GRIPS Co ng ra tula to ry Rema rks

12 October 202 0

President Akihiko Tanaka,
Dear faculty members of GRIPS,
Dear alumni and students
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great honor for me to be invited at this Award Ceremony of
the first GRIPS SDGs Award, which is bringing the rich networkof the GRIPS alumni under the umbrella of promotion of SDGs.
I would like to congratulate Mr. Sajjad Moghal on winning thisprestigious award.
The GRIPS SDGs Award would certainly be a hugeencouragement to the alumni community to continue theirlife-long journey in pursuit of a more sustainable society
with greater equality, based on their academic experienceat this esteemed institute.
I believe this unique network-driven award would set a rolemodel for other academic institutions in Japan and beyond.
Importantly, the accordance of this award starts to takeplace in the first year of the Decade of Action to achieve
SDGs, mobilizing all UN Member States and all
stakeholders around the globe.
We all must scale up and speed up SDG actions to deliveron our promises.
This year, the foundations of our world have been shaken to thecore, by COVID-19.
The pandemic has pushed us towards the worst recession indecades, with terrible consequences for the most vulnerable.
We need a path that brings health to all, revives economies, brings
people in from the margins of society, and builds long-termresilience, sustainability, opportunity and peace.
That path exists.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is designed toaddress the very fragilities and shortcomings that the pandemic hasexposed. It will serve as compass to navigate us through therecovery phase to Build Back Better, not sliding back to Old
Normal.
Our collective efforts are even more important than ever.
Together, we can make tremendous progress over the coming
decade.
When the public appetite for change is matched with political will
and smart policy choices, rapid progress is unstoppable.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I had the privilege to work under the leadership of late Mrs.
Sadako Ogata at the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees.
As you well know, Mrs. Sadako Ogata, who sadly passed
away last year, was predecessor of President Tanaka as
JICA President.
She often encouraged us by saying “Think Globally, ActLocally”.
SDGs is a global common framework to provide a broad
perspective for linking local actions and global agenda,
with the strong spirit of partnership as lynchpin.
I believe the winning project, about which we will hearfrom Mr. Moghal soon, presents a best practice in which
the resources, knowledge and expertise, energy, andmotivation of every stakeholder were successfully
mobilized under the flag of partnership. The project catersfor the most vulnerable, to ensure “No one will be leftbehind”.
Turning to Japan, Japanese society at large has embraced
SDGs with passion and commitment, with a strong multi stakeholder approach. This integrated approach has been
mainstreamed into the SDG implementation strategy of theJapanese government since early stage. The SDGs
Promotion Headquarters was formed as early as mid-2016,
presided by the Prime Minister and joined by all theCabinet Ministers, with a whole-of-government approach.
The Headquarters is supported by the SDGs Promotion
Roundtable with leading practitioners from cross sectionsof the society as its members, including President Tanakaand humbly myself.
In July, all the members of the Roundtable collectively
came up with an urgent appeal to the SDGs Promotion
Headquarters, calling for SDGs as the guiding light to end
the pandemic, to respond to its socio-economic impacts,
and to chart a course for a transformative recovery.
The excellent news is that starting this academic year,
SDGs has been institutionally integrated into the school
curriculum. School children are learning about SDGs
across the board. This is a tremendous capacity building of
the younger generation to lead the way towards sustainablefuture.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Public appetite for transformative change is growing.
We see that in the Fridays for Future, Black Lives Matter, and Me
Too movements.
At this critical juncture of historic transformation, what is needed

is that policy makers and political leaders honor these energies withright policy decisions.
Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations ismarking an important milestone of 75 years since it was born in theashes of two World Wars.
We are now facing the greatest challenge since the founding of theOrganization.
We must look beyond the current crisis and set our sights high, aswe strike out for a world of dignity and opportunity for all, on ahealthy planet.
Together, let us make this, a decade of ambition, and a decade oftransformation.
Thank you.