YouSaid · the spoken record

Baron Divavesi Waqa

lines on the record: 90
first: 2013-09-24
most recent: 2018-09-24
sittings or episodes: 6
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“International and regional agencies and development partners should back those efforts with real resources that include long- term, in-country engagement when appropriate, so that they leave behind durable domestic institutions run by a skilled national workforce. Nauru is asking for a lot from its development partners. We want to be better partners ourselves. And at the end of the day, implementation of the 2030 Development Agenda will happen mostly at national and local level. On that note, let me thank our partners Australia, Taiwan, Russia, Cuba and others for their support towards our sustainable development priorities. Our efforts to improve the legitimacy of international institutions must extend beyond those most directly involved in the 2030 Development Agenda.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“History has demonstrated that openness and engagement have proven far more effective strategies for positive change than isolation and exclusion. Only in such an environment can we hold one another accountable for the full implementation of the Agenda. That is the vision that Nauru has embraced for the 2030 Agenda, and back home we are taking steps to move forward. Like the United Nations itself, we will need to build strong domestic institutions to achieve our goals. Their legitimacy will similarly rest on their inclusiveness, adaptability and accountability. Therefore, in implementing the 2030 Agenda, we must go beyond capacity-building. We must engage in the difficult task of institution-building.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Implementing agencies at every level must become both more nimble and more robust. All partnerships — whether multilateral, bilateral or public-private — must be based on mutual respect that recognizes genuine development partners, such as the Republic of China on Taiwan, a democracy that can contribute meaningfully towards development and prosperity in the world. Needless to say, Taiwanese technology and know-how can make a lot of difference towards helping the needy, and, as such, I call for the inclusion of Taiwan in the development agencies of the United Nations. Aid must be predictable and sustainable, It should not be wielded as a weapon to advance partisan political ends. Predatory relationships that pit one group against another have no place in the 2030 Development Agenda.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Regional estimates put earnings lost to IUU at anywhere from millions to over $1 billion. For economies like ours, those numbers are staggering, and if we are to be true to the 2030 Agenda and the commitments made to the small island developing States, we must do much more to eliminate IUU fishing and ensure that the income from fishing goes to the rightful resource owners. That and other issues from the 2030 Agenda will require us to rethink the way we cooperate at the international level. Our international and regional bodies must be fit for purpose. The universality of that endeavour will require them to respect national differences and move away from one-size-fits-all 15-29568 15/33 A/70/PV.20 30/09/2015 strategies. Thematic silos must be replaced by cross- cutting networks.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“This moves us away from looking at single indicators like gross domestic product or income per capita to measure human progress and focuses our work on building a more robust foundation for sustainability and prosperity. Education, public health, gender equality, clean water, oceans, energy and, more importantly, a strong family unit — those are some of the blocks on which our future must be built. For my country, the ocean is the source of almost all development possibilities. Unlike large countries, we do not have a diversified portfolio of industries. Phosphate mining and fishing constitute the large bulk of economic possibilities for Nauru, along with less than a handful of other sources of income. It is all the more concerning, therefore, when vessels come to our waters and engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“Therefore, preserving and strengthening the legitimacy of this institution must be at the centre of our work if the United Nations is to remain a powerful force for progressive change in the world. Therefore, to strengthen the legitimacy of the United Nations, I propose that the road ahead be guided by three principles: universality, adaptability and accountability. We took an important step in that direction last week with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (resolution 70/1), which demonstrates our ability to learn from past experience and create an approach that is better tailored to the needs and circumstances of all nations. The Agenda places the welfare of human beings at its core and lays out a comprehensive set of Goals and targets to help empower every individual to realize his or her full potential.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“It is an honour to be here for the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations. I can only marvel at the scale of that accomplishment. Not only has this institution grown from its original 51 Members to its current 193, but it has also expanded its work to take on a remarkable number of issues facing the world. Our debate here provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on what has made the Organization so successful. I believe the reason for that success can be summed up in a single word: legitimacy. Only with legitimacy can we expect leaders from around the world to gather here every September. Only with legitimacy can we expect the agreements we reach here to be implemented in the real world. However, legitimacy is a fragile thing. It takes decades to build, but can be lost in the blink of an eye.”
2015-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 70 (2015)
“The United Nations remains our best hope for people everywhere to live in peace and prosperity. My faith in it has never been stronger. God bless the Republic of Nauru and God bless the United Nations.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“On climate change alone, we are far from the goal of providing $100 billion a year by 2020 to help nations adapt to climate impacts that are now unavoidable and to build sources of clean energy, to say nothing of the 0.7 per cent gross domestic product goal for development aid. I know that we, as an international community, face numerous crises on many fronts and that much is being asked of us. But I strongly believe that it is in times like these that solutions to even the most intractable problems emerge from the human spirit. It is in times like these that light emerges from darkness; hope from despair. The small island developing States have laid out a vision to help us reach our full potential. I invite our partners to invest in our peoples, and we will build a better and more secure world.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Furthermore, I would like to recognize the contributions that Taiwan has made to help my country make progress towards its national sustainable development strategy. I take the opportunity to also express my country’s deep appreciation to our friends and partners who continue to support our sustainable development priorities, including Australia, Russia, New Zealand, the European Union, Cuba, Israel and Turkey, to mention a few. The world is rapidly changing, and the new realities have strained the ability of the United Nations to respond adequately. Long-term solutions will require a new commitment to providing adequate means of implementation.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Similarly, the United Nations should ensure that all citizens of the world have the opportunity to participate in its activities. It must work for the 10,000 people in Nauru and other small countries, and it must not continue to ignore the 24 million people in Taiwan, who time and again have demonstrated a commitment to peace and regional cooperation. Nauru is pleased to note that, with solid international support and the cross-Strait rapprochement, the Republic of China has increased its meaningful participation in United Nations specialized agencies and mechanisms. We continue to encourage the positive interaction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in the international arena.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“That is the least we can do as an international body to prepare for one of the biggest challenges of our generation. If the Security Council is to remain relevant, it must be adaptive enough to meet the latest threats, and climate change is a clear and present danger that we ignore at our own peril. The Security Council must also reflect new geopolitical realities by becoming more representative and inclusive. It is for that reason that Nauru supports the reform of the Security Council by enlarging its permanent and non-permanent categories and making its working methods more efficient. New members should be more geographically diverse, but they must also be willing to broaden their vision beyond a narrow focus on domestic interests to include a commitment to the common good of all Member States.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“My own regional group, the Pacific SIDS, led the General Assembly to formally recognize the connection between climate change and international peace and security in 2009 and helped convince the Security Council to do the same in 2011. But, while few countries doubt the correlation between climate change and conflict today and despite graphic examples of such in the past few years alone, there is still disagreement as to the way forward. Therefore, we are still of the opinion that the Secretary- General should appoint a special representative on climate and security to analyse the projected security impacts of the crisis. In addition, the Secretary-General should lead a joint task force of all relevant organs and specialized agencies to assess the capacity of the United Nations system to respond.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“The Summit provided hope that, at least in some corners, serious climate action is imminent. However, it was hard to ignore the fact that most announcements were about the greenhouse gas reductions that would occur under some future Government a decade or more in the future. What is more, SIDS, which contribute only a fraction of global emissions, have undertaken to build sustainable economies while announcing some of the most ambitious pledges to cut emissions. For example, we are working closely with the International Renewable Energy Agency, through their Lighthouses initiative, to achieve our own goal of a 50 per cent reduction in 2020.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We cannot let new and emerging issues distract or diminish work on core priorities that remain inadequately addressed. We may be experiencing our own fatigue when we again raise the issues of overfishing, climate adaptation and water treatment, but those are often the areas most in need of attention. I know that tackling all of those problems will be a tall order and may seem quite daunting, I am absolutely confident that this institution and its agencies are up to the task. We have made some progress in reducing hunger, poverty and disease. And just this week, the world watched as leaders gathered at the Climate Summit to announce the actions that their countries and corporations are planning in order to lower greenhouse gas emissions responsible for the climate crisis.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“It goes to the heart of the central task before us — not only fulfilling the long-standing promises with regard to sustainable development but also engendering a paradigm shift in the way that we achieve such development. The current piecemeal approach, where a donor’s political interests determine aid priorities, may treat symptoms for a time, but it fails to address the underlying disease. If we want our efforts to be successful over the long term, we need to build a foundation that develops global citizens and gives them the tools they need to succeed in a global world. In other words, we must move beyond capacity-building to institution-building. What is needed is long-term in-country engagement, backed by real resources, that produces durable domestic institutions run by nationals.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Finding lasting solutions to problems such as those will require more resources and a level of cooperation that the international community has so far not countenanced. It will also require us to look at the failings in the global order that somehow prevent countries such as mine from accessing the fair economic benefits of our own resources. Nevertheless, we cannot just stand by and do nothing. We cannot and should not wait for others to decide what is best for us. For that reason, the parties to the Nauru Agreement are taking the lead in successfully managing their tuna stocks through such measures as curbing illegal fishing and sustainable harvesting. The President has wisely chosen “Delivering on and implementing a transformative post-2015 development agenda” as the theme of the general debate of the sixty-ninth session.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Yet the reckless actions of other nations have severely undermined the marine environment on which we so depend — from excessive greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet and make the seas more and more acidic to irresponsible overfishing, the outright stealing of fish in our waters, and dangerous pollution, the effect of which we have yet to fully comprehend. All the while, some of those same countries responsible for the damage are also charged with assessing the well-being of the marine environment. How can we be confident that our interests will be protected in that effort? We, as a developing country, are constantly facing demands for greater transparency and accountability from the same actors that downplay, and sometimes even cover up, their own transgressions.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“However, if we are to be successful, we must acknowledge a reality that lies beneath so many of those challenges, namely, that we live in an interconnected world and that the actions of one country or region impact the lives of people half a world away. Conflict, poverty and disease can send refugees across borders and oceans and sometimes all the way to our shores. We can no longer escape each other. As the Secretary- General also remarked, we all share the same island. Also, we must consider my country’s connection to the ocean. As for so many SIDS, the ocean is the foundation of our culture and economy, and we depend on its bounty for food and income.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“We need to set our world on a sustainable path.” The challenges of SIDS are many. One need only glance at the headlines to appreciate that they join a long list of concerns that the international community must confront today: naked brutality, pestilence, poverty and the worsening impacts of climate change, to name only a few. I understand the impulse for us to put off hard decisions to another day, prioritize some over others, or even bury our heads in the sand. But the General Assembly is and remains the pre-eminent forum for grappling with global crises, and the United Nations is our best hope for solving them.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Indeed, earlier this year, I sat in the Trusteeship Council Chamber when the Secretary-General helped us celebrate the launch of the International Year of Small Island Developing States. Showing a remarkable understanding of our unique circumstances, he said: “The International Year offers us the opportunity to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the people of small island developing States and to honour their many contributions to our world. It is also an opportunity to highlight the various needs and challenges of this diverse coalition. Some small island developing States have enjoyed long-lasting stability. Others are in transition. Some are economically more fragile than others... Others are extremely vulnerable to the immediate effects of climate change. But all small island developing States share a common understanding.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Allow me to congratulate Mr. Sam Kutesa on his assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. Let me assure him of my delegation’s full support and cooperation as he steers our work during this session. I must also commend his predecessor, Ambassador John Ashe, for showing such capable leadership during the previous session. He led the small island developing States (SIDS) through several important milestones during his tenure, including the International Year of Small Island Developing States and the recently concluded International Conference on SIDS in Samoa. It has been said that the stars are aligned with SIDS this year. Ambassador Ashe has been our brightest beacon, and I thank him very much for that. Let me also thank another champion of the SIDS, Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon.”
2014-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 69 (2014)
“Only by correctly diagnosing the problems and choosing the appropriate tools to begin our work will we be able to reach satisfactory outcomes that benefit us all.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“Furthermore, I would like to recognize the contributions that Taiwan has made to helping my country make progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. We also express our gratitude to the Governments of New Zealand, the Russian Federation, Japan, the Republic of Korea and India; they are all invaluable partners in our joint effort to bring sustainable development to my island. As the President of the General Assembly aptly described in his opening statement, setting the stage for sustainable development will require introspection, frank discussion and coming to terms with some hard truths about the nature of the challenges we face and the institutions we have at hand to respond.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“The United Nations invests enormous power in the hands of a tiny minority of five, which is not so different from global economic governance being dictated primarily by eight. Nauru is always striving to improve bilateral relations. I would like to express my gratitude to Australia, which has always been an important partner. We look forward to our continued work with the new Government as we continue to collaborate on joint projects that are delivering important benefits in my country. Nauru is gratified to note that, with solid international support and cross-Strait rapprochement, the Republic of China on Taiwan has increased its meaningful participation in United Nations specialized agencies and mechanisms. We continue to encourage the positive interaction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in the international arena.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“As the Secretary-General said at the High- level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, “We must strengthen the interface between science and policy”. The world’s attention is now focused on the immense suffering in Syria. On behalf of the people of Nauru, I would like to offer my condolences to the millions of people whose lives have been affected by the Syrian conflict. We are horrified by the scale of human atrocity there. I am compelled to ask: Do we always have to wait for well over 100,000 people to be killed before we can find solutions to restore peace and security? As the President observed, the mandate of this body has limitations, and we cannot issue resolutions that bind countries.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“At some point in the future, the special representative could become an invaluable asset in preventive diplomacy efforts and post-conflict situations. Secondly, we are requesting the Secretary-General to lead a joint task force of all the relevant organs and specialized agencies to immediately assess the capacity and resources of the United Nations system to respond to the anticipated security implications of climate change. We have heard in countless forums about the potentially destabilizing effects of climate change, yet we have only the vaguest idea of what an international response to those effects would look like. That needs to change. We must start preparing for the challenges that lie ahead.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“Addressing the security implications of climate change remains a key priority for Nauru and the Pacific small island developing States. I would like to reiterate our proposals for moving forward. First, we are calling for the appointment of a special representative on climate and security to help expand our understanding of the security dimensions of climate change. The special representative would regularly report to the General Assembly and the Security Council on emerging climate-related security threats and would facilitate regional cooperation on cross-border issues. Vulnerable developing countries in particular could benefit from a special representative equipped to help them evaluate their security situations and develop action plans to increase the resilience of their institutions.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“They should be held accountable for fully implementing best practices to reduce their own emissions, while also providing the means for implementing adaptation and mitigation actions in developing countries. The AOSlS proposal indicates the way to accomplish those objectives. Establishing an international mechanism to address loss and damage is also a key priority for AOSlS, as is mobilizing climate financing and making sure the Green Climate Fund is ready to accept donor contributions in 2014. Climate change is the greatest challenge to the sustainable development of small islands. We must come to terms with the fact that, owing to our delay, some grave impacts are now unavoidable. Some will have security implications.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“A key priority for the COP-19 will be jump-starting near-term mitigation action through the launch of a process guided by more technical expertise and focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy. AOSIS has proposed a very practical and collaborative approach to rapidly scale up the implementation of policies and the deployment of technologies that not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also advance domestic sustainable development priorities. In the view of AOSIS, that technical process can prepare the ground for a much more ambitious post-2020 agreement. The proposal in no way relieves developed countries of their international obligation to take the lead in addressing climate change.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“We hope to collaborate with development partners to design sustained programmes with a significant in-country component, so that there is a durable transfer of the skills necessary to benefit from international support mechanisms. Nauru has also made its best efforts to contribute at the international level. We have the tremendous honour of presiding over the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSlS), a group that has been a leading advocate for climate action for more than two decades. The upcoming nineteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-19), to be held in Warsaw, will be important to laying the foundation for an ambitious agreement in 2015.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“An example is the recently completed Nauru case study on climate change financing. The study identified a number of steps my Government and our development partners can take to make official development assistance more effective. For example, project-based financing was found to be markedly less effective than more flexible modalities, such as general budgetary support. Another key finding concerned the need for domestic institution-building. Accessing many sources of multilateral finance is, quite frankly, beyond the capacity of my Government, and the traditional strategy of conducting regional workshops has simply not worked.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“The Commission’s 2009 report made many good recommendations for our consideration, and the first step must be to bring more transparency and democratic oversight to economic governance. The most important decisions are not made in universal bodies, such as the General Assembly, but rather far away from the small, the isolated and the vulnerable. Is it any surprise that the system has failed to meet our needs?To address that problem, we should start by relaunching the discussion on global economic governance here in the General Assembly, as well as by reforming the governance of the Bretton Woods institutions, so that they are more inclusive. The systemic barriers to sustainable development are formidable, but that has not stopped Nauru from seeking practical solutions that can be readily implemented in the short term.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“The size of the recent housing bubble has been estimated at $4 trillion. The carbon bubble could be more than five times larger. That should be an issue of serious international concern. How do we allow trillions of dollars to flow into destructive activities while the most basic needs of millions go unmet? The reasons are complicated, but make no mistake that this is a choice. It is a choice made by international policymakers to prioritize profits over people. As the President said earlier this week, “it is time for us to concede that our efforts at reforming and revitalizing our Organization need new impetus” (A/68/PV.5, p. 5). Reclaiming the global economic system and putting it to work for the good of the people will be a long and difficult process, but it may be the only way to reach our sustainable development goals.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“Even worse, investments in risky activities of that type compete with more productive investments in basic infrastructure, renewable energy, health services and the like — investments that contribute to true sustainable development. Our reckless inaction is demonstrated by the inflation of the latest bubble: the carbon bubble. At least two thirds of known fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned if we are to limit the rise in global temperatures to below two degrees. The cost of renewable energy has fallen considerably in the past decade. By any measure, fossil fuels are a very bad long-term investment, yet that has not prevented trillions of dollars in private investment and fossil fuel subsidies from pouring into new infrastructure for the exploration, extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“In 2009, the Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System submitted a report (A/63/838) to this body in which it indicated that finance, which should be the servant of the economy, had been promoted to be its master. The rules of economic governance had been increasingly written to serve the interests of a shrinking few as they pursued risky ventures — ventures that often played havoc with people’s lives and livelihoods. We are very familiar with some of the results of that system: stock-market bubbles, currency bubbles and property bubbles. When they burst, they leave behind enormous hardship.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“It will be a challenge, but under the President’s skilled leadership, I am confident we can succeed. However, I fear we will come up short of our ambitions for transformational change if we shy away from making fundamental reforms in the way the global economy works. We began a promising conversation on the matter back in 2008 when the financial crisis was still fresh in our minds, but as stock prices have rebounded, our attention has wandered. Let us not forget that most of the problems that caused the previous crisis have not been fixed. Those same problems also undermine sustainable development in many countries and communities around the world.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“We will be continuing work on a number of important processes over the next year., They include the crafting of sustainable development goals and the post-2015 development agenda, the work of the High- level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and — of particular importance to my country — the proceedings of the third Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. In addition, we must make rapid progress towards a new climate-change agreement in 2015, which will obviously have enormous implications for the sustainable development prospects of small islands. We must work in a coordinated fashion so that those processes are mutually reinforcing and deliver concrete results, rather than produce the usual rhetoric.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“The near collapse of the global financial system and spikes in food and energy prices have caused enormous difficulties for our small and vulnerable economy. A severe drought caused additional hardship and foreshadowed the much more difficult future we will face in a warming world. At the same time, the flow of official development assistance and climate financing have begun to stagnate. Thankfully, we are presented with an unprecedented opportunity over the next few years to transform how the international system supports sustainable development.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)
“May I first congratulate Mr. John Ashe on his election to the presidency at the current session. I am sure that his wisdom and experience will guide our deliberations on the many challenges that the world faces today. Also, allow me to commend His Excellency Mr. Vuk Jeremi. for his excellent leadership during the sixty-seventh session. The President knows better than most the unique combination of challenges faced by small island developing States. We are being battered from all sides, both literally and figuratively. Over the past decade, we have faced a flood of crises with a genesis far from our shores that have stretched our capacity to protect and improve the health and prosperity of our people.”
2013-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 68 (2013)