As delivered

Thank you to the Secretary-General for leading this important initiative. 

Thank you to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs for facilitating the production of this report.

We at UNDP, and especially our colleagues at our Human Development Report office are honored to be part of the effort to produce this report. As a representative of the UN development system, I have two points to make.

First: When it comes to maintaining international peace and security, development is indispensable. Development, peace and security, and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.

When people live healthy, educated, and fulfilling lives in dignity, their societies are often more peaceful. 

And vice versa: societies with high poverty rates and underdevelopment often experience insecurity and violent conflicts.

Investing in development is investing in peace, stability and prosperity.

Second: Investments into security and investments into development are not a zero-sum game. First domestically and internationally.

The nature and relative scale of development and security investments matter. 

As the new report from the Secretary-General states: military spending can be necessary to restore public safety in contexts of acute violence and state fragility. But the recent surge in military spending is not predominantly directed at addressing these issues and tends to come at the expense of people’s security worldwide, particularly in developing countries.

Let me put the costs into perspective as the Secretary-General cited some examples earlier.

• Military spending for 2024 was 13 times more than the official development assistance provided by OECD-DAC countries in 2024.
• And a US study has found that $1 billion investment in military expenditure can generate over 11 thousand jobs, but if this one $1 billion is invested in clean energy it can generate 17 thousand jobs. And if this is invested in education, the number soars to t 27,000 jobs.
• Developing countries are paying to service their debt in 2024 - $1.17 trillion – and it is 60 percent of what the world spends in military expenditure in 2024.
• The point is that unsustainable debt burdens can crowd out the investments that drive lasting peace and security – these are investments in education, healthcare, social protection, employment, climate actions mitigation and adaptation.
• The report emphasizes there is no sustainable peace without sustainable development.

UNDP’s Human Development Index shows that the pace of progress has slowed dramatically over the last two years. For the last two years, the global Human Development Index has grown by point zero, zero, one for two years in a row. If we don’t invest in development sufficiently and urgently, the human growth that we have achieved over the last few decades will possibly decline. 

Where we go from here is up to us. 

We join the Secretary-General, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and other leaders in calling for a shift towards a people-centered and multidimensional approach to security.

And we support building a brighter future for all by prioritizing diplomacy, international cooperation, and sustainable development.

Thank you very much.