A/HRC/40/34 United Nations country teams supported the members in the voluntary national reviews, and UNDP and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs co-chaired the task team that was preparing for the 2019 high-level political forum on sustainable development. 22. She acknowledged the interrelated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights, while noting that Goal 16 was of particular importance as an enabler and accelerator across the 2030 Agenda. UNDP had launched the rule of law and human rights 2030 Agenda accelerator initiative in 2018 to provide programmatic support for the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in crisis-affected countries. In the lead-up to the review of Goal 16 by the high-level political forum on sustainable development in 2019, UNDP was supporting numerous initiatives as the co-facilitator of the Global Alliance for Reporting Progress on Promoting Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies. The Alliance was the coordinating platform enabling Member States, business, civil society and international entities to work together to leverage the reporting process of the high-level political forum. 23. Ms. Okai echoed Ms. Robinson’s remarks about the clear linkages between human rights processes and mechanisms and Sustainable Development Goal implementation processes and the need to enhance cooperation between them. This included the need to use the universal periodic review process more systematically in national integrated Sustainable Development Goal planning and localization strategies. 24. Ms. Okai spoke of the critical importance of strengthening national human rights systems, including national human rights institutions. UNDP was part of a tripartite partnership with OHCHR and the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions to support national human rights institutions in over 90 countries. 25. Mr. Sachs emphasized that there was no difference between the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights. They were the same agenda. The Sustainable Development Goals should be a tool for the human rights community, and the human rights community should be a key instrument for achieving the Goals. 26. Mr. Sachs stressed that although the challenge differed by country and context, the 2030 Agenda was failing not only, or even mainly, because of the exclusion of rights, but because of poverty. In very poor countries, people and governments lacked the resources to ensure universal access to education, health care and decent nutrition. The realization of these rights depended on international cooperation, money and financing. The world was rich and yet one billion people were suffering in extreme poverty and duress because of the failure of governments and super-rich individuals to fulfil their human rights obligations. 27. Mr. Sachs emphasized that the Sustainable Development Goals could be achieved with a decent budget. He illustrated this through a presentation, 6 which reflected work that his team had done with the International Monetary Fund to calculate what it would cost to realize the Sustainable Development Goals in the 59 low-income developing countries. His team had concluded that these countries could not ensure education and health care for all and other basic needs on their own with the financial resources available to them. The countries would have to spend another 14 per cent of their gross domestic product just to achieve the basic Sustainable Development Goals, and that was beyond their budgetary means. He noted that $300 billion per year was needed, and that amount was tiny compared with the size of the world economy. He concluded by saying that unless the money was found, the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights would not be realized. 28. Ms. Devandas Aguilar spoke as a representative of the Coordination Committee of Special Procedures and in her capacity as the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities. She welcomed Ms. Robinson’s recognition of the role that the special procedures had been playing in connection with the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and mentioned that 12 thematic reports of the special procedures had supported the implementation of the Goals. The special procedures system saw every single Sustainable Development Goal as related to human rights. The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals would not be advanced without a 6 See www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/SDGS/Pages/HRCIntersessionalMeeting.aspx. 5