South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se called Thursday for a universal development agenda as the United Nations prepares to establish a new set of development goals for the next 15 years.
“Whether we attain universality could make or break the post-2015 system,” he said in his opening speech at a high-level symposium of the 2015 U.N. Development Cooperation Forum in Songdo, west of Seoul. “Just as we have no ‘planet B,’ we have no ‘plan B’ except for a universal, win-win agenda for sustainable development.”
The symposium, which will run through Friday, comes ahead of a U.N. development summit in September, where the global body is expected to adopt a post-2015 development agenda to succeed the U.N. Millennium Development Goals of 2001-2015.
Representatives from 11 U.N. agencies, including the chiefs of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, were among the more than 200 attendees.
Yun also called for international solidarity, saying there are still many gaps to be filled in terms of equality, access to justice and the environment.
“Despite the 15-year efforts and many successes, the bitter reality is that the ‘bottom billion’ still suffers from crushing poverty,” he said.
On the sidelines of the symposium, Yun held separate meetings with the U.N. leaders, including UNIDO Director General Li Yong and UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi. (Yonhap)
