Achievements made in SDGs not encouraging: NPC

Kathmandu, Aug. 16

The National Planning Commission (NPC) has said that Nepal needs to accelerate the process and progress to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the current achievement is not encouraging.

"Current progress will allow us to have around 60 per cent of the overall SDGs, according to the rough estimates," the NPC officials said at the 'SDG Acceleration Visioning Workshop' jointly organised by the planning body and the United Nations in Nepal.

So far, Nepal has updated the evaluations of 151 of 301 total SDG indicators.

Nepal's estimated growth for FY 2023-24 is 2.16 per cent; and unmet revenue targets pose challenges to financing development, including the SDGs, which are crucial considering the funding implications of LDC graduation.

However, a joint statement issued by the two agencies said that Nepal has fared better compared to the global average of only 12 per cent by the halfway of the adoption of the SDGs in 2015.

"There are encouraging signs. Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the country met the criteria for the third time for graduation from the LDC status and is set to graduate by 2026. Poverty and maternal mortality ratios have declined significantly," read the statement.

Meanwhile, Nepal has made significant progress on birth registration and certification, school enrolment and completion, life expectancy, and women’s political representation.

Despite such progress, the country still faces the challenges induced by the impacts of COVID-19, the economic impacts of the Ukraine war, and geopolitical dynamics, read the statement.

The workshop was organised ahead of the SDG Summit in September this year and reviewed the status of the SDG progress in Nepal and identified priority areas for SDG acceleration and outline a roadmap for strategic actions.

It also decided to launch a nationwide campaign on SDGs to mobilise multi-stakeholders, including provincial and local governments, the private sector, civil society, and development partners to ramp up efforts to accelerate progress on SDGs.

“The Government of Nepal is passionately internalising the SDGs through the current 15^th plan and its regular programmes and policies. Nepal has identified key areas that hold the potential to catalyse economic transformation, leading us towards SDG attainment and irreversible graduation from the LDC status," said Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Vice Chairman of the NPC.

According to him, the focus of the NPC is on enhancing production and productivity within the economy, generating skilled human capital, and creating inclusive employment opportunities including a robust emphasis on quality education, accessible healthcare systems, sound infrastructure, responsible urbanisation, social empowerment, inclusivity, social security, increased capital expenditure, biodiversity preservation, and effective governance.

A statement issued by the organisers of the event stated that for the first time in decades, development progress is reversing under the combined impacts of climate disasters, geopolitical tension, global economic slowdown, and lingering COVID-19 effects globally.

Achieving just 12 per cent global progress at halftime towards the deadline of 2030 means that people and the planet are in deep crisis, and hence, a renewed commitment to the SDGs is more needed now than ever before.

Secretary of the NPC, Dr. Toya Narayan Gyawali, said that Nepal needed a robust monitoring and evaluation system to measure the progress made in meeting the SDGs.

According to him, Nepal has a challenge to meet the resource gap to implement the SDGs.

Nepal also faces the challenges like scarce domestic challenges, poor database, lack of localisation of SDGs, poor partnership and coordination among stakeholders, and poor capacity of the key agencies.

Speaking at the workshop, UN Resident Coordinator in Nepal, Hanaa Singer Hamdy said that the SDG progress was not about lines on a graph but about healthy mothers and babies; children learning the skills to fulfil their potential; and parents who could feed their families. 

"It is about a world in which everyone enjoys human rights and human dignity. The road ahead to achieve the SDGs globally and in Nepal is still a bit steep. But it is one we can, must and will achieve- together – and for the people we serve from all parts of this country," she said

The National Vision for SDG Acceleration that will be prepared through a consultative process based on the outline coming from this workshop will be presented to the global leaders as Nepal's commitment at the 2023 SDG Summit being held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on September18-19.

The summit will reaffirm the collective commitments of the world leaders to the Goals and the promise to leave no one behind. This Summit is a defining moment to urgently put the world back on track to achieving the SDGs.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 17 August 2023.