ISLAMABAD, July 27 : Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal Wednesday said Pakistan needs a national consensus to ensure a unified and collective effort to achieve the SDGs.

Ahsan made the remark in his keynote address at the two-day National Meet on the SDGs jointly organised by the SDGs Secretariat in collaboration with Mustehkam Parlimaan — a project of the European Union (EU) in Pakistan.

Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the EU to Pakistan Dr. Riina Kionka were in attendance.

"The SDGs are achievable through a broad national consensus, nuance and indigenous approach, development of local level awareness and ownership of SDGs with a multi-stakeholder engagement of religious leaders, and local governments for their individual role to ensure implementation of development goals," he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Convener National Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Member National Assembly Romina Khursid Alam said Pakistan was the first country in the world to accept the SDGs as its national development agenda to ensure sustainable human development in conformity with globally set targets ensuring well-being for all.

Romina said Covid-19 pandemic taught great lessons to Pakistan, as it aggravated hunger, poverty, inequality, gender disparity and serious health crisis that demanded the government to prepare a well-informed and coordinated effort at the national and local levels to meet the development goals. 

"I would like to commend former National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq for his efforts towards notifying the SDGs taskforce at the national level and setting up a separate secretariat for the cause at the national level. I also extend my gratitude to my team and media wings and Mustehkam Pakistan for their efforts in making the national conference a success."

She also underlined that Pakistan had achieved 57.7% completion rate of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2021), ranking 129th out of 165 countries. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, challenges continuously emerged in the social, economic and environmental spheres. 

"Nevertheless, with declining economic conditions due to the pandemic, acute capacity challenges are present in the area of climate change, health, economic growth, gender and poverty. There is a projected slowdown in economic growth from 5.6% in 2021 to 4% in 2022. Subsequent to COVID-19, public living in extreme poverty had now risen to 37.7% (2022)," she said.

Romina mentioned that SDG-2 aimed to eliminate hunger and malnutrition. However, the prevalence of stunting growth has reduced by 7% in the past five years amongst children under the age of 5.

"Furthermore, the country relies heavily on its climate-sensitive land, water and forest resources for livelihoods and food security, - with agriculture remaining a crucial source of employment for 42% of the population."

"Despite the global pushback, we have made commendable progress in alleviating poverty, achieving gender equality and sustainability."

In her introductory remarks, EU Ambassador Dr. Riina Kionka said the EU was very pleased to be with the SDGs taskforce Secretariat of Pakistan and recognised Pakistan's efforts for achieving SDGs by 2030.

She added that Pakistan had designed a comprehensive provincial and federal level SDGs framework.

The EU Envoy said, "Pakistan lags behind its peers in achieving SDGs. Despite early progress, continuity in poverty and unemployment remains a concern. However, it’s important to recall that people are the centre of every endeavour linked to SDGs."

Dr. Kionka said achieving the SDGs demanded tough political choices whereas the Pakistani parliament had a critical role in achieving SDGs with critical legislation and its strict implementation to ensure the accomplishment of development goals.

Credits: INP-WealthPk