(Day 1 - Tuesday 27 February)
Session II: Strengthening partnerships and stakeholder engagement

The Group of 77 and China recognizes the need for global partnership and solidarity at all levels in order to overcome the challenges facing implementation of the SDGs. The QCPR resolution calls upon the UN development system to assist governments, at their request, in leveraging partnerships. In this context, the Group emphasizes the need to ensure that partnership resources are aligned with national priorities and strategic programs of countries. The coordination with governments is key to harness partnerships for implementation of the SDGs.

Concerning the proposals in the Secretary General's report, the Group believes that the proposals go beyond the QCPR resolution mandate. The QCPR resolution encourages the UNDS to intensify its collaboration with stakeholders at the national, regional, and global levels and to share knowledge and best practices in partnership approaches. The proposal of making the resident coordinator offices serving as country-level hubs for partnerships is not in line with this mandate. Indeed, the QCPR resolution does not mandate centralization for partnership-building to resident coordinator offices. Moreover, it is not clear what will be the role of governments in this regard.

With regards to the proposal of strengthening system-wide integrity through acceptance of the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact as common partnership standards, the Group stresses that those principles are not intergovernmentally-adopted. The UNDS is part of the intergovernmental machinery of the United Nations and any standards should be the outcome of intergovernmental processes, or adopted by the universal membership of the UN.

The report focuses on supporting South-South cooperation. In this regards, the groups reaffirms that South-South cooperation is a complement to, rather than a substitute for, North-South cooperation, which remains the most important channel to mobilize the resources needed for implementation of the SDGs. We also urge developed countries to make concrete efforts in order to fulfill and increase their ODA commitments. We also believe that improvements regarding partnerships will allow the UNDS to address diverse needs of different developing countries.

Finally, the Group welcomes the proposal of enhancing partnerships with the World Bank and other international financial institutions and encourages incorporation of new and regional development banks in such engagements. The Group would also appreciate further initiatives regarding complimentary funding mechanisms.