JICA緒方研究所・UNDP共催ウェビナー「SDGsと人間の安全保障のための行動を加速する：未来サミットとその先へ」における冒頭挨拶（2024年9月5日）
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2024.09.06
Opening remarks at Joint Webinar With UNDP Explores Ways to Accelerate Actions Toward the SDGs and Human Security: The Summit of the Future and Beyond
Distinguished panelists and honorable participants, thank you for attending today’s seminar on “Accelerating Actions Toward the SDGs and Human Security: The Summit of the Future and Beyond.” I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to UNDP for co-hosting this important event.
The world is now confronting compounded crises that could be described as a once-in-a-century circumstance. The combined effects of multiple threats—such as armed conflict, climate change, and economic crisis—have jeopardized progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.
In the midst of these challenges, growing attention has been paid to the importance of human security, a state in which all people are free from fear and want, and can live in dignity. Arguably, the pledge of the 2030 Agenda to “Leave no one behind” reflects the people-centered ethos of human security.
The UN “Secretary-General’s Report on Human Security,” published last January, also emphasizes the significance of human security as a “tool to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs.”
JICA has promoted human security around the world for more than 20 years. In fact, it became a core part of JICA’s mission when the late Madame Sadako Ogata, co-chair of the Commission on Human Security, was appointed JICA’s president in 2003. To illustrate how we contribute to human security, let me briefly describe our water-related projects in South Sudan, Uruguay, and Zambia could be good examples of how JICA contributes to human security.
Water is essential for people’s lives, livelihoods, and dignity. This is why several SDGs relate to water. Unfortunately, around three billion people currently do not have reliable access to safe and affordable drinking water. More worrisome still, global water demand is expected to grow and exceed global water supply by 40% in 2030. Water scarcity on this scale can increases the risk of forced migration and conflict, as a result, compounding human insecurity.
In Juba, the capital of South Sudan, most residents had to use untreated, raw water due to lack of infrastructure investment and a prolonged civil war. JICA sponsored the construction of water supply infrastructure in the city and capacity-building for improving its operation. Because of JICA’s intervention, now 400,000 people across Juba can readily access safe water necessary for their lives.
Water is an essential resource not only for household consumption, but also for industrial use. Therefore, equitable water use requires multi-sectoral coordination. Recognizing this, JICA has been promoting what we call the “Integrated Water Resources Management” approach.
In Uruguay, JICA assisted in establishing a new governance mechanism for organizing stakeholders, instilling cooperation among them, and resolving conflicts. This project leveraged scientific evidence from water quality monitoring to foster common understanding. This ultimately led to success in limiting mercury pollution and controlling overall water quality in the Santa Lucia River basin. The Uruguayans are now sharing their experience with neighboring countries facing the similar problems.
Extreme weather events like floods and droughts have increased in frequency and intensity due to climate change, posing another growing threat to human security.
In response, JICA is strengthening the resilience of vulnerable people. For example, JICA has developed community-based irrigation systems in Zambia and provided management training to smallholder farmers in the country. These efforts mitigate the impact of droughts on farmers, helping to raise their production and incomes.
As demonstrated in the three cases, JICA has been tackling water-related threats, applying the human security approach with an emphasis on people-centered, multi-sectoral, prevention-oriented principles. Yet the threats we face today go beyond water. They are becoming more and more complex in scope and severe in their impact.
We must not forget that crises cause the vulnerable to suffer most. We must take the call to “leave no one behind” seriously by promoting solidarity and cross-sectoral cooperation with different stakeholders from a human security perspective.
The UN “Summit of the Future” will convene later this month to chart a course for a brighter future. We hope that today's seminar will capitalize on this momentum, by deepening our understanding of the contributions human security can make to achieve the SDGs.
Thank you very much.
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