2020 UN Day: Shaping Our Future Together

This year’s anniversary takes place at a time of colossal challenges brought about by COVID-19.  As countries around the world work to safeguard lives and livelihoods, the UN is resolved to build a fairer, more sustainable post-COVID world. “The case for re-invigorated multilateralism has never been stronger but so too is the call for getting back on course in this Decade of Action, to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.  We must use recovery efforts to examine how we build back better and in so doing ensure that we leave no one behind, and also that we leave no country behind.”, said Amakobe Sande, UN Resident Coordinator ad interim in China in her welcoming remarks. She commended China for two important developments in its pursuit of the SDGs: its tremendous achievements on rural poverty alleviation and its commitment to climate action and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. She underscored the UN’s unwavering commitment to work with the Government of China towards SDG achievement.

Around 200 participants from UN agencies, government, the diplomatic corps, international organizations, the private sector and the media joined the event. H.E. Ma Zhaoxu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, delivered a video address to attendees.

“China advocates sustainable development; more importantly, we put the vision into practice. We have integrated the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into our long-term development strategy so that while pursuing China’s own development, we can contribute to and generate momentum for global prosperity.”, said H.E. Ma Zhaoxu.

In 2020, the UN launched the global UN75 initiative. People from all walks of life were asked about their hopes and fears for the future. More than one-million people from all UN member states responded to the question “The Future We Want, The UN We Need”. Also in China, activities were organized such as the UN75 Youth Dialogue series hosted by 12 UN entities in China and viewed almost 50 million times online. More recently, the UN in China launched the “Post Your 2045” campaign on social media also promoting the one-minute survey found at cn.un75.online This campaign encourages the public to express their vision of the future they want in just one minute. 

Installations on site enabled attendees to observe visions shared by the public for the “Post Your 2045” campaign as well as the UN75 photo gallery, “The World We Want”. Exhibition stands in the venue set-up by UN agencies in China allowed guests to see the work of the UN on the ground.