Launch and Forum of the Consortium for Country & Area Studies

Distinguished guests, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

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I want to thank President Yang Dan for inviting me here, and I am pleased to be with all of you today at the Launch and Forum of the Consortium for Country & Area Studies.

Today’s world is being severely challenged with interlinked crises that are feeding off each other to exacerbate worldwide instability and insecurity, threatening our global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

We face the highest number of violent conflicts since 1945 [1], including in some of the least expected regions, such as Europe.

We are still in the grips of a global pandemic, accompanied by an equally pernicious ‘infodemic’ running rampant on social media platforms that profit from division, hatred and lies.

As many as 1.7 billion people — one-third of whom are already living in poverty — are now highly exposed to disruptions in food, energy and finance systems that are triggering increases in poverty and hunger [2]. At the same time, the impacts of the climate crisis continue to accelerate.

In these uncertain times, the world greatly needs evidence-based knowledge and open dialogue, supported by scientific research and the conscience of what former Director-General for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova characterized as “a new humanism for the 21st century” [3].

This is the right time to revisit the wise words enshrined in the Constitution of UNESCO in 1945 following the devastating Second World War, and I quote:

“Ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between the peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war.”

Ladies and gentlemen,

The 2030 Agenda reminds us there is no peace without sustainable development, and no sustainable development without peace or justice, or without respect for human rights. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Peace makes demands of us, because peace is not a passive acceptance of the status quo. It is a concrete act, a choice. [4]”

Peace is created and maintained by every one of us and the entire community of nations.

Creating a solid foundation for inclusive global governance rests upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of all humanity.

Today’s launch of the Consortium for Country and Area Studies is a welcome step towards building this foundation.

Area studies are highly interdisciplinary. It has a tradition that respects intellectual pluralism and values context, where social scientists closely collaborate with humanists to develop culturally and historically contextualized knowledge of various parts of the world.

Area studies are not about one-size-fits-all instruments. Nor should they paint a specific worldview about the clash of civilizations. It should be dedicated to unbiased cross-cultural communication that is objective and contextualized, embracing the complexity and richness of modern human exchanges, promoting dialogue between societies, and celebrating our diversity.

As the UN Resident Coordinator in China, I also see the power of area studies to develop fit-for-purpose and demand-driven solutions to our global challenges and the realization of the 2030 Agenda.

This is why the UN in China is proposing an International Center of Excellence for Applied Sustainable Development Solutions in Africa, an independent and apolitical research center for advancing the sustainable development of African countries.

The Center of Excellence hopes to embody the spirit of area studies and promote enhanced cooperation between scholars and practitioners from China, the United States, Africa and all across the world.

With rigorous and innovative research, scholars and policymakers will be empowered to rise above experiences of different corners of the world and facilitate transformations on sustainable development in Africa, one of the worlds’ most promising regions, with a youth population expected to reach over 830 million by 2050 [5], and a demographic dividend waiting to be unleashed.

Ladies and gentlemen,

President Xi Jinping in his address to the 2022 World Economic Forum said that the Global Development Initiative is “a public good open to the whole world, which aims to form synergy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and boost common development across the world”.

Our global challenges are interconnected and can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism with the United Nations at the center and the important initiatives undertaken by Member States that give momentum to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It is Our Common Agenda, as put forward by the UN Secretary-General, to re-embrace global solidarity, to renew the social contract between governments and their people within societies, to end the ‘infodemic’ plaguing our world, to correct the glaring blind spot in how we measure economic prosperity and progress, to think for the long term, to deliver more for young people and succeeding generations and to be better prepared for the challenges ahead, to build a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateral system, anchored within the United Nations. 

I hope to work with all of you to make this happen, and I look forward to the discussions.

Thank you.

[1] ‘War’s Greatest Cost Is Its Human Toll’ Secretary-General Reminds Peacebuilding Commission, Warning of ‘Perilous Impunity’ Taking Hold, 30 March 2022, available at: https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/sgsm21216.doc.htm

[2] Secretary-General’s opening remarks at press conference to launch of Report entitled: “Global Impact of War in Ukraine on Food, Energy and Finance Systems”, 13 April 2022, available at: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2022-04-13/press-remarks-launch-of-report-entitled-global-impact-of-war-ukraine-food-energy-and-finance-systems

[3] A New Humanism for the 21st Century, 22 October 2010, available at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/a_new_humanism_for_the_21st_century/

[4] UN Secretary-General's remarks at the Lamp of Peace ceremony, 18 December 2021, available at: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2021-12-18/un-secretary-generals-remarks-the-lamp-of-peace-ceremony

[5] Promise Or Peril? Africa’s 830 Million Young People by 2050, 12 August 2017, available at: https://www.africa.undp.org/content/rba/en/home/blog/2017/8/12/Promise-…