UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan, Sheri Ritsema-Anderson's speech at the SDG Projection Event

Ambassadors, representatives of diplomatic missions, distinguished partners of the private sector, civil society, and the media, colleagues from the United Nations Jordan, and friends,

Thank you for joining us in this symbolic event, the SDGs Projection & Reception. This is an opportunity to bring us together, to underscore the importance of partnership as the bedrock to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The United Nations is proud to accompany the Government and people of Jordan in their journey towards sustainable development. It is a journey that each of you is contributing to in your own way and in many varied ways. We warmly welcome and recognize every single one of these contributions, for it is together as one human race that we will be able to collectively achieve our common goal of creating a better future for us all.

Our gathering tonight occurs on the eve of the SDG Summit, which will occur tomorrow and the day after in New York City. This is a significant moment on the global stage. We are halfway towards the 2030 Agenda and it is an opportunity where nations come together, take stock of our progress, identify challenges, and renew our unwavering commitment to the SDGs.

Over the next two days, as the world leaders gather in New York, they will work together to identify solutions and answers to the world's cry for high-level political action and identify ambitious national commitments and interventions that will accelerate progress on sustainable development, to discuss and create new options for development financing, particularly for the nations that are furthest behind, to increase climate funding and climate action, to ensure greater pandemic preparedness, to advance universal healthcare, and eradicate tuberculosis, and to redouble our collective efforts to plan for the future including through the dialogues that prepare for the next year's Summit of the Future.

In preparation for this moment, the Government of Jordan has developed its own commitments that will push the SDGs forward, which it will submit during the SDG Summit this week. By doing so, it has positively answered the call by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, to come to New York ready to commit to a global rescue plan for the planet. The United Nations in Jordan was honored to work closely with the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) and numerous line ministries on developing Jordan's SDG commitments, and the UN commends the Kingdom for its dedication to the SDGs and the integration of these goals into the national development plans. The Kingdom continues to serve as a leader in the region and beyond in pushing forward our shared vision and collective efforts to get the SDGs back on track. 

Because it is through collective action that we will be most effective in achieving the SDGs, I wish again to welcome every single one of you tonight to reassure and recommit our efforts to work together in partnership, because it is partnerships that are essential to our journey, It is through partnership that we will be able to achieve better future for humanity. Governments, civil society, businesses, and international organizations must join hands and together address the development challenges. 

So tonight, as we commemorate this milestone and the Kingdom's active contributions, I encourage every one of you to redouble the effort to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in Jordan and I encourage you to start tonight by actively engaging in our social media campaign #17Goals and sharing what you are doing as an individual, a family, a business, an embassy, an NGO, a government agency to help achieve these goals. online campaign very recently, encouraging people to go online and post the actions that they take to support achieving the SDGs, we encourage each and every one of you to actively engage with this campaign and share the actions you are taking to support the achievement of the SDGs.

In closing, I want to express my gratitude to all of you for coming tonight and being a part of this moment, and for joining us in celebrating Jordan's journey toward development. your attention and active participation.

As a symbolic gesture of solidarity and support for the SDGs, we will now illuminate the Hercules Temple with the SDGs and the #17Goals, as a beacon of hope and a reminder of our shared commitment to a better world.