Goals at the World Summit on Sustainable Development

I would first like to begin by thanking you on behalf of the United States government for all of the hard work you, your colleagues, and the Government of Indonesia have done as we join forces to make the World Summit on Sustainable Development a success. We could not have progressed this far without your hospitality and your able guidance and that of the rest of the Bureau and the Secretariat. Thank you.

It is appropriate that our first formal dialogue among Ministers here in Bali address the question of implementation. The Johannesburg Summit and our work beyond must be about implementing concrete actions to make a visible difference in people’s lives in such areas as energy, water, health, education, oceans, forests and sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The United States has been working and will continue to work tirelessly to achieve a consensus outcome for the Johannesburg Summit. We must carry forward the outcome of last year’s Doha WTO Ministerial as well as the Monterrey Consensus concluded only three months ago. We must strive to achieve internationally agreed development goals, including those in the Millennium Declaration.

It is time to rededicate ourselves to implement these Millennium goals, including the goal of cutting in half by 2015 the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and cutting in half by the same date the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

To achieve these and other goals, we must reaffirm the critical roles of international assistance and national action in implementing sustainable development. As embraced by the international community in Monterrey, we strongly believe sustainable development begins at home. This means:

• A strong national commitment to ruling justly by upholding the rule of law, rooting out corruption, protecting human rights and promoting political freedom.

• A strong national commitment to invest in people, including effective investments in education and health care.

• A strong national commitment to promote economic freedom and entrepreneurship through open markets and trade liberalization, and sound fiscal and monetary policies.

But articulating a vision of sustainable development is not enough. No declaration or plan of action, no matter how well-intended or eloquent, will by itself give people access to drinking water, halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, or ensure access to primary education.

Our second critical mission here is to set a plan of action to make our sustainable development vision a reality. Partnerships – involving donor and developing countries, elements of civil society, businesses, international organizations, and others – are the best means to deliver concrete results. Partnerships add to development assistance commitments, multilateral funds, and other forms of cooperation.

Building upon and linked to the Millennium Goals, the United States is committed to building effective partnerships for implementing sustainable development. We are actively exploring initiatives in such key areas as energy, water, health, education, oceans, forests, and sustainable agriculture and rural development, and look forward to working closely with all delegations here in this effort.

In Bali, in Johannesburg, and beyond, we must reaffirm our commitment to concrete solutions to address the economic, social, and environmental conditions for sustainable development. We owe the next generation of world citizens nothing less.