KATHMANDU, Jan 17: Nepal will be presenting a report on its progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development of the United Nations within July. The report will be prepared through voluntary national review (VNR) on SDGs.
The National Planning Commission organized a workshop on the Voluntary National Review of SDGs in Kathmandu on Tuesday, gathering valuable submissions from various stakeholders.
Prior to this, Nepal conducted the first VNR on SDG in 2017 followed by the second in 2020. According to the NC, the third VNR will be concluded in the next six months.
During Tuesday’s workshop, the NPC Vice-Chair Dr Min Bahadur Shrestha said the event aimed to assess Nepal's efforts towards sustainable development goals, learn from successful practices in other countries, and gather submissions from various sectors to promote coordination and cooperation with diverse agencies.
According to him, Nepal is fully committed to achieving the sustainable development goals and efforts towards this end are underway from the federal, provincial, and local governments. There has already been the localization of SDGs in Nepal and the budget has accorded priorities to them. Effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are in place for projects and plans related to the SDGs.
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The 16th five-year periodic plan that will be coming into effect from the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2024-24) has prioritized the endeavors to graduate Nepal from the category of the least developed country and to accomplish the SDGs, he added.
The Sustainable Development Implementation and Monitoring Committee under the coordination of the Vice-Chairperson of the National Planning Commission has been working to prepare a third voluntary national review related to sustainable development.
The Economic Management Division of the Commission is working as the secretariat. Shrestha shared that Nepal would present this report in the meeting of a high-level political forum under the United Nations in the month of July.
Lauding the activities carried out by Nepal to achieve sustainable development goals, the UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy pointed out the need to make efforts for further progress-oriented results.
"Nepal's progress in achieving sustainable development goals is admirable. Compared to other countries in the world, the progress of Nepal is better. But we must make further efforts to achieve the sustainable development goals within the stipulated time," she added.
She stressed that Nepal, in the capacity of the chair of least developed countries, should be more responsible towards activities related to sustainable development goals and upgrading.
All UN member countries in 2015 had approved sustainable development goals (2016-2030) and started implementing it. Nepal has prepared a sustainable development goals 2016-30 roadmap for the country and implemented it.
As per the recent statistics of the National Planning Commission, Nepal has achieved around 43 percent progress so far in sustainable development goals.
According to the NPC, the workshop was organized in coordination with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Representatives from line ministries, Nepal Rastra Bank, the Policy and Planning Commission of all provinces, the National Association of Rural Municipalities, Municipal Association of Nepal, the private sector, representatives of government and non-government offices and the cooperatives sector were present on the occasion.
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