UNITAR Executive Director Discusses the 2030 Agenda with the President of the General Assembly

17 February 2017, New York, USA – The UN Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Mr. Nikhil Seth. met with the President of the United Nations General Assembly (PGA) and Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations, His Excellency Mr. Peter Thomson on 13 February. During the meeting, they discussed several issues related to the General Assembly activities and organized by the office of the President, in particular the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, goals and targets.

H.E. Mr. Thomson stressed the importance of the Sustainable Development Goal 14, “life below water”, how crucial protecting the oceans and marine life is, as well as fighting against ocean acidification and the rise of the ocean levels, due to the impact of climate change. All these topics will be addressed in the next international conference to be held in June, in New York, under the umbrella of the PGA’s office.

The Executive Director acknowledge all the important role that the PGA is playing in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and indicated the need to work on a sound statistic and data collection for achieving the Agenda.  He also informed H.E. Mr. Thomson of the ongoing conversations on a project to develop the capacity for Small Island Developing States by training National Institutions in the area of statistics, data collection, analysis, with the generous sponsorship of the Government of Italy.

They agreed on joining efforts to implement such a project which will be raised in the next conference to be held in the Bahamas. The PGA expressed his appreciation to UNITAR for their commitment in capacity building and training for Small Island Developing States and the steps towards capacity building and training for the implementation of the SDGs.

Photo 1: Mr. Nikhil Seth (left) and the President of the General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations His Excellency Peter Thomson