We are very honored by your presence and participation. The launch of the center is a historic moment for the program and for brookings. At a time of massive dislocation in the Global Economy, the need to improve policy is inclusive and sustainable. Policymakers and other people around the world have leadership on aspects of Sustainable Development. We are grateful to all of our partners whose support has been instrumental. A special thank you to richard who supports through the roundtable and Sustainable Development over the past several years have inspired the creation of the center. The launch of the center tsuldnt have been possible without the efforts of those that worked tirelessly so let me take a moment to recognize my colleagues and scholars including the director macarthur and the checks and Communications Team as well as the central Communications Team and importantly the commitment gof our president who is very passionate about Global Development. Thank you, john, for your unwavering support and your exemplary leadership of this defining moment. With a few words let me end here and turn over to you, john. Thank you for your typically warm and comprehensive remarks. Let me echo all of the thanks that youve issued and rendered to those that have had such an Important Role in all that we are doing today, and i want to thank you for your tremendous leadership in the Global Economy and Development Program here at brookings. Let me hasten to add how grateful we are for the presence of the deputy secretarygeneral of the United Nations her excellency. It is always a great honor for me to share any event with you and you grace us with your presence today at brookings. Let me also add its wonderful to see my friend, the president of the rockefeller foundation. We have known each other a long time. He has been a model for me to understand the imperative of the Global Development. And we wouldnt be where we are today without you and your great organization, so please accept my deepest and sincere thanks on this day. Th ladies and gentlemen, good morning and good afternoon. Wherever you may be. Welcome to todays virtual launch of the center for Sustainable Development. We are absolutely delighted to have you joining us for this important event. It is moments like these where even as we celebrate the start of an Exciting Initiative such as the working center for Sustainable Development, there becomes immediately apparent what an unusual and in the precarious time we are living in. Securing the future of our children to build a global commitment for the common good which of the original text that inspired the creation of the United Nations 75 years ago. Despite meaning a keen to implement those as tgs that is evidenced in the decline and commitment to these values. Action such as withdrawing from agreements like the Paris Climate Accord were disengaging with the World Health Organization only to the un and the world that the service t directly affecting he was in the worlds progress toward achieving these vital goals. I often make the key point there is a difference between us leadership, particularly in this administration and traditional american internationalh no space leadership who are 70 plus years in Close Partnership in the best of times these two large forms of leadership american our partners have been able to lead by example with those on stds one as tgs those are alive and well within those many different sectors Academia Civil Society and local government those respective organizations and institutions to make a real impact and talk about to reunite those two forms of leadership within the us but for now with these diverse parts of our society to see a thriving type of leadership taking place at this event today is aptly titled charting a new course to holding a future n that leaves no one behind always working in support of the public good to create the center for Sustainable Development less this is American Leadership as it should be we all have an obligation to lead on these issues not just our hope that mission now those institutional commitment to the global agenda the and Sustainable Development goals also core group of leading parking stall one scholars and the direction under senior filing and with that effectiveness the metrics of Sustainable Development and finance and Climate Change and much more. I could not be more proud or more thrilled to have this milestone and commitment and bookings makes this commitment today to a goal community i cannot be more honored than likes of John Macarthur then our amazing scholars have joined such an excellent and noble cause this task will not be easyas so we must foster and post covid19 and a commitment i have little doubt they even within such a challenging environment john and his colleagues will rise above our greatest expectations its a great day for bookings and we are proud to who have served us alongside to achieving these important goals with United Nations secretary general to present her own key remarks madame secretarygeneral we are so honored by your presence and so deeply grateful you would join us at this important day at the brookings institution. Thank you. Thank you very much it is a real pleasure to be with you today and i would like to thank all my friends have invited me. It is exciting to join the Brookings Institute to tackle head on the largest sustainable i like to salute the team for defending its own signal to the world those issues of Sustainable Development or center stageus as secretarygeneral said the covid19 pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of our world. And with those risks we have long adored Inadequate Health system structural inequality and environmental day one dash the Sustainable Development goals are the best roadmap for the world to invest and to transition economic social and environmental. Also was please take a moment for that commitmentt and passion with your inspiring comments to dave those for a few weeks ago bring us together to underscore the power of the goal to bring people together along a commonom frame of cooperation i know many people have made it possible today also a special pleasure the sense of scholars it just takes me a minute to go through them because many are longterm friends. Emma, a Global Leader on climate for sustainable infrastructure who over the years provided such invaluable support so let me just leave in the last couple of weeks and not just the development but also for the future workforce issues. And my brother of the vet another mother has been the driving force of the sdgs agenda since before the inception continues to lead assistance to navigate this years global financing crisis. George ingram has uniquely distinguished to give so many contributions another ally of ours to leadhe negotiator of the sdgs for the 2015 adoption and with those Multinational Corporation and the new Center Director has been my ally for nearly two decades with the people focus leadership and more recently those sustainable goals. So at the un we are familiar with the world shifting and how it escalates intentions we need creative leadership from all corners, yes we need your independence and ideas and recommendations. We also need role models of cooperation in international. Will have on the network leadershipt always need to pitchto together and around the globe. And then to protect the climate for future generations. Ally to challenge the center for Sustainable Development to strive to be a beacon in all our countries and around the world together with partners and allies to understand the issues of the young and marginalized and the solutions to have our sense of possibility. Of Sustainable Development. I know where only just Getting Started and then look to see what we can do next together. And at this juncture and now to hand over to my friend, john. Thank p you madame secretarygeneral its a privilege and honor to be here with you thank you for your of her Inspiring Leadership for what you do to bring us together. Also want to start by thinking general alan with the partners in the world to bring us to this day of launch. We are also privilege to have and also to share that briefly before we go into that discussion. It is my pleasure to send the bestor wishes with the brookings institution. To me to that sustainable level we are even further behind now. The center to get us back on track and with the centers mission of the bipartisan leadership for Sustainable Development my congratulations to everyone for sustainable and especially to my friend with a fruitful partnership. I thank you and i wish you all the best. We thank you for all that you do for your kind words today and on behalf of the world to get us tomi the pandemic on the other side. So some of you may be asking me what will the center do . We have already heard the central themes to take on five starting topics first defining the challenge with economics and second to identify instruments to advance implementation of all countries around the world and third advancing Sustainable Development at local levels to the communities where they matter most and forth advancing effective financing and fifth us official and american societal leadership for global Sustainable Development. Nowet the next question, who is exactly in the center of like to take a moment to each of are starting scholars and soth grateful to deputy secretary general but if we could bring up a few quick images. Our leader on sony of the worlds biggest issues at the highest level on Climate Action and sustainable infrastructure and for those with inclusive Global Growth multilateralism and local government. I have to say in the lead up to it has been postponed for our guiding light. Second is marcella, leading the workforce of the future initiative working at questions like how to confront the growing divergence and support job mobility, the just today launching the mobility pathway to very specific locations across america. And with those official strategies of Global Development and focusing on bipartisan us leadership policies to restore the environment and also Sustainable Development. Today releasing a very important paper on how they can be upgraded in 2021. So i most venerable scholar with these efforts and then to summarize the breath so i just mention a few examples that are recent. This morning with those extreme effects onus the world. A few days ago to coauthor chinas influence on the global middlee class and the deputy secretary general is actively supporting you and policy efforts to finance the covid19 recovery and the debt crisis around the world and in a few more days how to think about updating the Global Development architecture to tackle a postt macworld. So to connect the local with the global his work is impossible to summarize but to support global city to city cooperation to identify policies of equal on equity and justice taking action on Climate Change at the same time promoting us credibility of god and to see how that can connect with the global frontier and then with that network to tackle innovation on how they can move forward together. For my own part a pay special attention to the agenda to find ways for diverse actors to come together such as the partnership we been privileged to launchrse and also focusing n my home country of canada and the unitedd nation nations. All of this is a starting point. Before long with an extended focus to take on new topics like gender equality and private sector, tremendous contributions to the sdgs a large we are proud to be here today with taking on the next wave of the for. F so with that i am honored and delighted and thrilled to be able to kick off a roundtable discussion with old friendsor and collaborators the deputy secretary general and also i would like to introduce robert shaw. First to provide generous and instrumental support for Sustainable Development to make the work review possible. So to emphasize that commitment to independence and underscore solely those i also want to emphasize the role that rockefeller has played on those issues across the United States and around the world. Bring his own remarkable experience to the organization previously served under president obama and in that capacity to play a crucial role in the importance to the ebola pandemic and i would add also a control to cement the us commitment to industry and poverty within a generation. Before that with the department of agriculture with the bill and Melinda GatesFoundation Also instrumentalat which helped to shape that tindustry a topic of more than some importance today. We are so thrilled to have you here with this informal roundtable on a special day here bookings and just heard from deputy secretary journal with those international and domestic at the forefront of the fight for justice in so many ways. Want to raise the issue of equity and the imperative of Sustainable Development both in the us and a warm welcome again. And with that extra reaching what bookings im so glad you were able to introduce those members and experts in many ways today as described in her remarks to honor the contributions each of them have made over time and we have learned from so many and continue to so the views expressed are yours or mine or the deputy secretary general alone come in fact it is their idea that keeps permeating all of their collective thinking and i have such high hopes in this moment in history. This calls for the challenge that was laid out in her remarks. Her example in your example has been one of resilient determination to support those who are left behind. And her career has demonstrated for many decades how possible it is if we all come together with that determination and the sophistication of analytics wad measurements and focus on results. And in many ways, it is easy to acknowledge today the fight to achieve the sdgs has been set back by this crisis. W we see the World Bank Estimates of 425 Million People push back under an expanded version of the poverty line as a resultul e of the Global Economic consequences of global one covid19. We have seen in the goalkeepers report, that we all just reviewed and discussed, the potentially decades of progress on basic indicators of health, education, and welfare will be significantly impaired by the crisis and the shifting re of other areas of necessary Public Health concern. And i suspect, looking at the big picture what it takes to recover in wealthier economies with strong central banks, the answer is a tremendous amount of monetary and fiscal action that is not possible under current circumstances for billions and billions of people around the world. And perhaps that is the central underlying concern that i have for the center to address which after world war ii we embarked on a mindset and approach to the Marshall Plan with respect to Good Governance for many decades. And youo all as experts with extraordinary reach and influence have a chance to reshape and rethink what the Global Development pathway looks like Going Forward so many of those themes and those five points with that Economic Management at the very top of the listli and im glad you highlighted that. But also rethinking global institutions and the way we have executed and the level of resources and what types of new institutional and Financial Arrangements need to be put into place to really support those that are left behind. So on behalf of the foundation in behalf of supporting a mission very broadly, we are fully committed to ending Energy Poverty as a key driver to addressing or ending much haof that inequity is one of many issues that we indicate we all need to work on. But where we see certain solutions we have to act in a if wend significant way are going to do that is a Single Institution but the Global Community has a a chance what is the Marshall Plan . It doesnt come from the United States or china but hundreds of local leaders working together and how to recover from covid19 that includes those to be left behind. Along those lines i know that you for so many years are straddling these issues in your own mind every day. With your home village in nigeria. And looking from moment to moment i am curious you suggest with that universal challenge to create an architecture with those insights. And to have a conversation together and with that ambition of those 17 goals that everybody has engaged in. It was very much a Global Response but it is with all politics is local its very local. And i guess it is investing in the selfinterest because were all connected so as we sit up here every day to say the reality check and then to apply this the policies to have tailormade solutions at that country level and maybe even the subnational level. And those that have quite a bit to do that to give that proper picture in context with the stakeholders and the governments getting its head more than we had before. It is remarkable with the covid and then still in plain sight this is a global issue that is affected in the same way so how we can protect ourselves individually andnd collectively and how this bears the what we only talked about in behind that opportunity is for us to look country by country and community by community how we respond with the Marshall Plan or not. And then voted in the local response for the opportunity of Energy Transition and connectivity in the Digital World and financing that requires different architecture than wel had right now. W. And then to have a conversation and workable and the response to Sustainable Development. So it is important to winning that reality check to it. And then to see they have taken over. Theyey havent and then with that Unfinished Business. That is the Unfinished Business but it is rooted in the remaining goals. Chd equitable access ranging from things like healthcare is part of your daytoday activity but one of the things weve seen is that its shifting and whats becoming possible is Getting Better all the time. Im curious how you suggest we think about the role of equitable access as an advancing frontier for the world. I think it is one of the very few places on the planet that could convene the type of leaders in the right intellectual and analytical context to define and design a new approach to ensure that we meet the challenge she outlined which is it will take literally trillionss of dollars of public support alongside private investment to drive emerging economies forward and an equitable manner. Right now our politics are so fractured i dont see a lot of leadership on that topic the reality is today our partnerships would say we are trying to build 10,000 grids to reach 10 Million People in villages that dont have meaningful reliable electricity today. Weve seen the costs come t down from 60 to 70 cents a kilowatt hour to close to 22, 23 and our target is to get it under 15 cents. And fed by smart meters thats just one example of the technologies like the mobile phone and like the concept of the micro finance and banking that we need to embrace and scale. I appreciate the kind words about immunization but it used to take 20 years but outside of that example, there still is far too much of a lack of focus on technology in our development thinking, and i think we just desperately need to break through that and embrace new strategies to be inclusive and green across everything we do the cochair recently pointed out to me the breakthroughs and equitable access as it comes together so we are so grateful to all of the insight you are generating in addition to the ones your whole team in addition to the ones youn might call on s so thank you. We will have to adjourn and a moment, but i wanted to give you each the chance to share your parting thoughts. Is there anything you would like to share and i will give the last words to the deputy general off this turbulent time. I will conclude with the following as i think brookings largely remains in washington, d. C. With experts your ability to understand, appreciate, stay connected to less travel and more video the realities of whats actually happening in the communitiesit will remain so important. I was pleased to hear the support of the session that has been t a model for being able to be global and work with institutional leaders like the ones you do and being grounded in the realities of who you are serving. I think its really important because there is a generational shift that must happen and in that we need the ability to bring them to the table and see them as assets and not just opposed so how do we do that in our research and the planning and implementation i think is important. Leadership is already being demonstrated and we need to profit from it sofr it needs to showed a different face to the table. People want the policy option to go back to the reality there is powerer in that and youve got n amazing team and we are looking forward to working with you on the road ahead. Its extraordinarily difficult but its the sort of opportunity that i dont think we have ever seen a time in our history when we have so many tools and potentials and ambitions that can be fulfilled. Its about getting together and doing it and just getting it done. Thank you for having me. This has been a pleasure and i look forward to working with the team. Thank you. Great to see you. My big take away here is we are moving from a discussion of recess to transition and we are here to make it count and to take on the global comments and connect the dots between all of the above. Thank you for your inspiration and leadership. Testifying against President Trump during the impeachment hearings. He was the National Security council of European Affairs director and the administration and says he offered a quid pro quo to the president of ukraine. Hosted by democracy