On 25 January, the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the IDeA Foundation organized an event entitled “Ideas for Impact: Mobilizing Investment for Sustainable Development Goals” at the UN Headquarters. Bridging development, innovation and humanitarian agendas, the event was held in the form of an interactive panel, which looked into the role of traditional philanthropy, diaspora funding and impact investing in accelerating solutions for the sustainable development goals.

The panel opened with welcome remarks by Mher Margaryan, the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations and Ms. Inga Rhonda King, the President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Addressing the audience, the Permanent Representative of Armenia highlighted the substantive role of the ECOSOC in conducting the follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He stressed the need for more inclusive cooperation between governments, civil society and the private sector. M. Margaryan touched upon the democratic developments in Armenia and the government's reform agenda aimed at safeguarding the rule of law, fighting corruption, promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensuring equal opportunities. In this context he mentioned that Armenia is campaigning for the membership to the UN Human Rights Council at the elections to be held in fall of 2019.

The panel, moderated by Pierre Gurdjian, a Philanthropy Partner of the RVVZ Foundation and President of the Board of Directors of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, featured presentations by the co-founders of the IDeA Foundation, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan and Paolo Galli, Senior Regional Adviser at the UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS.

The speakers touched upon the innovative initiatives carried out in Armenia, the activities aimed at the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development goals and the cooperation between Armenia and the UNDP.

The event brought together a number of UN Permanent Representatives, diplomats, officials from the Secretariat, programmes, funds and agencies of the United Nations, as well as representatives of the Armenian community, academia and civil society.

Information

The event was live-streamed by the United Nations. The video is available at https://bit.ly/2HDKo4q.