UN Resident Coordinator Fiona McCluney speech to the High-Level Commemorative event on UN Day

Your excellencies, dear Ministers, Deputy Minister Malo,

Excellencies from the diplomatic corps – Members of the United Nations, Partners, friends, and colleagues,

It is my very great pleasure to welcome you here on 24th October to commemorate United Nations Day.  The anniversary of the day the UN Charter came into force in 1945.

Seventy-eight years ago, today, from the ashes World War II, which claimed the lives of over seventy-five million people - the UN was born.  Born with a spirit of determination to heal divisions, repair relations and build peace.  

I believe it is my generation, the ones that have enjoyed the prosperity of peace and infinite resources, that bear responsibility to uphold the principles UN Charter and use every avenue we can to end conflict and ensure our children can live in united nations in peace and with a hopeful future.

Albania has certainly played its part as a member state for this mission in recent years.

I would like to take a moment to congratulate his Excellency, Minister Hasani and through him the Government of Albania for the leadership they have shown as members of the United Nations Security Council. While it is disappointing, he is not able to be with us today, his presence was required to represent Albania at crucial debates in the Security Council this week. 

In September when Albania held Presidency of the Council, important debates have been initiated on Ukraine, around partnerships for humanitarian assistance and on sexual violence in war.  It was certainly a moment to feel proud and we can only hope and pray for breakthroughs at the Security Council on the present crisis.

As the 22 – 23 mandate ends, attention will turn to Albania’s election to the Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council is another essential plank of the UN’s global governance and Members of the Council have an important role in upholding standards and safeguarding the universal declaration that pursues at its core that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.  We look forward to following their work in this fora.

In addition to Security and Human Rights, another important pillar of the UN’s work since 2015 has been on Sustainable Development.

Our friends at the Ministry of Culture like to refer to UN Week as the UN Week of Culture – and they are right. Indeed, the UN promotes the culture of peace and cooperation, the culture of human rights, of gender equality, of social protection and education, a culture of environmental protection and action for climate, and protection of biodiversity. And if I were to continue counting, that could be a precise account of the 17 goals that we call Sustainable Development Goals -or SDGs - with a key focus on the culture of peace and cooperation.

As a roadmap of the 2030 Agenda, adopted in 2015, the SDGs come with specific targets and indicators to measure progress.

Progress on #Agenda 2030, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, was also under scrutiny this year at the General Assembly.

The latest SDG reporting indicates, with half of time elapsed to 2030, globally only 12 per cent of the 169 SDG targets are on track, progress on 50 per cent of the targets is weak and insufficient.  Worst of all, progress has either stalled or even reversed on more than 30 per cent of the SDG targets.  

The number of people living in extreme poverty is higher than it was four years ago. Hunger has also increased and is now back at 2005 levels, and gender equality – as measured by indicators of representation, economic participation, access to services and freedom from violence, is some 300 years away.   Other fallouts include record-high inequality and rising greenhouse gas emissions.

On the positive note, we should mention that there has been considerable SDG progress in Albania!

There are three government bodies working on SDG mainstreaming and acceleration, at different levels, with the UN supporting:

• Inter-ministerial Committee on the SDGs;
• Inter-institutional working group for the preparation of the roadmap for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; and
• Parliamentary sub-committee for Sustainable Development.

The 2023 Sustainable Development Report detailed the progress Albania had made compared to other 163 countries measured.  It rose seven places following three last year, in the top third globally at 54th position. Albania is doing relatively well on SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG3 (Good Health and Well-being), 4 (Quality Education), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and 13 (Climate Action).  Yet, despite these successes, progress is still needed to meet the targets for SDGs 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), and SDG 2 (Food Security and improved nutrition) have been identified as particularly challenging areas.

I mention these facts not to bring a gloomy perspective of the future but to emphasize how important is to keep an eye on accelerating action and multilateral solutions.

At the end of the 78th UN General Assembly session Secretary General Guterres said: “I am encouraged that the SDG Summit Declaration welcomes a Summit of the Future to be held in 2024 as an important opportunity to accelerate implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

 The proposals and ideas in Our Common Agenda are bridges across the aspiration gap; between the world as it is, and the world as we know it can be.

The world set out in the UN Charter, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

UN Day is an opportunity to acknowledge and thank the team for the work of UN family in Albania, the 10 agencies with representation in Tirana and 9 other agencies that have signed our Cooperation Framework with Government and deliver results on the ground.  Their programmes cover a wide portfolio of work:

• FIRSTLY, to build human capital with more equitable investment in people – investment in areas of health, education and social protection by UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, UN Women and UNFPA, with UNDP, UNICEF and UNOPs providing a focus on earthquake recovery in education and culture;
• SECONDLY, to provide integrated policy solutions to promote green growth, innovation, and address climate change, where UNDP, FAO, UNESCO, ILO, ITU, UNEP, UNIDO and UNECE are active. 
• THIRDLY to addresses governance, rule of law and human rights promoting access to justice, addressing migration and asylum issues (IOM, UNHCR), enhancing public sector accountability and access to services (UNDP) and our collective support in the important area of data and statistics.  We pay special attention is Gender equality through the work of the contributing agencies UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and ILO.  

The UN in Albania leads in the region for implementation of joint programmes through the Albania SDG Acceleration Fund – especially in Leaving No one Behind, Ending Gender Based Violence and promoting SDGs with Business and targeted emergency response programming following the Earthquake and Covid-19 pandemic.  

The drive for results in these areas happens with many partners; some of whom are present today, too many to mention by name, but you are our Member States, Government of Albania, Ministers and agencies, civil society organisations and companies and businesses.  We truly value your support and partnership.

Last week Albania hosted the Berlin Process Leaders’ Summit here in Tirana, while there are and will be frequent twists and turns in what is essentially a political process, recent soundings on the Enlargement perspective are positive. We are happy to complement and work with the Government and EU on Albania’s EU integration aspirations as the EU accession is a mega-accelerator for delivering on the Sustainable Development Goals

This UN Day, for the second year in a row, sits among the rich cultural weeks of many nations with a presence in Albania, skillfully managed by our friends at the Ministry of Culture. Our diverse, and some might say, quite technical offering, kicked off UN week yesterday with events in Tirana and throughout the country – on measuring cultural heritage, climate action, refugee rights and a celebration of chestnuts.

Today, we are celebrating UN Day in Tirana with a packed program here in the square, and in the UN tents surrounding.  Later tonight we recognize Pioneers for the SDG from the private sector with an event inside the premises of the National Historic Museum. Tomorrow we will travel northwest for a special UN Day in the beautiful city of Shkodra. Thank you, Minister Margariti and the team, as well as Mayor of Tirana and Mayor of Shkodra and team, for your tremendous support in making all of this possible.

I am so pleased we are in beautiful Skanderbeg Square – without rain.  It is favorite place of mine and on the cover of many of our reports.   It is highlight of life in Tirana to walk or cycle through this public square early evening, and watch people, - young and old – residents and tourists, viewing an exhibit, watching the stars or earlier this month see Albania win resoundingly at football.

Finally, for your enjoyment, we offer our own exhibit, a small yet, I hope meaningful exhibition of - the UN and Albania’s journey  -  from membership of the UN in 1955 to today.  It has been prepared with thanks to Credins Bank, Albania Telegraphic Agency, National Directorate of Archives, the National History Museum and Albania Radio and Television.   We have captured some important milestones looking through four lenses:  Albania and the UN cooperation, key Human Rights milestones – and as anyone would expect a focus on the culture in the form of an album of art and culture heritage that Albania offers to the world.

Please come and join me to take a closer look and Happy UN Day.