PESHAWAR
These views were expressed during an event of the Launch of Spotlight Report on SDGs held on ‘Engaging Civil Society in Decade of Action to Accelerate SDGs Implementation – Lessons from HLPF 2022 and Way Forward’. The event was jointly organized by Blue Veins, AwazCDS-Pakistan, and Pakistan Development Alliance on March 2023, at Hotel Shelton Rezidor, Peshawar.
AwazCDS in collaboration with Pakistan Development Alliance (PDA) triggered its efforts to strengthen development processes at the national level, especially after the presentation of the Voluntary National Review Report (VNR) at the High-Level Political Forum 2022 by the United Nations. Both organizations led the civil society engagement processes at the national level and produced spotlight report as well as voluntary local review reports in 2022 which were also launched during the event.
Marium Amjad Khan, Program Lead- Awaz CDS-Pakistan & National Chair PDA said, “Civil society has done a lot of work in the implementation of SDGs and has aided in the improvement of the overall situation in Pakistan.” She highlighted the need for inclusion and participation of civil society representatives at the policy level as well as the VNR report-making process for the depiction of real ground situations and the benefit from the learning of such review reports.
She further said, “VNRs provide the opportunity for countries to share their individual experiences, including successes, challenges, and lessons learned, with a view to accelerating SDG implementation.”
Mr. Muhammad Rizwan, Coordinator NCHR KP chapter stressed engaging youth in the process and emphasized on the meaningful engagement of persons with disabilities, women, and religious minorities to ensure no one is left behind to benefit from the SDGs.
Qamar Naseem-Project Manager- Blue Veins said, “Since the adoption of SDGs as national development goals by the Parliament of Pakistan in March 2016, the government has achieved many instructional and strategic millstones to implement SDGs. Pakistan has successfully presented two Voluntary National Review (VNR) reports at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) at UNHQ in July 2109 and 2022.” He also stressed the need for better monitoring of SDG priority targets and indicators as per provincial SDGs frameworks.
The event was attended by youth, women, government representatives, academia, lawyers, media, CSO, and representatives of the Human Rights departments, Child Rights, and Status of women commissions.
