Kutesa on his historic reign as 69th President of the UN General Assembly

Former United Nations General Assembly president, Sam Kutesa, says he’s proud of his work at the UN, in particular efforts to reform the Security Council and work done towards the adoption of sustainable development goals (SDG), which replace the millennium development goals that expired this year.

World leaders at last week’s UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the post-2015 development agenda, the follow-up to the UN’s millennium development goals which were set in 2000 with a completion date of this year.

Kutesa told Voice of America (VOA) that 2015 has been a historic year for the world.

“The most important achievement is the agreement on the new sustainable development agenda 2015 to 2030 this is a holistic, inclusive, transformative and really big agenda to transform the world,” he said.

“We have also been successful in putting together financing for development conference and framework. This took place in Addis Ababa, it was extremely successful and now I hope that we can reach an agreement in Paris in December on Climate Change.”

He said Africa is set to benefit more from the SDGs since they are primarily fashioned to help developing countries.

President Yoweri Museveni who chaired the assembly that passed the SDGs described the adoption of the text as a historic achievement.

Museveni said: “We are coming to the end of this important session. I describe it as a miracle. We have been able to agree after a long time. In the bible, there are two great laws; Love thy God with all your heart and love thy neighbour as you love yourself. It has been very difficult for the people of the world to love one another as they love themselves,” he said.

In the final hours of his presidency, Kutesa had the Assembly adopt by consensus his decision that included a negotiating text that would, for the first time, form the basis of future discussions on Council reforms that was mandated by a summit of world leaders in 2005.

The election of the successor to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be the major task for the Assembly’s 70th session.
Mogens Lykketoft, the Speaker of the Parliament of Denmark, was elected President of the UN General Assembly 70th session.

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