Badrul Ahsan :
Experts have opined that the government should involve civil society members, non-government organisations (NGOs) and private sector for successful implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
They said the achievement of SDGs would not be possible by the government alone as different sectors and multilateral issues are involved with the initiative.
“Collective efforts can help achieve SDGs. We have to find out ways to involve private sector and civil society organizations in all activities related to SDGs,” Prof Shamsul Alam, a member of the government’s General Economic Division, told The New Nation.
Prof. Alam, who led the team that prepared the sixth and seventh five-year plans, said the seventh plan has been prepared in line with the SDGs.
The government should involve civil society organizations and NGOs to monitor and assess the activities of the targeted progress of the SDGs, he said.
“Partnership with the private sector and an action plan with accountability hold the key to achieving the United Nations’ 17-point sustainable development goals. The society and its people at large will have to be incorporated in our efforts to achieve the SDGs,” Prof. Alam added.
“Strong and effective institutional mechanism, involving all stakeholders including public representatives, civil society members and development partners can effectively help the government to achieve SDGs,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), a private sector think tank.
A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) also opined that Bangladesh has been able to do a good job in areas where the central government, the local government, the civil society, the NGO, the private sector and the public at large worked in a team.
“Without real and effective collaboration between the government and the private sector, the SDGs cannot be achieved as seven of the 17 SDGs are directly linked with trade, business and investment,” he said.
“Alongside a collaborated efforts, Bangladesh has to figure out how much funds it would take to implement the SDGs and how much of the funds it would arrange itself and how much it would require from outside.”
“The achievement of SDGs implementation cannot be measured if the communities are not involved in the process.”
However, Hamidul Huq, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh disagrees with the opinion to involve NGOs into monitoring and assessing the activities of the targeted progress of SDG saying they (NGOs) cannot play the role of the civil society as many of them have come under the government regulations because of their microcredit operations.
He also urged the government for collection and allocation of more fund to the sectors those directly contributes to the achievement of SDGs of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, at the Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The sustainable development goals, otherwise known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015.
The MDGs, adopted in 2000, aimed at an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation. Enormous progress has been made on the MDGs, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets.
Despite the enormous progress made on the MDGs, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
Experts have opined that the government should involve civil society members, non-government organisations (NGOs) and private sector for successful implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
They said the achievement of SDGs would not be possible by the government alone as different sectors and multilateral issues are involved with the initiative.
“Collective efforts can help achieve SDGs. We have to find out ways to involve private sector and civil society organizations in all activities related to SDGs,” Prof Shamsul Alam, a member of the government’s General Economic Division, told The New Nation.
Prof. Alam, who led the team that prepared the sixth and seventh five-year plans, said the seventh plan has been prepared in line with the SDGs.
The government should involve civil society organizations and NGOs to monitor and assess the activities of the targeted progress of the SDGs, he said.
“Partnership with the private sector and an action plan with accountability hold the key to achieving the United Nations’ 17-point sustainable development goals. The society and its people at large will have to be incorporated in our efforts to achieve the SDGs,” Prof. Alam added.
“Strong and effective institutional mechanism, involving all stakeholders including public representatives, civil society members and development partners can effectively help the government to achieve SDGs,” said Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), a private sector think tank.
A. Atiq Rahman, Executive Director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) also opined that Bangladesh has been able to do a good job in areas where the central government, the local government, the civil society, the NGO, the private sector and the public at large worked in a team.
“Without real and effective collaboration between the government and the private sector, the SDGs cannot be achieved as seven of the 17 SDGs are directly linked with trade, business and investment,” he said.
“Alongside a collaborated efforts, Bangladesh has to figure out how much funds it would take to implement the SDGs and how much of the funds it would arrange itself and how much it would require from outside.”
“The achievement of SDGs implementation cannot be measured if the communities are not involved in the process.”
However, Hamidul Huq, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh disagrees with the opinion to involve NGOs into monitoring and assessing the activities of the targeted progress of SDG saying they (NGOs) cannot play the role of the civil society as many of them have come under the government regulations because of their microcredit operations.
He also urged the government for collection and allocation of more fund to the sectors those directly contributes to the achievement of SDGs of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, at the Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, 2015, UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The sustainable development goals, otherwise known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world committed to achieving by 2015.
The MDGs, adopted in 2000, aimed at an array of issues that included slashing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and access to water and sanitation. Enormous progress has been made on the MDGs, showing the value of a unifying agenda underpinned by goals and targets.
Despite the enormous progress made on the MDGs, the indignity of poverty has not been ended for all.
