Deputy Secretary-General Urges Vision Focused on Solutions over Dead Ends at Global Citizen Festival

Following are Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks at the Global Citizen Festival, in New York today:

Hello New York! Hello global citizens! What an incredible crowd! Thank you for being with us, and for hosting the United Nations for a whole week of craziness.

Your being here, using your voice for justice and having the courage to act. Thank you all for refusing to give up on a better world. But let's tell it as it is: we still have a ways to go. We're moving, but it's just not fast enough.

And the clock is ticking really loud - five years to keep the promise that we made 10 years ago of the Global Goals. We need to leave this park tonight with the determination to go after what really matters.

And what really matters is 44.3 trillion every year to finance the Goals that leave no one behind. What really matters is to give peace a chance - for the women in Sudan, for the children in Gaza, for the people in Ukraine - we need peace everywhere.

But let's also ensure that technology and artificial intelligence (AI) bridges the gap and does not create new divides. Let's work to ensure that women are at every table where decisions are taken.

And tonight, we raise our voices for the goals that cannot wait: For climate actions that power a green world. For quality education that gives our young people a decent job. And for our planet -- from the Amazon to Congo and to every corner of the world.

I know this is a tall order, but I'm hopeful and I don't believe in giving up. The United Nations doesn't believe in giving up either. And I can tell you that we faced a few shots fired this week - we're not giving up.

Today, the world needs people like you. It needs your energy to refuse to accept when people say "that's just how it is." Your vision that sees solutions where others see dead ends. And your voice that cuts through the noise, demanding for everyone to do better and not accepting the globalization of indifference.

Are we ready to make the impossible possible and reach the Global Goals? Are you ready New York? I really didn't hear you. Are you ready New York?

So now let's light up for the Goals. Everyone that has a light, light up for the Goals and the people who don't see tomorrow, your light gives them hope. That's billions of people. Thank you so much!