UN General Assembly
2014

Group on Sustainable Development Goals for their exceptional performance in driving the negotiation process to its logical conclusion. We look forward to the intergovernmental negotiations on the broader post- 2015 development framework, which will begin during this session of the General Assembly. I assure the Assembly of our fullest cooperation and constructive engagement in those deliberations. My delegation will actively participate in all deliberations on the key development priorities outlined by the Secretary-General, in particular the elaboration of the post-2015 development agenda. However, there are issues of major strategic importance to Botswana. They include climate change, landlocked developing countries, middle-income countries, countries in special situations and issues of peace and security and the advancement of human rights. On climate change, Botswana knows only too well the devastating effects of that phenomenon, which continues to cause extreme temperatures, changes in the patterns of rainfall, land degradation, desertification and persistent droughts. In that regard, we believe that addressing those problems should be a primary consideration in the current deliberations on the post- 2015 sustainable development agenda. We therefore