Experts for engaging civil society to achieve SDGs

ISLAMABAD     –    Stakeholders and experts have called for engaging the civil society to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as it would strengthen the development processes at national level.

These views were expressed during a conference held on ‘Engaging Civil Society in Decade of Action to Accelerate SDGs Implementation – Lessons from HLPF 2022 and Way Forward.’ The event was jointly organised by National Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs Planning Commission of Pakistan, Awaz CDS-Pakistan, and Pakistan Development Alliance.

Awaz-CDS in collaboration with Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA) triggered its efforts to strengthen development processes at national level especially after the presentation of Voluntary National Review Report (VNR) at High Level Political Forum 2022 by United Nations. Both the organisations led the civil society engagement processes at the national level and produced spotlight report as well as voluntary local review report in 2022 which were also launched during the conference.

In his remarks, Ali Kemal, Chief SDGs Planning Commission of Pakistan, said that VNR Report compilation is a massive project and civil society has played a very important role in data collection and its successful completion. VNRs provide the opportunity for countries to share their individual experiences, including successes, challenges and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating SDG implementation.

He stressed on the importance of effective roles civil society plays in achieving SDGs and benefiting from the learning of such review reports.

Romina Khurshid Alam, Convener Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs, welcomed the audience and said that since the adoption of SDGs as national development goals by Parliament of Pakistan in March 2016, the government has achieved many instructional and strategic millstones to implement SDGs. Pakistan has successfully presented two voluntary national review (VNR) reports at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) at UNHQ in July 2109 and 2022.

Mohammad Zia-ur-Rehman, Chief Executive Awaz CDS-Pakistan National Chair PDA, said that civil society has done a lot of work in the implementation of SDGs and has aided in the improvement of overall situation in Pakistan.

He highlighted the need of inclusion and participation of civil society representatives at the policy level as well as VNR report making process for depiction of real on ground situation.

Founder of SDGs Academy Ammar Jaffery stressed to engage youth in the process. Munazza Gillani, Country Director Sightsavers, emphasised on the meaningful engagement of persons with disabilities to ensure no one is left behind to benefit from SDGs.

Nadeem Ahmed, Social Policy Advisor Federal SDGs Unit Planning Commission of Pakistan, appreciated the role of civil society in holding government accountable and shared that government has taken many policy and structural steps to achieve SDGs in Pakistan.

Article source: https://www.nation.com.pk/22-Jan-2023/experts-for-engaging-civil-society-to-achieve-sdgs