The government will ask its development partners this week to realign their country strategies with enhanced funding provisions as it is looking to generate billions more in foreign aid for implementing the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Donors will also be asked to scale up their investments in health and education while reinforcing their actions to mitigate disaster and climate change, officials informed.
The proposals will be placed at a formal meeting with all the major development partners set to take place in the city tomorrow (Sunday).
"In the era of MDGs, development partners around the world promised to channel 0.7 per cent of their gross national income as foreign aid--a promise that was largely not kept. But this time, it has to be reversed", said Member of the Planning Commission Professor Dr. Shamsul Alam while dwelling on the role of the donors in implementation of SDGs.
"More focus should be given this time on the effective use of the fund ", he added. Dr. Alam, whose General Economics Division is coordinating the implementation of the SDGs in the country, is scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation in front of the donors' representatives on the day.
Chief SDG Coordinator of the Prime Minister's Office Abul Kalam Azad will attend the meeting as chief guest while Secretary of the Economic Relations Division Kazi Shofiqul Azam will chair the meet.
The meeting comes at a time when the government has just completed a need assessment and financing strategy for SDG implementation in the country.
The report has found that Bangladesh will require around US$ 928 billion worth of additional resources over the next thirteen years for implementation of SDGs, including US$ 35.69 billion worth of additional foreign aid and grants.
In this context, the development partners will be asked to strengthen their roles for localisation of SDGs by realigning their country strategies with enhanced fund provisions, ERD officials informed.
Government insiders were also suggested reconstituting the Local Consultative Groups (LCGs) which act as the main dialogue platform between the government and development partners, in line with the SDG targets.
"LCG working groups should be reconstituted in line with Sustainable Development Goals while the Lead and Co-lead ministries of each SDG goals should be included as members of reconstituted LCGs", Professor Alam said.
Currently, a total of 18 LCG working groups are in operation focusing on 18 different sectors and each of them is co-chaired by a development partner agency and a government ministry.
Earlier this year, the government carried out a "mapping" of ministries for SDG implementation, identifying lead ministries as well as associate ministries for each SDG goals.
Apart from LCG reformation, the meeting is also likely to make calls for consolidating a monitoring mechanism and result-based framework for assessing the donor supported investment in the country.
In addition, more support are likely to be sought from donors in capacity building, sustainability, technology transfer and promoting actions that can have lasting impact on social progress-particularly human development, sources informed.
Adopted by world leaders in September 2015, the SDGs, also known as Global Goals, built on the previously executed Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) espoused by the United Nations.
SDGs recognise that ending poverty must go hand in hand with strategies that build on economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.
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