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• Greetings, good morning to everyone on-line and to the few of us here at the UN
• Lucky one to welcome all to the Colombo launch of UNDP’s 2020 Human Development Report (a.k.a. the HDR)
• So, indeed welcome!, and most heartfelt and best 2021 New Year wishes to all of you!!
• Allow me to begin by recognizing and expressing my sincerest  appreciation to our esteemed guests speakers:

- Hon. Minister Dullas Alahapperuma

- Mr. Hiran Cooray

- British High Commissioner H.E. Sarah Hulton

- Our UN Resident Coordinator Hanaa

• Thanks in advance to our many other distinguished panelists and discussants from whom you’ll hear soon.
• Indeed to all esteemed partners and participants, huge thanks for joining us. 

[Brief discussion on Human Development concept]

• UNDP’s flagship, the HDR has been published since 1990, making this 2020 edition the 30^th anniversary edition.
• As many of you may know, back then the HUMAN DEVELOPMENT concept underpinning the HDR was developed by economist Mahbub Ul Haq, anchored in Nobel winning economist Amartya Sen’s work on human capabilities 
• The human development conceptual framework became the leading alternative to income and GDP growth as main measures of national development. It was said that easuring development had to also include qualitative improvements in human life such as health, education, human security, environmental conditions, and so on. 
• Now…. This may seem so obvious to us now, in hindsight, but it was pioneering in the world back then. Since then, income growth is seen as just one aspect of development, rather than as an end in itself.

[Where are we now?]

• SO, Where are we now, three decades down the road from that first HDR of 1990?
• We find ourselves taking stock of a very serious predicament: how do we as humans achieve development, a human-centred development, without further undermining our source of life, our fellow creatures, our home, our planet, our ancestral mother earth, our Gaia –as per Greeks millennia ago, popularised by scientist Jim Lovelock in 1980s.
• The 2020 HDR shows that we are at an unprecedented moment in time; human activity has become the dominant force shaping the planet. We are now in an era that scientists call the Anthropocene, – the Age of Humans - an entirely new planetary geological era.
• Unfolding changes by humans to our life-sustaining planet earth are of such a dramatic nature, that our planet is no longer capable of maintaining its equilibrium as before. The planet alone no longer self-regulates its complex chemistry and biology. Human activity has taken charge. This signifies a worrying mix of power, fragility and uncertainty. Human power at scale, with illusions of control; yet, even worse, without fully grasping or heeding the consequences.
• The climate crisis. Biodiversity loss. Ocean acidification. Micro-plastics. Not to forget our current unprecedented challenge, Covid-19: itself a nearly unimaginable human crisis with partial roots in how humans see and use our environment.
• So, at this “unprecedented moment, what is next for human development? How do we find a new path: one that expands human freedoms, choice and agency while erasing planetary pressures?
• These are the questions at the heart of the 2020 HDR”: how to rekindle society’s, economy’s and human beings’ relationship with nature and improve people’s lives today and in the future—in balance with our planet.

·      To this end, the 2020 HDR doubles down on the evidence, from experience,

That (1) people’s agency and empowerment can bring about the action we need to live in balance with the planet, in a fairer world.

(2) That a green socio-economic economic recovery from the pandemic could reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to meet the Paris goals, and build forward better and greener...

That (3) “transformed economies and societies must have equity or justice at the centre”; … that “climate justice, energy justice and environmental justice (must) take a human rights approach to coping with climate change; to achieving access to energy; and to involving people in environmental decision making.”

These, dear participants, are the issues for presentation and discussion today.

A few expressions of gratitude. Thanks—

• Thank you again to Hon. Minister Dullas Alahapperuma for being with us today. I am grateful for our discussions on Green Development, and I reiterate UNDP’s commitment to supporting Sri Lanka to define and operationalise its national development plan in a way that is underpinned by Green Development thinking, with consideration for socio-economic impacts of Covid-19.
• Indeed, UNDP commits to helping establish a platform for all partners and stakeholders to come together in achieving a Green development pathway:  government, private sector, civil society, academia, development partners, and our sister UN agencies.
• I’d like to pay particular thanks to UNDP’s funding partners a.k.a. “UNDP's core resources donors” who are instrumental in enabling UNDP’s SDG and HD work globally; including cutting edge thinking like this year’s HDR. 
• Thanks again distinguished speakers, panelists and discussants for being present and sharing thought-provoking perspectives.
• Thanks too to the great UNDP team here for the work to organise this important event.
• Welcome again and thank you all for being here.
• As you listen and engage today on the core topics at hand,  I encourage all to reflect on, and keep focus on the high ambition embodied in the Human Development concept and on human capabilities, in this, the early stages of the Age of the Anthropocene.

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• Ms. Savera Weerasinghe
• Mr. Thorsten Bargfrede
• Dr. Ravi Fernando
• Mr Hemantha Withanage
• Dr M Ganeshanmoorthy
• Ms Kanchana Weerakoon
• Ms. Shabiya Ali Ahlam
• Partners from Government, civil  society and private sector, and development partners
• UNDP and UN Agency colleagues
• Distinguished guests and friends
• (notable but no mentioning… 2018/19 contributions were from these present with representation in SRL: Norway, Japan, USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, France, Australia, Ireland, Rep of Korea, Qatar, Italy, New Zealand, India, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Indonesia, Romania, Viet Nam, Pakistan, Cuba, Myanmar)
• Look forward to hearing the views of our diverse set of speakers today. Mr. Thorsten Bargfrede, the Deputy Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union, a key ally and partner and supporter of UNDP’s work; Dr. Ravi Fernando, a leading figure of the private sector who has served on the boards of numerous companies locally and globally, Ms. Savera Weerasinghe, a social entrepreneur on sustainable packaging; and Mr. Hiran Cooray, a prominent business figure in the tourism industry whose interactive talk I am particularly looking forward to.
• A special welcome to High Commissioner Hulton and UNRC Hanaa Singer for accepting our invitation to share their thoughts at the event.