Concept note - SDG Summit - Global Gateway side-event
New York, 18 September 2023, UN HQ, 18:30

The EU will host a high-level event, on the side-lines of the SDG Summit, on the contribution of Global Gateway to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with a focus on the digital dimension and the role that digital technologies play in accelerating progress towards achieving the SDGs by 2030. The focus on digital has the crucial potential to permeate all other Global Gateway areas (including education and health) and industrial sectors, as well as to promote more
democratic societies.

The event, which brings together Team Europe and the EU partners at the highest level, aims to show the transformations that Global Gateway can foster and achieve through concrete projects and examples shared by Ministers. Together with the key areas of the strategy, the digital perspective will be highlighted, showing examples of successful collaboration that can deliver a visible impact. The European Commission will also be presenting its support for the UN Joint SDG
Fund Digital Transformation Window to contribute to the shaping of the future Digital Global Compact.
 

Background

Held in connection to the SDG Summit, this event aims to mobilise support at the highest level for the EU Global Gateway strategy as a contribution to achieving SDGs. It gathers the EU and its Member States, International Institutions, and leaders from partner countries to foster visibility and shared understanding of Global Gateway through concrete examples of flagship projects, including the EU’s contribution to the SDG Fund Digital Transformation Window.

This meeting will help to outline the Global Gateway, its ambition, and priorities, and how multilateral cooperation can be mutually beneficial and further strengthen our collective contribution to the 2030 Agenda and climate commitments. It builds on earlier successful engagements such as the one presented during the visit of Commissioner Urpilainen in New York in May 2023, adding new examples, a higher level of participation and a diversified audience.

Global Gateway responds to the main challenges that the world is currently facing, as it enables boosting smart, clean, and secure links in digital, energy and transport sectors and strengthens health, education, and research systems across the world. To this end, Team Europe will mobilise up to EUR 300 billion of investments until 2027, seeking to leverage the combined power of the EU and its Member States, the private sector, and development finance institutions, to build hard
and soft infrastructures to foster the resilience and sustainable development of partner countries.

The event will focus on showcasing examples of planned Global Gateway flagship projects for 2023, covering a range of geographical and thematic contexts, with a primary focus on the digital dimension. The Global Gateway is the EU’s contribution to narrowing the global investment gap worldwide. One of the key priorities of the GG is to strengthen global digital connectivity. The development of digital connectivity represents a driver of sustainable development. This is even
more important since digital technologies (and services) are not a self-contained sector of the economy: rather, they are enabling technologies, with the potential to support all other infrastructure and industry sectors, from transport to energy and health; and even to foster more democratic societies, more effective government services, opportunities for education and access to information. Therefore, an investment in the digital dimension under the Global Gateway umbrella, features significant complementarities, synergies, and multiplier effects: it translates sustainable development goals into practice.

The European Commission will also be presenting its support for the UN Joint SDG Fund Digital Transformation Window (30 M EUR) as a mean to contribute to the shaping of the future UN Digital Global Compact.
 

Target audience

• Participants in the SDG Summit (Heads of State / Government, Ministers, Permanent Missions in New York), senior private sector representatives, and civil society leaders.
 

• Representatives of International Organisations.

Tentative Programme
 

Moderation: Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships.
 

Opening session:
 

• Opening remarks by the Spanish Presidency of the Union [TBC].
 

• Intervention by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed.
 

• Intervention by Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of the Government of India, G20 Presidency [TBC].
 

Presentation of Global Gateway examples and practices:
 

• EU’s contribution to the SDG Fund.
 

• Presentation of 3 or 4 Global Gateway flagship projects.
 

Speakers:
 

• For the SDG Fund: the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, D. Bogdan-Martin, and a Minister from Colombia.
 

• For the Global Gateway flagship projects: Heads of State / Government or Ministers of partner countries.

This event will also be livestreamed via UN WebTV: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k10/k10wsklaub