BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 14. Vice President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from Azerbaijan, Member of the Parliament Sevil Mikayilova delivered a speech on February 14 at the IPU Parliamentary Hearings at the United Nations in New York under the theme of "Scaling up actions for the Sustainable Development Goals: Finance, Institutions, and Politics", Trend reports.
Participating in discussions on "Development cooperation and the SDGs: Making the most of aid", held within the framework of the hearings, she emphasized the active role of international financial institutions in maximizing the impact of aid on achieving the SDGs.
"The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in 2015 with a target for implementation by 2030. However, at the halfway point, progress remains modest, while unresolved challenges demand tremendous global efforts in terms of consolidation and nancing. The difficulty in achieving the SDGs is largely due to shifting macroeconomic conditions, as today's world differs significantly from what was envisioned 10 years ago. At the same time, it was during the inter-crisis period (2010-2019) that the global development agenda took shape and the framework for its implementation was established," she said.
The MP stressed that Official development assistance (ODA) and other sources of external aid are key financing tools for achieving the SDGs in a number of developing countries.
"However, ODA is being disproportionately allocated to humanitarian assistance and refugee costs as well as to climate mitigation at the expense of core support for public goods and infrastructure spending in developing countries.
Moreover, despite the importance of collective action to provide developing countries with the necessary financing and technologies to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs, geopolitical tensions and the resurgence of nationalism are hindering international cooperation and coordination," Mikayilova added.
She noted that Azerbaijan’s experience in cooperation with international financial institutions has been highly productive in this field.
"We are pleased to state that Azerbaijan's green agenda is supported by international financial institutions. In particular, the World Bank Group has adopted a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Azerbaijan, which has a great focus on clean energy development in the country," the MP pointed out.
At the request of the Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Sahiba Gafarova, Sevil Mikayilova and MP Soltan Mammadov traveled to New York on February 10 to take part in meetings of the organizing committees for the 6th World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, the 15th Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament, and the UN Parliamentary Hearings.
Bringing together around 300 participants—including parliamentarians, consultants, and experts from more than 60 countries—the hearings are focused on revitalizing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and discussing the role of parliaments in this effort.
The MPs' visit to New York will wrap up on February 16.
