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Govt working on Sustainable Dev Cooperation Framework

| Updated: September 20, 2019 11:38:52


Govt working on Sustainable Dev Cooperation Framework

The government is formulating the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework aligned with the 8th Five Year Plan.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Momen said this while addressing a conference on 'SDGs and Bangladesh' on Thursday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Bangladesh jointly organised the programme.

The UN Country Team (UNCT), comprised of 23 different UN organisations, collectively supports the government’s efforts to achieve the SDGs.

In his speech, the minister said reduction of poverty rate and extreme poverty by almost half, expansion of social safety net schemes amounting to 15 per cent of budget, ensuring women empowerment through their inclusion in the political, social and economic arena, building a network of over 14 thousand community clinics to provide medical services to the rural people are some of the initiatives undertaken by the government in line with the SDGs.

Bangladesh is one of the countries which included the SDGs in their national development plan such as 7th National Development Plan, Delta Plan-2100 which portrays the country’s commitment towards achieving the SDGs.

Despite making progress in every sector vulnerability to the climate change poses a great threat to the country's development efforts, the foreign minister said.

“The government has developed the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) funded by its own money. Currently, several projects for mitigating the climate change effect and developing resilience against the threat has been implemented by the Government in coordination with the UN and other development partners,” he added.

The foreign minister said the government has launched SDG tracker that can be used for comprehensive target setting and monitoring the progress of each SDG, along with the indicators.

Mentioning his involving past negotiations in various global dialogue the minister said,  political will plays a crucial role to achieve  goals.

“Since I had the privilege to be actively involved in negotiations on SDG goals,  almost 3 and a half years as Chair of the 2nd Committee,  vice chair of LDCs, coordinator of NAM, Earth+ 20 Summit to the adaptation of ‘2030 Development Agenda’ that is inspirational yet achievable, provided there is political commitment." 

Engagement of the larger society and partnership with all stakeholders is very important for achieving the SDGs and Vision-2041, he said reminding the audience that after an outstanding performance to achieve MDGs, the government is now focusing on the attainment of the SDGs.

“Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh, has turned itself into “Development Miracle”. The country has recorded 8.13 per cent GDP growth last year and eyeing to have a double digit growth rate,” said the minister.

State Minister For Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam said Bangladesh welcomes the UNSG’s reform of the UN system which has created space for rightly assigning the UN Resident Coordinator the responsibility to monitor all activities of UN organs.

“As a manifestation of our commitment to partnership with UN, and support to the UN reforms - prime minister has decided to contribute an amount of $100,000 to the office of the Resident Coordinator. She will make this announcement at the upcoming UNGA,” Shahriar said.

He lauds the decision of designating the UNRC as the co-chair of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

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