A/HRC/43/33 integrally linked. Second, the United Nations development system reform had been helpful in strengthening its ability to promote human rights and the Goals at the country level. 56. He proceeded to illustrate those points with examples from his experience with the United Nations in Albania. The first example concerned the United Nations country team’s ability to respond quickly to a risk of contentious anti-defamation legislation being adopted to regulate the news sector and web news services. As full-time Resident Coordinator, he had been able to reach out to OHCHR and respond much more quickly than would have been previously possible. The example illustrated cooperation with the United Nations human rights system and showed how repositioning had allowed an even more timely and effective response to specific issues when they arose. 57. The second example concerned the universal periodic review and the tremendous value that it offered. The United Nations ran sessions in Albania for the Government to prepare for its review. In addition, UNFPA and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) had helped the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to establish a web platform that tracked recommendations made under the universal periodic review and other processes such as reviews under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. That platform allowed civil society, the press, parliament and others to view what recommendations had been made and the status of the response to them. 58. The third example concerned the issue of financing. It was important for resources to be available to establish human rights programmes that really made a difference in people’s lives. With respect to Goal 10, on reducing inequality, or Goal 5, on gender equality, progress would be made only if finances for well-resourced programmes were available. In that respect, the reforms to the United Nations development system were making a difference by empowering Resident Coordinators to focus on raising resources for the entire United Nations family and by encouraging development partners to support pooled financing and joint financing. He stressed the value of pooled funding and the importance of partners supporting it without earmarking. 59. His fourth example concerned the Albanian national statistical office and the importance of disaggregated data to reach those left behind. He presented ongoing efforts by OHCHR to support collaboration in Albania between the national human rights institution and the national Statistical office while encouraging the independence of the two institutions. 60. Ms. González-Román noted that the high-level political forum in September 2019 had been particularly important in terms of political guidance, including the call in the political declaration to do more and faster.10 Sustainable Development Goal 16 was vital and must be further institutionalized to accelerate progress, through the inclusion of its targets in national and local planning and in budgeting, monitoring and reporting systems. 61. Spain had aligned the 168 recommendations made in its 2015 universal periodic review with the Sustainable Development Goals, which had helped to identify areas that required priority action from the Government and Parliament. The practice of aligning the review recommendations with the Goals and national plans could be extended to the recommendations of other human rights mechanisms, including the mechanisms of the Council of Europe. 62. Spain had integrated the Sustainable Development Goals into its national planning and public policies. It had approved a national action plan for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in June 2018 and had presented a voluntary national review at the high-level political forum in 2018. It had taken a “whole-of-society” approach to supporting the action plan, with regional and local authorities playing a critical role in implementing and achieving the Goals. Stakeholders needed to work together in a more coherent and coordinated way to achieve the Goals. 63. Ms. Grambye observed that discussion of country-level best practices in the Human Rights Council and in the high-level political forum was paramount to success in realizing 10 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/2030Agenda/SecondSession/Statements/ Maria_Victoria_Gonzalez-Roman.pdf. 9