All protocol observed.

I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

The Group highly appreciates the tremendous effort that has been made by the Republic of Namibia and the Federal Republic of Germany; The Republic of Zambia and The Kingdom of Sweden, as well as the Kingdom of Netherlands and the Republic of Jamaica, who for over the last 18 months have carefully co-facilitated the inter-governmental negotiations process of the Summit of the Future; The Global Digital Compact; and The Declaration of Future Generations, respectively, leading to the formulation of the 'Pact for the Future' and its two annexes.

Today, we live in a global scenario that has changed dramatically since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and progress at the halfway point of the Agenda is slow or fragile. The gap between developed and developing countries continues to widen and major challenges generated by the current unfair international economic order for developing countries have reached their most acute expression in current times.

We are gathered here in the 'Summit of the Future' to recommit to our international cooperation in the 'Pact for the Future', that has been the result of long, complex but constructive negotiations at different levels over the past one year. Our hope and conviction is that this Pact should not become another futile exercise, but must garner political will and commitment across all levels of global leadership to pragmatically address current issues and lay a foundation for solutions for our future global progress and challenges. The Theme for this Summit says it all; we need 'Multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow'.

Therefore, the future we want should be free from any oppression and free from global inequalities and 'divides' in levels of development, financing, technology and innovation. It must deliberately offer opportunities and capacity to the majority global south to catch up. Therefore, the global community should commit to the practical implementations of all the agreed Actions in the Pact for the Future.

The impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation and desertification, disproportionately burden developing countries and pose additional challenges to their pursuit of sustainable development and poverty eradication. We remain concerned about the growing gap between the needs of developing countries and the support available to face these challenges.

In that regard, we regret that the Pact falls short in recognizing the actions needed to close this gap, including for developed countries to fulfil their obligations to provide the Means of Implementation, including capacity building, technology transfer, and adequate, sufficient, predictable, quality and additional financial resources for supporting developing countries to implement their Nationally Determined Contributions, adapt to the growing impacts of climate change and respond to the associated losses and damages.

Non the less, in the pact we had adopted, we have decided to take concrete actions to prevent people falling back into poverty, including by establishing well designed, sustainable and efficient social protection systems for all that are responsive to shocks.

We reaffirm our commitment to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, to accelerating our efforts to the empowerment of all women and girls in all domains.

We have agreed to remove all barriers inter alia through addressing those barriers to their full equal and meaningful access to and participation and leadership in science, technology and innovation, including through improving education, employment and research opportunities for women and girls in areas such as science, technology, innovation, mathematics and engineering.
 
We have also decided to attract and support private sector investment in science, technology and innovation, and deepen public-private partnerships by fostering a conducive environment in developing countries that encourages investment and entrepreneurship, develops local innovation ecosystems, and promotes decent work, and by ensuring that innovation can reach global markets.

We have also agreed in the Global Digital Compact, to initiate an Annual Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance under the auspices of the UN, and to initiate an inclusive process towards international data governance arrangements.

We have decided to deliver a robust and impactful twenty-first replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) that includes contributions and strong policy commitments from both new and existing donors that significantly increases IDA resources, and work towards funding the pathways to implement the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Also, we decided to strengthen the multilateral response to support countries with high and unsustainable debt burdens, with the meaningful participation of the countries concerned and all relevant actors, ensuring an approach that is more effective, orderly, predictable, coordinated, transparent and timely to enable those countries to escape debt overhang and prioritize government expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Pact for the Future, and its annexes namely, the Global Digital Compact and Declaration for Future Generations might not be simple solutions to multifaceted global problems, but they do present opportunities to recommit to turbo charging the SDGs before 2030.
 
Excellencies,

Hauezi jua uchungu niliyonayo, kama haujavaa viatu vyangu!

For the Future Generations, let us make the Pact count.

I thank you.