UN General Assembly (UNGA) President, Abdulla Shahid has called on Member States to be committed to multilateralism, saying it remains the ‘only way to address common challenges’.
Shahid told newsmen on Friday, in his first news conference since the conclusion of the annual High-Level Week, that solving global challenges required collective efforts.
According to him, COVID-19 is one of the global challenges that will not be over until universal vaccination is achieved.
He announced a plan to convene a High-Level meeting in January to take stock of the global inoculation effort.
Noting that “humanity saw a tremendous amount of ingenuity and solidarity with the vaccines in record time,” the Assembly President said he was convinced of that.
“We have the capacity to immunize the entire world. What we need to do now is to act collectively to ensure that all who need it will receive the vaccine.
“We cannot simply accept that less than three per cent of people in Africa have received a shot while other regions are already administering boosters,’’ he said.
To confront the other worldwide threat of climate change, the Assembly President will convene, in hybrid format on 26 October, an event entitled “Delivering Climate Action – for People, for Planet and for Prosperity”.
“This event will be focused on the gap between current and required technical and financial capacities to achieve the 1.5 degrees target and to show how that gap can be met”.
Shahid said it would be an opportunity for Member States, civil society and others, to come together to “take stock of the ambition raising initiatives along the path to COP26”, taking place at the start of November in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Assembly President announced that he would continue holding informal consultations with Permanent Representatives, as “Holhuashi Dialogues”, explaining that in his native Maldives, a Holhuashi is a meeting place to discuss ideas, and issues important to the community.
He said that five such sessions would take place, “to bring the spirit of Holhuashi” to the Assembly, and “create a space for dialogue, exchange of views, and discussion on solutions”.
The first will focus on people and climate change: “This links with a series of events we are planning in the month of October around the theme of climate change, in the lead up to COP26,” Shahid told correspondents.
As the impacts of the pandemic continue, Shahid noted that it is becoming increasingly clear that to build back better, “a stronger gender lens on response and recovery is vital”.
As such, he announced that he would be reconstituting the General Assembly President’s Advisory Board on Gender Equality.
“If we don’t take the necessary steps to turn this tide, we will need over 135.6 years, according to recent studies, to close the gender gap,” stated the UN official. “We have to be faster than that”.
Shahid explained that the board would bring together an “extensive mix of expertise” from Member States, the UN system, the private sector and others.
He said the board would bring experts together to ensure a “truly inclusive perspective for a multi-faceted approach” to advancing gender equality throughout the work of the 76th session.
“This board will serve as a mechanism to help mainstream a gender perspective through all my initiatives and mandates for this session,” he said.
