UNB, Dhaka :Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a civil society think tank, on Monday suggested formation of an inter-ministerial body under the Prime Minister’s Office to implement the agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in the UN General Assembly.”As the SDGs are related to all most all ministries and sectors unlike MDGs that focused on a few sectors, including poverty, health and education, an inter-ministerial body may be formed to implement the 2030 Agenda,” CPD distinguished fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said.Debapriya came up with the suggestion in his keynote paper titled ‘The agenda of Sustainable Development Goals: Implementation Challenges for Bangladesh’ in a media briefing at the city’s Brac Centre Inn.”It’ll be difficult to implement the SDGs in the country if Prime Minister’s Office doesn’t lead…,” he said.He also suggested that the government may form a set of task forces, involving both government and non-government experts to implement the SDGs, adopted at the UN general assembly on September 25 last. The CPD distinguished fellow said the government can also involve the national parliament and local government institutions in the implementation process.Identifying five challenges for Bangladesh to implement the post-MDGs agenda, SDGs, he said mobilising financial and non-financial resources, and institutional mechanisms are the key challenges for the country to implement the SDGs.Three other challenges are integration of the SDGs in the national planning process, ensuring participations and accountability and building statistics or data for monitoring the implementation progress, he added.The 193 member states have committed to working for implementing the 2030 Agenda within the own countries and also at regional and global levels for sustainable development.In the SDGs, 17 goals and 169 associated targets will come into effect on January 1, 2016 and will guide the international development agenda over the next 15 years.However, some 300 indicators are likely to be finalised by the UN Statistical Commission in March and April next. An ongoing CPD study has found that among the 17 SDGs, eight goals are better integrated in the country’s existing national prioritisation processes, while the remaining nine goals are lesser integrated in the prioritisation processes.The eight better integrated goals are poverty, hunger and nutrition, education, gender equality, water and sanitation, energy, combating climate change, and global partnership.The nine lesser integrated goals are health, inclusive growth and employment, infrastructure, industrialization and innovation, inequality, cities and human settlements, sustainable consumption and production, conserve and sustainable use of oceans, sees and marine resources, and governance.About 20 percent of 169 associated targets are not currently reflected on the national priorities, the CPD study found.Dr Debapriya said, “I think two SDGs-reducing inequality and good governance (peace, justice and strong institutions)-are most important for Bangladesh. The two goals must be integrated in the national priorities.”He said, some important sectors, including health, education, agriculture and social security are neglected in the country. The average share of health in total public expenditure stagnated at 0.7 percent of GDP during 2003-2014 period though the WHO stipulates that the allocation should be 5 percent of GDP, he added.Education budget has been hovering around 2 percent of GDP during the 2003-2014 period, but Unesco stipulates that the allocation should be 6 percent of GDP, he added.About MDGs, Bhattacharya said MDGs attainment in Bangladesh has been quite impressive in many areas, but further attention will be required for some unfinished agenda, including the employment target.About integration of SDGs in planning process, he said as preparation of the 7th Five Year Plan and the National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) 2015 are still under process, Bangladesh has more scope to integrate SDGs than many other countries in the world.According to the ICESDF estimates, achieving the SDGs in all countries will require additional global investment in the range of $5 trillion to $7 trillion a year up to 2030. Speaking on the occasion, CPD Executive Director Dr Mustafizur Rahman said Bangladesh needs to adopt an uninterrupted process for implementation of SDGs over the next 15 years.
