COMMITTEE: Economic and Social Council.

TOPIC

: To what extent can the UN be relied upon their

current mission of Sustainable development goals
after their failure of MDGs.

COUNTRY

: Kuwait

DELEGATE : Tanmay Verma

*This position paper was submitted by the delegation of Kuwait at the 2016 AKAH-Model
UN Conference in Hyderabad City, India

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were the world's collective

responsibility to work toward a more peaceful, prosperous and just world (UN, 2000). It
was an ambitious global partnership for development, setting specific targets to be met by
2015. Kuwait gave a lot of significance for development at both local and international levels,
and continuously supported the MDGs. In the past few years Kuwait has hosted a number of
high level economic, development, and humanitarian conferences such as International
Humanitarian Pledging Conference on Syria and has launched several initiatives to
strengthen the development activities towards the achievements of its declared objectives.
Kuwait, even though a developing country, occupies a top position in the provision of
humanitarian assistance in 2014, according to the report of the Global Humanitarian Aid
issued annually by Development Initiative Organization, with a total aid accounted for 0.24%
of GDP, the highest rate among donor countries in the world. In the field of education,
Kuwait has made elementary education mandatory for both sexes. Kuwait is also considered
among the leading states in providing free education and financial assistance to students at all
levels. Poverty prevents a nation from progressing. Kuwait has been keen on providing
decent living for all its citizens. Kuwait also went beyond its geographical borders to combat
poverty. The Kuwait Fund provides long term easy to pay loans for other countries. Overall,
Kuwait believes that the MDGs have been remarkably successful in focusing attention and
mobilizing resources to address the major gaps in human development.
Even though Kuwait has accomplished most of the targets set by MDGs, Kuwait faces
some major challenges with the goals relating to universal primary education, gender equality
and the empowerment of women and the goal dealing with ensuring environmental
sustainability. Despite challenges we are facing, Kuwait supports United Nations efforts to
help developing countries achieve sustainable development and believes that one of the
outstanding milestones towards the success is the adoption of Sustainable development goals.
The sustainable development goals with their three economic, social, and environmental
dimensions, face great challenges because of human behavioral patterns through ages and
also the country specific developmental needs. Innovative methods will be required for
implementation through effective international team work and global partnership and shared
responsibilities. Our effort is not to abandon global targets but put efforts to improve the
MDG architecture and measurement process.
The State of Kuwait is located at the northwestern end of the Arabian Peninsula.
Kuwait has an urban population, fairly small, comparatively rich economy. Kuwaits

economy is highly dependent on oil exports. Energy-related activities cause a major portion
of GHG emissions in Kuwait. However, given the nature of the economic structure in the
country and its reliance on the oil industry it is a real challenge for Kuwait to meet the CO2
emission levels. Kuwait Environment Public Authority (KEPA) conducts routine monitoring
of the environmental parameters. KEPA along with National Housing Authority (NHA),
Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR)
has evaluated four specific mitigation options namely: district cooling, green buildings, fuel
switching, and solar and wind power development. The implementation of these GHG
mitigation options in Kuwait would lead to significant reductions in CO2e emissions by
2020. Kuwait gets solar radiation of around 8,000Whr/m, one of the highest levels in the
world, which has remained unharnessed. Kuwait is aiming to generate at least five percent of
its electricity from solar radiations by 2020 and 15 percent by 2030. Additionally, to improve
the mitigation assessment, Kuwait plans to develop a national database for monitoring and
reporting information related to GHG emissions and mitigation projects.
Kuwaits support for womens and girls education has been outstanding. In 2005,
Kuwaiti women gained the right to vote, for the first time in history, a qualitative leap in that
regard. However, the historical, and cultural factors have affected the gender equality in
Kuwait over many years and the extent to which women participate in the legislature and
occupy senior management positions is limited. This has been a significant obstacle to the
achievement of goal 3 in MDGs. The Kuwaiti Government will strive to develop
an institutional mechanism that will mainstream gender equality into development planning,
cooperate more closely with womens civil society organizations and media, to open
up greater political participation by women and to employ womens expertise in shaping the
future of their society.
Achieving the ambitious goals outlined in Sustainable Development Goals, demands
that governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector exert
concentrated efforts. The state of Kuwait has spared no effort in its attempts to provide
development aid to developing countries and least developed countries through its various
institutions. Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), has been active in its
support to development projects in developing countries regardless of their location, faith or
ethnicity. KFAED contributed over $18 billion to development projects in more than 100
countries. Kuwait has provided development assistance amounted to 2.1 percent of GDP,
which is more than double the internationally agreed rate.
State of Kuwait highly appreciates the honoring of His Highness the Amir as a
Humanitarian Leader, and affirms that it will not spare any effort on Implementing SDGs
for the next 15 years. Kuwait would contribute billions of dollars to honor the 2030
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

REFERENCES
1. Kuwait's Initial National Communications under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change- https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/kwtnc1.pdf
2. Post-2015 Development Agenda: Goals, Targets and Indicators Special Report Nicole
Bates-Eamer, Barry Carin, Min Ha Lee and Wonhyuk Lim, with Mukesh Kapilahttps://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/mdg_post_2015v3.pdf
3. http://www.timeskuwait.com/upload/pdf/The%20Times%20(8-14%20Nov
%202015).pdf
4. Billions For SDGs: Kuwait PM Premier Delivers UN Speechhttp://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/billions-for-sdgs-kuwait-pm-premier-deliversun-speech/
5. Kuwaiti women win right to votehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4552749.stm
6. Kuwait: Country Report on the Millennium Development Goals: Achievements and
Challenges- http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Kuwait/Kuwait%20MDG.pdf
7. Development Strategies That Work http://webapps01.un.org/nvp/indpolicy.action?
id=2903#
8. Development Strategies That Work -http://webapps01.un.org/nvp/ctry.action?id=2900
9. The statement of Kuwait delivered by His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al Jaber Al
Sabah at the world summit of adoption of the development agenda for after 2015 at the
United Nation office in New York on Saturday September, 26, 2015http://www.da.gov.kw/eng/speeches/amir_speeches_2015.php?p=26092015
10. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/general_discussion/KUWAIT.pdf