination. In that regard, Indonesia supports the integration of that issue into the post-2015 development agenda and looks forward to continuing efforts that ensure the promotion of the rights to water and sanitation at the global level. On the issue of population and the development, we note the importance of the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development beyond 2014. We welcome the plan to convene a special session of the General Assembly on the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) during its sixty-ninth session. Indonesia is of the view that the issue of population is essential, as it affects the cost of national economic development. In that context, the assessment of the status of implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action during the forty-seventh session of the Commission on Population and Development, in 2014, will be crucial to providing a solid foundation for the success of the special session. On the issues of promoting the participation of women in development, Indonesia is of the view that gender equality and women’s empowerment is an essential component of development and needs to be integrated into the post-2015 development agenda. With regard to UN-Women’s strategic plan for 2014-2017, Indonesia wishes to reiterate its expectation that the plan will go beyond detailing output and achievement indicators for UN-Women. It should identify UN-Women’s commitment to and provision for responding to the various challenges that countries face, in line with their individual development priorities and needs. Indonesia supports continued efforts to ensure that the United Nations develops into a more credible and accountable body. The General Assembly plays an important role in promoting global budget transparency by setting accountability standards throughout the United Nations system. Indonesia supports efforts to strengthen the Organization’s ability to fully implement its mandate and ensure the effective implementation of all United Nations programmes. Reform efforts must reflect the unique character of the United Nations. In that regard, efforts to promote greater accountability in the United Nations system, including through its internal and external oversight bodies, should be continuously supported and enhanced by all relevant stakeholders. Budget transparency and accountability are increasingly seen as an important precondition for effective governance. In addition to generating economic benefits, they also function as a political expression of good governance. For sustaining such governance and rigorous budget accountability, we would like to emphasize the importance of making accurate data and information available in an efficient, cost-effective manner through information technology. We are pleased to say that Indonesia has established a national strategy for integrating information technology system outputs, thus enabling them to be stored in a national data center. Those data outputs can be accessed, linked to and matched online by our supreme audit institution. That mechanism, known as an electronic audit, has succeeded in systematically preventing and eradicating corruption. It has made a significant contribution to our national efforts to accomplish the Indonesian dream of a zero-tolerant and corruption-free country. Strengthening supreme audit institutions is also essential to promoting good governance. Efficient, accountable, effective and transparent public administration has a vital role to play in implementing internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In that context, we urge for full implementation of resolution 66/209, on promoting the efficiency, accountability, effectiveness and transparency of public administration by strengthening supreme audit institutions, which is also crucial to enhancing cooperation between the United Nations and the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. Our leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration (resolution 55/2) as a promise to current and future generations to establish a world where everyone can live in dignity, free from want and fear. As we approach the post-MDG period, it is our fervent hope that the global development agenda beyond 2015 can also serve as an effective platform for focusing political will and momentum behind the global effort to eradicate poverty through sustainable growth with equity. The development agenda should leave no one behind by ensuring equal opportunity and common prosperity for all.

on behalf of the United States, I would like to express my Government’s thanks to the President of the General Assembly and the secretariat of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development beyond 2014 for presenting us with this report on progress to date in the preparations for the special session of the General Assembly on the follow-up to the Programme of Action (A/68/493). The Programme of Action, adopted by 179 Governments at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and reaffirmed in many intergovernmental negotiations since then, recognizes that for all of us to realize our full potential and our reproductive rights, we must be able to exercise our right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. The ICPD Programme of Action discusses the rights, policies, programmes and enabling conditions that all individuals, but particularly women and young people, need in order to successfully manage for themselves issues related to their sexuality, reproduction and health. Yet, 19 years after Cairo, those goals have not been fulfilled for many, especially those who are poor, young, female, disabled or displaced, and who are too frequently marginalized, which includes members of racial, ethnic or sexual minorities. The ICPD agenda is also relevant to ongoing discussions regarding the post-2015 development agenda, and as such our work to review ICPD implementation to date will have resonance across the development framework of the United Nations. We must continue to move forward on meeting the ICPD goals, and not lose momentum in the face of resistance or persistent challenges. One of those challenges is reducing rates of mortality and morbidity related to sexual and reproductive health, particularly for women and adolescent girls. In addition, with more than 40 per cent of the world’s population under the age of 25, we must increase efforts to meet the needs of adolescents and youth and secure their healthy transition to adulthood. We must also help them avoid some of the pitfalls that threaten to derail their futures, such as early and forced marriage, which is still all too prevalent in many countries around the world. In particular, working in partnership with young people, we need to support and provide quality education equally for girls and boys at least through secondary school; make comprehensive sexual education available to all adolescents and youth; ensure that health services, particularly sexual and reproductive health services, are accessible to young people; work to prevent and respond to physical and sexual violence against youth; and promote and protect their reproductive rights. New thinking and renewed vigour in our approach and partnerships can bring us closer to attaining the ICPD goals for current and future generations of young people. It is the United States priority that women and girls everywhere should achieve the freedom to decide for themselves on matters of their own sexuality, so that they may enjoy strong, healthy families and live in thriving communities and nations. We commend the efforts of the ICPD Programme of Action beyond 2014 secretariat to report on progress to date in reviewing the global implementation of the ICPD, and we are committed to working together with all Member States over the coming year to ensure a positive outcome to the global review process.

The Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of agenda items 14, 118 and 125.