Barbados, 2014

It is indeed a distinct

privilege to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Sam

Kutesa on behalf of the Government and the people of

Barbados on his election as President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. It is appropriate

that I also commend his predecessor, His Excellency

Mr. John Ashe, for the aplomb with which he guided

the deliberations of the General Assembly at its sixty-

eighth session.

The theme of this year’s Assembly — “Delivering

on and implementing a transformative post-2015

development agenda” — is both timely and critical.

Fourteen years ago, world leaders placed the Millennium

Development Goals, a set of time-bound and measurable

goals and targets, at the heart of the global development

agenda. Today, we stand on the cusp of the unveiling of

a future global agenda for development. This must be an

ambitious, long-term project to improve people’s lives

and protect the planet for future generations. The 17

goals and targets proposed by the Open Working Group

on Sustainable Development Goals must form the

basis for the elaboration of the post-2015 development

agenda. This is especially so if we are to create a truly

transformative global programme anchored in the three

dimensions of sustainable development, with poverty

eradication as its central objective and overarching

goal.

The special vulnerabilities faced by small island

developing States (SIDS) and which serve to constrain

our development are well known. As such, the

international community recognized SIDS as a special

case in sustainable development in Agenda 21 — a

recognition that is echoed in the Barbados Programme of

Action; the Mauritius Strategy, the outcome document

(resolution 66/288, annex) of the United Nations

Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20);

and, most recently, the Small Island Developing States

Accelerated Modalities of Action (Samoa Pathway).

Despite that recognition, the Rio+20 outcome

document indicated that SIDS have made less progress

than most other groupings, or even regressed, in

economic terms, especially in terms of poverty

reduction and debt sustainability. This finding was

repeated in the Samoa Pathway. The International

Monetary Fund has also acknowledged that, in the past

10 years, SIDS have slid down the ladder of progress.

In design, delivery and implementation, therefore,

the post-2015 development agenda must as a priority

address the unique and particular vulnerabilities and

challenges of small island developing States. It must

foster the resilience of SIDS as a key objective of

global efforts. A development agenda that ignores the

integration of SIDS-specific issues would be incomplete

and of questionable validity.

The post-2015 development agenda must also make

provisions for countries like Barbados, which is both

a small island developing State and a highly indebted

middle-income country. We continue to suffer the

devastating impact of the global economic and financial

crisis and have limited scope, capacity, fiscal flexibility

or policy space to respond effectively to them. We face

declining export demand and decreased investment

and demand for services upon which our economy is

dependent, including tourism. Fiscal and financial

stresses have forced us to make significant adjustments

to our expenditure programmes. Against that backdrop,

we face the daunting challenge of continuing to provide

adequate social safety nets for the most vulnerable of

our citizens in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Debt servicing and debt unsustainability far too

easily undermine the advances that we desire to make

towards our sustainable development. Too often, the

plight of middle-income countries is overlooked on

the presumption that by virtue of our gross domestic

product (GDP) per capita we do not require international

assistance. Barbados emphatically restates that GDP per

capita cannot be the sole defining criterion for access

to concessionary financing. The social, economic and

environmental vulnerability of countries such as ours

must be taken into account.

Barbados is therefore pleased to see that the

United Nations Development Programme’s Human

Development Report 2014, entitled “Sustaining Human

Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building

Resilience”, incorporates the concept of vulnerability

and places emphasis on strengthening the resilience

of people, communities and countries. It is our hope

that those factors will give a more accurate picture of

the challenges that developing countries face. On that

issue, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mr. Freundel

Stuart, stated in his address at the Third International

Conference on Small Island Developing States, held in

Samoa in September, that

“the time has come for new approaches to be

designed to assist middle-income countries which

have been graduated from access to concessional

resources”.

I echo that call today. I implore the international

community to address the needs of middle-income

countries in the elaboration of a post-2015 development

agenda. Accordingly, Barbados welcomes the third

International Conference on Financing for Development,

to be held in Addis Ababa in July next year. The outcome

of the Conference must make provisions for the special

needs of SIDS and middle-income countries.

Barbados is fully cognizant of the responsibility

that developing countries themselves bear towards

achieving their development goals. However, the reality

is that, in seeking to meet those goals, the developing

countries are forced to do so on an uneven playing

field. The global financial and economic system and

the governance process that accompanies it continue to

operate in an exclusionary manner. Barbados reiterates

its call for a more transparent architecture that is

supportive of development objectives.

Barbados has developed and implemented a cross-

sectoral Green Economy Initiative, which is predicated

on the fragility of our small island ecosystems. The

Initiative prioritizes natural resource protection

intervention, business and investment choice, human

development programming and the facilitation of export

market development strategies. Barbados continues

to partner with the United Nations Environment

Programme and, more recently, the United Nations

Industrial Development Organization to promote a

transition to a resource-efficient green economy. We

have taken action to enact a series of incentives in

support of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Our efforts to transition to a green economy will

be undone if the international community does not take

immediate and urgent action to address climate change.

The most recent findings of the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change underscore, yet again, the

vulnerability of SIDS, particularly to the effects of

climate change, sea-level rise, ocean acidification and

extreme weather events. Together, they represent an

existential threat to SIDS. We therefore urge major

carbon emitters to take all necessary actions.

Barbados welcomed the holding of the Secretary-

General’s Climate Summit 2014 at United Nations

Headquarters on 23 September. We hope that the

momentum from the Summit will inject urgency into

the proceedings of the upcoming twentieth session of

the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 20),

to be held in Lima in December. We also hope that,

beyond COP 20, it will ultimately galvanize political

will to conclude the negotiation of an ambitious, legally

binding international climate agreement in Paris in

2015.

If SIDS are to have an impact internationally,

particularly at this crucial moment during the design

and construction of a new global architecture for

sustainable development, we must ensure that our

voices are heard. We must be guided by the concept of

a SIDS collectivity that recognizes strength in unity.

We SIDS must speak with one voice at the international

level.

Any discussion on the creation of a new global

sustainable development agenda must have at its core

the means of implementation. Indeed, the means of

implementation must be the foundation on which

the agenda is based. We know that MDG 8, global

partnership for development, remains one of the least

fulfilled of all of the Millennium Development Goals.

The international community can therefore ill afford

to let the new development agenda fail as a result of

a lack of adequate and reliable means to implement

it. The means of implementation must encompass

far more than financing. As we use the sixty-ninth

session to complete the framework of the post-2015

development agenda, it is incumbent upon us to ensure

that definitive and durable partnerships are made to

facilitate the following elements — first, the provision

of adequate financial and other resources; secondly,

fair trade and market access; and thirdly, technology

transfer and capacity-building, particularly in the area

of data collection and statistical analysis.

My country sees peace and security as enablers and

indicators of sustainable development. They constitute

indispensable prerequisites for human, social and

economic development, as well as for progress and

prosperity. Barbados therefore views the continuing

crises and armed conflicts, including those in the

Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria, Iraq and

Ukraine, with grave concern. Indeed, we view them

with grave alarm. Armed non-State actors and terrorist

groups continue to destroy lives, destabilize nations and

threaten national and international peace and security.

In the face of such hostilities and blatant acts of

aggression, the Security Council has been paralysed.

Barbados will continue to be actively engaged within

the Caribbean Community in negotiations on the reform

of the Security Council. We applaud Ambassador Ashe,

former President of the General Assembly, for his

initiative to move discussions on the issue forward. We

also welcome the summary of the intergovernmental

negotiations on Security Council reform prepared by

the Chair of the Open-ended Working Group. Barbados

calls on all Member States to work assiduously during

the current session to make substantial progress, if

not to finalize, the decades-long project of Security

Council reform.

My country reiterates its commitment to democracy

and the respect for human rights and fundamental

freedoms. We welcome the discussions that will take

place during this session on the responsibility to protect.

Our position is motivated by principle and objectivity,

and we have no desire to see the issue politicized.

The Ebola outbreak constitutes a public-health

emergency of international concern and a threat to

global security. It also threatens the peacebuilding and

development gains of the countries most affected. It

is our sincere hope that the recently adopted Security

Council resolution 2177 (2014) and General Assembly

resolutions 69/1 and 69/3 will accelerate the mobilization

of resources to assist the affected countries and halt the

epidemic.

Barbados has long supported a negotiated two-

State solution to the question of Palestine, the right of

the Palestinian people to self-determination and their

right to live in peace and security in a Palestinian State

within pre-1967 borders. Barbados’s position is that

the State of Israel has a right to exist and the people of

Israel have a right to live in security and to do so with

the full and undisputed recognition of the rest of the

world. The Palestinians are also entitled to enjoy the

fruits of prosperity within their own sovereign State.

This year’s unprecedented escalation of the crisis in

Palestine revealed, yet again, the urgent need to reach a

durable, negotiated solution, and we call on all parties

to rededicate themselves to achieving that aim.

The long-standing economic embargo on Cuba

continues to be of serious concern to Barbados. The

Government of Cuba has always demonstrated a

willingness to assist the Caribbean, and indeed the

developing world, in our quest for development. We join

with the overwhelming majority of States Member of the

United Nations in opposing that unilateral action and

look forward to a time — the sooner, the better — when

it will be relegated to the pages of history.

In closing, Barbados believes that there is an

inextricable link among development, international

peace and security. As we stated in 1993, within the

context of an “Agenda for Peace”,

“Where access to food, clothing, shelter, education,

health and the opportunity for gainful employment

is denied, democracy cannot flourish” (A/48/PV.26,

p. 11).

We also hold the converse to be true. There can

be no real development without respect for human

rights, the rule of law and democracy. We hope that

much of the time and energy of this body at its sixty-

ninth session will be spent on delivering a post-2015

development agenda that will redound to the benefit of

us all. Barbados will continue to be in the vanguard of

that effort.