Chair,

I am speaking on behalf of the European Union and 37 UN Member States, knowingly, the EU Member States, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Montenegro, Albania, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, as well as Monaco and Iceland.

I would like to thank Mr Chamreoun Hou from Cambodia for his efforts as a facilitator as well as the Secretariat for the support throughout the whole process and the coordinator from the G77 and China, Ms Cao Liwen for her efforts during the negotiations.

We care deeply about poverty eradication. We work in partnership with developing countries to achieve the 2030 Agenda and ensure no one is left behind. Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere is a prerequisite to achieve progress across all the SDGs. SDG 1 is significantly off-track and people in rural areas are disproportionately affected. In this regard, we remain committed to accelerate our efforts.  However, we continue to have fundamental concerns regarding this resolution.

Chair, despite our good faith engagement, we are disappointed that, like last year, we made nearly no progress on the recurring issues that have prevented consensus on this resolution for more than seven years. Still, we welcome that this year’s resolution reaffirms ‘our collective commitment to multilateralism, international cooperation and to the United Nations’, promotes rural women’s ‘full access to land ownership, decent work opportunities, and their participation in decision-making’ and emphasizes that cooperation on digital, information and communications technology, science, technology and innovation must be based ‘on mutually agreed terms’.

However, we were disappointed to see that our suggestions on climate change, women’s empowerment, education and social protection, were not taken onboard.

In our view, this resolution is duplicative and undermines Member States’ agreement to Committee efficiency.  The Secretary General produces an annual report that analyzes progress on the eradication of poverty holistically, and the issue of rural poverty should be addressed through that report.  Therefore, if there is no reciprocity in terms of good faith engagement, it would be preferable to focus solely on the UN Third Decade of Poverty Eradication resolution, adopted by consensus. Moreover, we are disappointed that problematic ideological text remains in particular in OPs 3, 4, 8, 19 and 23, which continue to reflect the domestic policies and political ideology of a single member state and are not appropriate in this resolution.  Equally, we cannot accept the references to “win-win cooperation”, “shared prosperity” and “building a shared future for humankind”. We object to the use of language that emphasizes particular concepts and thus tacitly excludes some of the universally accepted  international standards and good practices for sustainable development that were adopted in the 2030 Agenda, such as the rule of law, human rights, transparency, equality, equity, accountability and leaving no-one behind. Further, the meaning of a community of nations is already present in the UN Charter and thus should not be re-interpreted.

On 22 September 2024, the Pact for the Future was adopted by consensus of all UN MS. It reaffirms that eradicating poverty, in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is an imperative for all humankind and calls for rural development strategies to address the multidimensional nature of poverty. It is regrettable that the resolution does not welcome the Summit of the Future and the Pact.

Consequently, we have joined more than a quarter of the Committee membership on voting “no” on this resolution for the seventh year in a row.

Chair, next year we will have the opportunity to try again to bring this text into consensus and we look forward to finding a compromise that would enable all delegations to join consensus and view eradication of rural poverty in a holistic manner.

Thank you.