Dr. Tala Abu-Ghazaleh,
Chairman and Founder Tag-org,
 Dr.Joan Clos, Executive Director Un-Habitat, 
Navid Hanif, Director, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination,
 Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 
H. E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC ,
H.E. Ambassador Martin Sajdik, President ECOSOC,
 Permanent Representative Austria to the United Nations.

ECOSOC 2015
Partnerships Forum
“The role of partnerships in achieving the Post-2015 development agenda:
Making it happen”
Photos by: Blacktiemagazine/GMK

Morning Session: 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM:
Opening Welcoming remarks by H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik,
President of the Economic and Social Council

 Opening remarks by Mr. Jan Eliasson,
 Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Opening

Keynote Address:
President William Jefferson Clinton, Founder of the Clinton Foundation
and 42nd President of the United States

*** 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM:
Special addresses by Ministers of Health from African countries
(via videoconference):
 
 H.E. Dr. Bernice Dahn,
Minister-Designate for Health and Social Welfare, Liberia

 H.E. Mr. Remy Lamah,
Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Guinea

  H.E. Ms. Madina Rahman,
Deputy-Minister of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone

 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM:
Dialogue One
Partnerships in support of strengthening health systems:
Building resilience to Pandemics

Moderator: Professor Paul Farmer,
Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community-Based Medicine
and Lessons from Haiti, Co-founder, Partners In Health,
and Chair, Harvard University Medical School
 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine

11:00 AM – 11:45 AM: Panel Discussion
 
 Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director,
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Dr. Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti, Regional Director for Africa, WHO
 (via videoconference)

Mr. Gary M. Cohen, Executive VP and President of Global Health,
 Becton, Dickinson and Co.
 
 Mr. Jeffrey Wright, Actor, and Founder, Ebola Survival Fund
 
 Dr. Rifat Atun, Professor of Global Health and Population, Harvard University

 11:45 AM– 12:55 PM: Interactive Dialogue

12:55 PM – 1:00 PM:
 Concluding Thoughts:
 Professor Paul Farmer *

 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Lunch Break

Afternoon Session 3:00 PM – 3:05 PM:
Opening of the afternoon session by

 H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC

3:05 PM – 5:15 PM: Dialogue 2

 Partnerships for the Post-2015 Era:
Reality Check

 Moderator: Ms. Brenda Killen, Deputy-Director,
Development Cooperation Directorate, OECD

3:05 PM – 4:00 PM: Panel Discussion

Ms. Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children

 Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General, CERN

Mr. G.S. Krishnan, Regional President, Novozymes, India

H.E. Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota,
 Permanent Mission of Brazil
 to the United Nations, New York

Dr. Mercy Ahun, Special Representative for GAVI Eligible Countries,
GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance

4:00 PM – 5:15 PM: Interactive Dialogue

 5:15 PM – 5:45 PM:
 Launch of the Global Network on Promoting
Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization

Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat

 Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh,
Chairman and Founder, Talal Abu-Gazaleh Organization

5:45 – 6:00 PM:
Closing Closing remarks by H.E. Mr. Martin Sajdik,
 President of the Economic and Social Council
 

6:15 – 8:30 PM:
Reception in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Penthouse
 (Sponsored by the Global Partnerships Forum)

Ms. Carolyn Miles, President and CEO, Save the Children,Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General, CERN ,Mr. G.S. Krishnan, Regional President, Novozymes, India
 H.E. Ambassador Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota, Permanent Mission of Brazil
 to the United Nations, New York
 Dr. Mercy Ahun, Special Representative for GAVI Eligible Countries, GAVI,
the Vaccine Alliance

 Maher Atta, Director-Business Operations, TEKsystems,
Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum

Carolyn & Mike Lackey, President, AIT Global,
Cassandra Campos, Account Manager, TEKSystems

High- Level Luncheon
Digital Cities, the role of the Private Sector
Mr. David Post, Executive Manager, Global Smarter Cities, Business, IBM,
Dr. Tala Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and Founder Tag-org,
 Dr.Joan Clos, Executive Director Un-Habitat,
H.E. Ambassador Martin Sajdik, President ECOSCO,
 Permanent Representative Austria to the United Nations.
Mike Lackey, President, AIT Global,
 Maher Atta, Director-Business Operations, TEKsystems

Dr. Tala Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and Founder Tag-org, H.E. Ambassador Martin Sajdik, President ECOSCO Permanent Representative Austria to the United Nations.
Mike Lackey, President, AIT Global,

  Sarbuland Khan, Former Director, ECOSOC
Navid Hanif, Director, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs,

Reception in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Penthouse
 (Sponsored by the Global Partnerships Forum)

 Ghislaine Maxwell, Founder, The TerraMar Project
Tas Dossal
Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum

Karen Newman, ECOSCO, and Interorganizational Cooperation Branch, Dept. Of Economic and Social Affairs, Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General, CERN ,
 H. E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC
Dr. Tala Abu-Ghazaleh, Chairman and Founder Tag-org,

 Mike Lackey, President, AIT Global,
Ajit Yogasundram, Senior Progamme Officer, ECOSOC

 Cassandra Campos, Account Manager, TEKSystems
H. E. Mr. Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC

Aurora  C. Aquino, Ambassador for the Humanities Program, NCWUS
Patrick Sciarratta, Executive Director, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation

Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum, Jessica Melore

Amir Dossal, Chairman, Global Partnerships Forum,
Thanking the Volunteers and Staff.

Introductory Remarks at the High-Level Luncheon
“Digital Cities, the Role of the Private Sector”
 related to the launch of
the Global Network
on Promoting Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization

by H.E. Dr. Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Chairman, Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization
 ( TAGorg) 28 May, 2015

 Mr. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates and Friends, It is my proud privilege to join you, Your Excellency Martin Sajdik, President of ECOSOC, Dr. Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and Secretary General of Habitat III and our distinguished speakers and guests, on this occasion to launch a Global Network on Promoting Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization, inspired by the Economic and Social Council 2014 Integration Segment. As co-convener of the Global Network along with UN-Habitat, I am convinced that this important initiative will be instrumental in securing our common future.

We are here to combat climate change, bring about cleaner air, water and sanitation and create safer and healthier urban spaces for our citizens.

The evidence is clear and the statistics speak for themselves. Urbanization is a major and inexorable trend of the 21st century. A majority of world’s people live in cities today and in a few decades more than two thirds will be city dwellers. Cities are the centers of human civilization, creativity and wealth. Cities are also a major source of the pollutants responsible for climate change.
 It is in cities that the future of the world will be determined.

But, as my friend, Dr. Clos, likes to point out, urbanization is not a force of nature. It is a man-made phenomenon. We can determine what direction it should take and what should be its outcomes. So, if we want to secure our common future, we need to build smart and sustainable cities. We need to have a clear, long-term vision. We need compelling leadership to articulate and communicate this vision. We need smart policy frameworks and evidence based urban planning, and we need smart and sustainable technologies and tools to implement it.

 Furthermore, smart and sustainable urbanization can be realized only by engaging citizens and the business sector in a genuine and equal partnership with national and city governments. We have learnt that business cannot succeed in failing cities. Sustainable urbanization makes smart business sense. By now, most business leaders have accepted this reality. Our business models are increasingly based on the imperative of sustainability and our corporate social responsibility strives to support it.

It is equally evident that city governments often do not have the resources, the expertise and the technology solutions that can help transform cities into sustainable urban hubs of creativity and wealth. The business sector can be a source of smart investments, and sustainable technologies and tools, if the right enabling environment is in place.

The question is how to reconcile the perennial scarcity of public resources with the imperative of sustainable urbanization. One of the great paradoxes of our times is that the world is awash with unprecedented wealth and, at the same time, suffers from great unmet public needs. The solution to this paradox, in my view, lies in what has come to be known as ‘impact investing’ meaning sharing and distribution of risks between public and private sectors, through a partnership approach to devise smart solutions that can leapfrog constraints and save money in the long-run. This is already happening in many cities around the world from Boston to Barcelona and from Seoul to Sao Paolo.

Indeed, there are many success stories: Vancouver is known for its green city images and for providing best livability and quality of life; Stockholm for the world's safest roads and walkability; Seoul for its accountability and transparency; Singapore for its efficient and free transit for early morning riders; and Copenhagen for is plans to become a completely carbon-free city by 2025 by using wind power, bio-fuel
and other renewable energy sources.

What is more, successful cities are revenue-generating and self-sustaining enterprises. They are not a burden on the public budgets. In my view, the Global Network on Promoting Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization should serve as a spring-board for partnership-building, networking and exchange of experience to learn from each other, build trust, accumulate and share knowledge across the world among city planners, business leaders, innovators and ordinary citizens who
are the ultimate arbiters of our common future.
We are all in it together.

 It should be built as a network of networks, at minimal cost yet with optimum global impact. It should bring together national and city governments, businesses, technology companies and innovators, other networks such as UCLG, CSU, United Smart Cities, ANSIS, IGOs, NGOs and civil society.

It can use such tools as an annual global forum, standards and model-building, consulting assistance, disseminating best practices and creating data banks and repositories of knowledge and expertise.

Building on my experience of leading the UNICT Task Force, the UNGAID and the Global Compact and many other UN entities, I commit my support and the support of Talal Abu Ghazaleh Organization to the success of this initiative.

 In closing, I would like to thank you all for the privilege bestowed upon me by inviting me to CoConvene this important initiative with Dr. Joan Clos and I invite all of us to the first Global Forum on Digital Technologies for Sustainable Urbanization, which I propose be convened in Dubai, the smart city of the region, before the end of this year.

 I thank you.

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