Security is key to solve world problems and increase development

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015, recognizes not only that peace and security are prerequisites for achieving sustainable development, but that sustainable development provides the pathway to peaceful societies.

This new peace-centred agenda is inclusive and ambitious and could usher in a new spirit of global solidarity. With its five pillars of peace, people, planet, prosperity and partnerships, it opens a new era of development. Translating its 17 goals and 169 targets into concrete action on the ground will only be possible with the support and engagement of all major stakeholders, including Governments, civil society, business, academia, parliaments, and international organizations. As the world's largest regional security organization under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is ready to do its part to contribute to this critical global effort.

The OSCE comprehensive concept of security, which embraces politico-military aspects, the economy and the environment, as well as human rights and democracy, is fully compatible with the 2030 Agenda. Indeed, already in 1975, the organization's founding document, the Helsinki Final Act, recognized key economic, social and environmental issues that are fundamental to sustainable development as we understand it today. In the decades since then, the OSCE participating States reached consensus on a number of other relevant political commitments, including the 2003 Maastricht Strategy Document for the Economic and Environmental Dimension which puts a strong focus on sustainable development and defines specific actions and areas for cooperation. These are among the key building blocks of the OSCE efforts to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.