The Diplomat in Spain

Poster of the National Volunteer Exam. / Photo: sustainabledevelopment.un.org

Eduardo González. 17/07/2018

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, Josep Borrell; the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera; and the High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda, Cristina Gallach, will head the Spanish delegation that will participate tomorrow at the UN headquarters in New York in the National Voluntary Exam of the 2030 Agenda, a meeting that will serve as a starting point for the future national strategy for sustainable development for the period 2020-2030.

The Spanish panel will be made up of a total of ten members, among which, apart from those already mentioned, the representatives of two autonomous communities (Basque Country and Valencian Community), the mayor of Soria (on behalf of the FEMP), the President of the Commission for International Cooperation for Development in the Congress, Elena Bastidas; the Conference of Rectors of the Spanish Universities (CRUE); the Future in Common platform (which brings together 50 civil society organizations); and Ángel Pes, president of the Spanish Network of the Global Compact (on behalf of the private sector).

Borrell, Ribera and Gallach will be the speakers of the Spanish delegation to the UN High Level Political Forum, whose presentation will last fifteen minutes, followed by another fifteen or twenty minutes of debates and questions.

The base document of the Spanish presentation during this 2018 Periodic Review – to which a total of 47 countries will be submitted – will be the Action Plan for the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda: Towards a Spanish Strategy for Sustainable Development, approved at the end of June by the Government and in whose preparation all the ministerial departments have participated, as well as autonomous communities, local entities and civil society organizations.

The 2030 Agenda establishes a total of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, as well as 169 goals and 232 indicators to measure compliance with those objectives. Precisely, the Action Plan is complemented by an annex – sent last Friday to the UN – on the current status of these indicators in Spain. So far, 134 of the 232 indicators have been covered, which places our country ahead of the rest of the speakers in terms of the quality of information, even above the Nordic countries.

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Borrell, Ribera and Gallach will intervene in New York in the National Voluntary Exam on the 2030 Agenda

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According to diplomatic sources, the National Voluntary Exam will serve as a starting point to begin implementing the Plan of Action, starting this Thursday and by way of «urgency», with a view to begin to develop the new national strategy for sustainable development for the period 2020-2030. The immediate objective, according to the same sources, is to begin to elaborate this strategy in September or October of this same year to have it very profiled in the second half of 2019.

According to the same sources, although the new Government of Pedro Sánchez has decided to maintain the international commitments related to the 2030 Agenda of the previous Executive (such as the presentation to the National Voluntary Exam), it has also introduced some substantial innovations in the Plan of Action and in the strategy, placing more emphasis on thematic issues such as inequality, the fight against poverty or climate change or institutionally developing governance mechanisms (with the creation of the High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda) and expanding the range of Spanish representation In New York.

During his speech to the UN, said the same sources, Borrell will present a «rigorous interpretation» both on the achievements of Spain in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and on the aspects on which we must continue working, with special attention to gender equality, child poverty or climate change.

Besides, the minister will take advantage of his stay in New York to, at the end of the National Voluntary Exam, meet with his counterpart in Andorra, Maria Ubach Font, and with the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, as well as to grant an interview to the newspaper New York Times.