Prague, March 26 (CTK) – A meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that is to deal with the fulfilment of development targets started in Prague with the participation of 67 countries on Monday.
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed told journalists before its beginning that the participants would look for solutions to supranational problems such as the climate change, conflicts and migration.
In his opening speech, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis stressed the responsibility of all countries for the solution to the problems.
President of the United Nations General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak said the countries generally agreed on the need to fulfil the development targets.
There is a need to connect the targets and financial sources. To implement them, some five to seven billion dollars are lacked, he added.
Babis said the existence of the United Nations was likely to have prevented another world war. However, global society must face other threats, such as terrorism, he added.
The Czech Republic has the experience that the involvement of civic society in the decision-making and development enhances the trust within society, improving the politics, too, Babis said.
This is another reason of why the Czech Republic chose enhancement of society by means of civic activities as its priorities among the U.N. development targets within its presidency of the ECOSOC, he added.
Mohammed said there had to be a joint effort to resolve the problems not only within national borders, but also as a global society.
The problems include climate change, conflicts due to which lots of people suffer and migration, Mohammed said.
The Prague meeting is devoted to the U.N. development targets, sometimes called Agenda 2030.
The agenda was being drafted for four years, trying to deal with the biggest challenges the world is facing as a global society, Mohammed said.
She said she believed during the two days, many solutions to the burning problems would be found.
The meeting is held in Prague because the Czech Republic chairs the ECOSOC this year.
Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said it was a great honour and stressed that the ECOSOC was the third most important U.N. institution.
The ECOSOC has an influence on the financing of 70 percent of U.N. programmes, having 1.9 billion dollars at its disposal annually.
Stropnicky said the ECOSOC programmes were targeted at education, urbanism, health care and the development of civic society.
Civic society and its contribution to development is the main topic of the Czech presidency, he added.
“It is our ambition to promote it within the framework of all membership countries,” Stropnicky said.
