Moroke Sekoboto
PRIME Minister Sam Matekane will attend the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly set for 18 to 26 September 2023, his maiden since attaining office in October last year.
According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations internal memo, Mr Matekane will be accompanied to the meeting by a 23-member entourage comprising cabinet ministers and senior government officials.
Among the travelling party will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Lejone Mpotjoane, Minister of Health Selibe Mochoboroane and Minister of Finance and Development Planning Rets’elisitsoe Matlanyane.
The delegation will also include Government Secretary Motlatsi Ramafole, Senior Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, Moleboheng Mokobocho and Press Attaché Thapelo
Mabote, as well as Principal Secretaries Thabang Lekhela, Moliehi Ntene and Rethabile Maluke from the Ministry of Home Affairs and International Affairs, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, respectively.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, Law, and Parliamentary Affairs, Justice Nthomeng Majara, will be acting premier for the duration of Mr Matekane’s absence.
The annual summit was officially opened in New York on Tuesday by the new General Assembly President Dennis Francis and the high-level debate starts on 19 September.
On 1 June 2023, the United Nations General Assembly elected Mr Francis of Trinidad and Tobago as president until September 2024, and was officially sworn it on Tuesday this week.
The theme for this year’s summit is, ‘Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all’.
Meanwhile, the 78th UN General Assembly comes at a time of unprecedented setbacks on global progress, when the earth is getting hotter, and poverty and food insecurity worsening, amid war and inflation. Humanitarian needs are escalating in scale and cost, with inequality deepening as a result.
During the summit, world leaders will discuss and debate how to confront the global polycrisis, and find strategies to accelerate action on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The SDG Summit will be a central UNGA 78 event bringing together leaders and communities to reaffirm commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals at the halfway mark to 2030.
The Climate Ambition Summit, scheduled for September 20, will be an opportunity for leaders to demonstrate their collective commitment to respond to the mounting climate emergency.
During UNGA 78, the United Nations Foundation will highlight key moments, and share insights and perspectives from leaders, experts, and influencers across borders and sectors.
In preparation for the SDG Summit, the UN in Lesotho together with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning met from 27-28 July 2023, for stakeholder-consultations bringing together civil society, academia, private sector, government, youth and women groups, people with disabilities, to gather public opinion on what Lesotho needs to do to fast-track the implementation of the SDGs.
The meeting was also to validate the data presented in the Lesotho SDG insight report to better-understand the interlinkages of the different priority SDG targets, the identification of high-impact initiatives that can lead to tangible change, and to discuss key commitment issues which Lesotho can present at the summit.
The post Matekane to take 23-member entourage to maiden UN General Assembly appeared first on Lesotho Times.