On 28 May, ministers of Member States in charge of international development cooperation endorsed the EU’s position for the post-2015 development goals and agenda that will be the next generation of the Millennium Development Goals. Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs Szabolcs Takács gave an update on Hungary’s contribution to the preparatory negotiations underway in New York, within the framework of the United Nations.

The Millennium Development Goals have set as their ambition the halving of global poverty by 2015. The review process of their implementation so far, the preparation of a post-2015 global development agenda and the elaboration of the so-called Sustainable Development Goals stemming from last year’s Rio+20 conference on sustainability are currently running in parallel tracks within the United Nations. The elaboration of the Sustainable Development Goals is in the hands of the United Nations General Assembly’s workgroup, led by Hungary and Kenya, which must prepare a proposal on the goals by the summer of 2014. Based on expectations and previous international agreements, the goals of the post-2015 agenda should be capable of eradicating global poverty while setting the conditions for sustainable social and economic development, and at the same time protecting the environment.

In line with the heightened global focus of its foreign policy, Hungary is working to allow for coherence among the currently parallel work streams in the United Nations on the post-2015 development goals and agenda, and to enable their convergence at the end of the process. During the course of this work, Hungary has advocated the importance of sustainable water resource management and especially its prominent role in development with respect to its close relationship to energy, agriculture, food security and sectors that underpin human development.

Ministers also held an exchange of views on outlines for the planning of the EU’s development assistance programs for the period 2014-2020. With the participation of Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary General of the UN, they touched upon reinforcing the development and security policy nexus, with a focus on Afghanistan and Myanmar.

Deputy State Secretary for Global Affairs Szabolcs Takács held a meeting with his counterparts from the Visegrád countries and reinforced the commitment to coordinate their positions regarding development issues at both international and EU level. As of the summer of 2013, Hungary will chair the Visegrád group, and will ensure a close coordination with its member states.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)