The State of Qatar has reaffirmed keenness on promoting its partnership with the United Nations to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and address current challenges.
This came in the State of Qatar’s statement delivered by HE Director of the Department of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shaheen Ali Al Kaabi, during the 2023 Partnership Forum meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which was held in New York, in the presence of HE President of the Economic and Social Council Lachezara Stoeva, and HE Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed.
His Excellency pointed to the opening of the ‘UN House’ in Doha next March, which has a number of offices of UN agencies and affiliated organizations for rapid response to humanitarian crises, climate change problems, resolving conflicts, combating the threat of terrorism and violent extremism, addressing the flow of refugees, and promoting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
HE Director of the Department of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the State of Qatar is aware that the challenges resulting from the outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic have negative impacts at all levels, and reversed years of progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
In this regard, His Excellency said that the State of Qatar attaches utmost importance to Goal 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals in order to address these challenges, indicating that Goal 17 is about establishing partnerships to achieve the goals, through close cooperation and strong partnership with the United Nations, its organizations and agencies.
Within the framework of international cooperation to address the devastating economic, social and health effects of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the State of Qatar did not hesitate to play its humanitarian role and duty to mitigate the repercussions of this pandemic, he added.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the State of Qatar has provided urgent medical aid to more than 80 countries around the world to help them deal with it. The total governmental and non-governmental assistance amounted to more than USD 88 million, of which a total amount of USD 10 million was allocated to the World Health Organization, and a contribution of a total of USD 20 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), he noted.
HE Director of the Department of International Cooperation pointed out that the State of Qatar has continued its support for the UNDP Accelerator Labs network on sustainable development for the period (2022-2025) with a total value of USD10 million, taking the total support provided since the year 2019 to USD 30 million, in favor of a network of Labs that have proven effective through new ways of working and providing innovative solutions in the developmental field, in addition to being an important pillar and catalyst in accelerating learning on how to promote sustainable development, especially in the context of responding to the pandemic, and the exacerbation of developmental challenges over the past two years.
He noted that the State of Qatar will host the second part of the Fifth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) from March 5 to 9, hoping that the conference will constitute an important opportunity to agree on promoting a framework for partnerships in support of the least developed countries, while adding that the conference will include a special track for the private sector in order to consolidate and accelerate its role in building the resilience of those countries and alleviating the burdens and challenges.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs