Corruption, extremism biggest SDG challenges
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali yesterday identified corruption, and terrorism and violent extremism as the two biggest challenges in implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the globe.
“Bangladesh is no exception,” he said while addressing a seminar titled “Implementing SDGs in Bangladesh: Challenges and Policy Options”, organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in its auditorium.
World leaders last year adopted the agenda 2030 with 17 goals and 169 targets.
The foreign minister said it was a “comprehensive pathway” to development, but its implementation in a country like Bangladesh was “not easy”.
The first challenge is the prioritising and sequencing of goals and targets and aligning them to national developmental plans and strategies, he said. Mobilisation of financial resources -- both internal and external -- is another major area, he added.
The minister said Bangladesh had already aligned SDGs with the national programmes including the seventh five-year plan, but one of the challenges was lack of coordination among the government agencies like ministries.
“We need to improve not only the inter-agency coordination mechanism, but also the inter-wing coordination of a single ministry/organisation.”
He also said addressing the gaps in SDG data and keeping tracks of progress on the goals and indicators would be another key challenge. “Our statistical capacity and institutions need to be further strengthened.”
Palli Karma Sohayak Foundation (PKSF) Chairman Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad made a presentation on environment and climate change, where he highlighted the differences between the millennium development goals (MDGs) and SDGs, and said in the new development agenda “you cannot leave anybody behind.”
He expressed optimistism that Bangladesh would be able to implement the mammoth SDGs. “We could achieve MDGs with little international support. We could do it (SDGs) with our own resources,” he said.
“If we can focus on three goals -- poverty, hunger and inequality -- then the others will fall into place.”
He, however, laid stress on tapping the capacity of available human resources. “I don't think we lack in capacity. We have the capacity. We need to enhance the available capacity."
Presenting an overview of SDGs and Bangladesh, Bangladesh Planning Commission's member and Senior Secretary Prof Shamsul Alam said Bangladesh was well-aligned with the SDGs as most of its proposals were incorporated in the final agenda.
He said in 2013 Bangladesh came up with a proposal of a post-2015 development agenda suggesting 11 goals with 58 targets and 241 measurable indicators.
“Ten specific thrusts of Bangladesh's proposals are common with the UN adopted SDGs. The rest appeared as targets in SDGs.”
He said the government had requested the development partners to align their strategies within the framework of the SDG targets relevant for Bangladesh.
Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque called SDGs a political declaration.
“There's huge promise and huge excitement. But there's also a lot of works.”
Laying stress on stability, he said as a means of implementation of SDGs, the stakeholders including government, private sector, NGOs, civil society and individual citizens had been brought into the fold.
Executive Director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh Dr Ahsan Mansur, senior fellow of BIISS Dr Mahfuz Kabir and Prof AK Enamul Haque of East West University, Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh Farah Kabir, and Sharmind Neelormi of Jahangirnagar University also presented papers.
Chaired by BIISS Chairman Munshi Faiz Ahmad, the seminar was also addressed, among others, by BIISS Director General Maj Gen AKM Abdur Rahman and Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr KAS Murshid.
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