And while Hyde just returned, the prime minister is currently in New York City at the United Nations HQ attending the 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Summit. Today, he participated in the second of six Leaders' Dialogue, "Building Resilience and Leaving No One Behind." In his remarks, he commented on the, quote, "slow progress of implementation of SDGs," and reiterated Belize's commitment to achieving them. Here is a snippet of his speech.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"The highest priority for my government is reducing poverty. Belize commits to reducing poverty by 50% by 2030 in alignment with the fundamental principle of Leaving No One Behind. implementing the National Energy Policy, the National Land Use Policy, develop a comprehensive Industrial Strategy that integrates green and blue industrial policies. achieve protection of 30% of marine space by 2026, including protection of 20% of the coral reef, implement our National Blue Economy Policy, we further commit to reducing land degradation through our Land Restoration Strategy, mitigate biodiversity loss via the Revised National Biodiversity Strategy, implement Integrated Water Resource Management approaches and foster agroforestry systems; by 2024, implement a National Risk Management Plan supplemented by disaster-specific strategies for hurricanes, floods and droughts. By 2025, finalize a Special Education Policy, implement Early Childhood Development Investment, expand adult remedial initiatives."
"To accelerate achievement of all SDGs we will legally establish and resource an empowered Sustainable Development Department. Regrettably, international cooperation and development finance are not at the scale required. I reiterate Belize's urgent call for reform of the international financial architecture, the adoption of the multidimensional vulnerability index."
Prime Minister Briceño returns to Belize on September 20.