Madam Chair,

1. I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Our deliberations during CSD 16 have reinforced the interlinked and cross cutting nature of the six thematic clusters of this cycle; Agriculture, Rural Development, Land, Drought, Desertification and Africa.   

2. Policy options and practical measures to expedite implementation should therefore be multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral and mutually reinforcing. Policy options should take into consideration the interlink ages that exist among the thematic clusters, whereby concrete measures aimed at reviving the agricultural sector in order to eradicate poverty and hunger and address the food crisis, should take into account the need to ensure the sustainable use and management of land, while combating drought and desertification.

3. The group emphasizes the need for an integrated approach, which should reinforce the three pillars of sustainable development - economic development, social development and environmental protection - and the need to promote all three in an integrated, coordinated and balanced manner. Poverty and hunger eradication remain our utmost priorities and the overarching objectives of sustainable development. To this end we should focus on meeting the MDG target of reducing the number of extreme poverty by half by 2015.

4. This approach should further address systemic and structural impediments to development that leads to inequality within and among countries, and emphasizes the need for a bold international agenda that would address the social dimension of globalization. This approach is needed more than ever before given the nature of the international climate and global financial crises and their wide-ranging impacts, especially on the poor.

5. Madam Chair, an important cross-cutting issue is pursuing, sustainable patterns of consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. This, the Group agrees, is essential to making progress in the thematic cluster of agriculture, rural development, land, drought, desertification and Africa.

6. Protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development is another cross-cutting issue with a great potential to advance progress on achieving sustainable development, in particular through the implementation of the Rio Conventions - CBD, UNFCCC and UNCCD. Cooperation among the Conventions should be promoted, while respecting the individual mandates of each as separate legal entities.

7.  Climate change is a serious challenge to sustainable development. The CSD should ensure that discussions on climate change are placed within the proper context of sustainable development. and that these discussions in no way undermine or attempt to influence the current negotiations on the issue.  Furthermore that it does not undermine the overall discourse on economic and social development.

8.  The role of women should also be highlighted. Capacity building strategies should target women farmers, women-headed households in rural areas and the CSD should encourage efforts in this regard.

9. Another important cross-cutting issue is the role of education for sustainable development. We should consider, in this context, the need for building infrastructure and facilities at primary, secondary and tertiary levels with a view to ensure improved literacy rates, productivity and employment in other formal sectors. Affordable and accessible access to health facilities and services, both in primary and secondary care, is also a key component of discussions on sustainable development, with an important impact on the lives of people in developing countries, especially rural workers and those living in regions facing desertification and drought. In this context, there is a special need to address pandemic diseases such as HIV/AIDs Tuberculoses and Malaria.

10. As contained in many outcomes of major UN conferences and summits, such as Johannesburg Plan of Implementation in 2002, the provision of means of implementation is critical to achieving global, regional and national policies in various areas including the thematic clusters of this cycle. The Group underscores the means of implementation, which it views as a global responsibility, given the global nature of the challenges the world faces today. The group would like to reiterate the following:

i. The downward trends in ODA and capital flows, including FDI, and systemic imbalances in the international financial system, including the institutional architecture, must be urgently addressed. The commitment of developed countries to allocate 0.07 per cent of their GDP to developing countries in the framework of ODA must be met.

ii. The need for the mobilization of financial resources and allocation of grants and credits. In this framework, the Group once again calls for substantial increase and allocation of additional financial resources and investment for agriculture, sustainable management of lands, rural development, combating desertification and land degradation.

iii. The need to reach a durable and comprehensive solution to the external debt of developing countries.

iv. Lack of progress in implementing JPOI Agreements on technology transfer is a serious priority issue. The shortfall of technology transfer and dissemination should become the focus of the international community and the UN Development System, including at the highest political level.  This should include the full implementation of the Bali Strategic Plan for Technology Support and Capacity Building, but should also go well beyond this, so as to  attain the goals contained in Chapter 34 of Agenda 21.

v. Technology transfer to support sustainable development, including adaptation to and mitigation of climate change; transfer of environmentally sound and clean technologies. Technologies to support sustainable agriculture, sustainable farming and rural development, to combat drought and desertification and to effect a green revolution in Africa are vital prerequisites to implementing JPOI.

vi. The CSD should also identify ways for the UN development system to increase capacity building support for national sustainable development plans and strategies.

vii. The need for a universal, rules-based, open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system which promotes sustainable development, and the need to redouble efforts towards the reinvigoration of the multilateral trade negotiations and to achieve a development-oriented outcome of the Doha Round .

viii. We urge the UN Development System and international institutions, in particular UNCTAD and the WTO, to scale-up efforts to integrate trade and development, and to put sustainable development prominently at the centre of trade policies and programmes.

ix. The Group considers it important to make private sector development compatible with sustainable development, emphasizing corporate social responsibility, involving both home countries and host countries for trans-national and multinational corporations, and in this regard assessing the role of public private partnerships in achieving JPOI goals and targets.

10. The Group looks forward to the convening of the UN conference on the Financial and Economic crisis which it hopes will be opportunity to achieving a fair international system where the voice and participation of developing countries is ensured, and their interests adequately addressed.

Madam Chair,

11. In short, as developing countries will not be able to achieve sustainable development without the means to do so, we hence urge the CSD, in this session to place greater emphasis on increasing the flow of financial resources; improving trade opportunities; increasing access to and transfer of environmentally sound technologies; and increasing capacity building and development support.

I thank you.