Regional Cooperation for implementing the SDGs

Although not heavily stressed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), regional cooperation will be critically important for the implementation of the SDGs at the national level. At a side event organized by the UN Regional Commissions on 23 September, UN high-level officials and Member States discussed regional cooperation and initiatives to support country implementation of the 2030 Agenda. They shared regional experiences in delivering the 2030 Agenda, including on partnerships among governments, regional and sub-regional organizations and other stakeholders...

The meeting was opened by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who stressed that the UN Charter and the 2030 Agenda recognize the importance of regional action, which is of particular importance in addressing trade, food and energy security, climate change, connectivity and the outbreak of health epidemics. According to the Secretary-General, the regional commissions are "spearheading UN regional efforts to support their member countries" in implementing the 2030 Agenda, particularly by promoting integration, policy coherence, strengthened data and statistical capacities, and peer learning.

Africa: The President of Namibia underscored that the 2030 Agenda is informed by Africa's development priorities, as reflected in the Common Africa Position (CAP) on the post-2015 development agenda (See: Common Africa Position on the Post 2015 Development Agenda), which was agreed following consultations organized in all sub-regions of Africa by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC). Regional cooperation can help to remove barriers, including trans-boundary issues such as trade, shared natural resources and environmental challenges, and can consolidate regional resources for producing energy and developing new infrastructure, to sustain the requisite economic growth levels.

Asia and the Pacific: Nepal's Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed the urgency in collaborating for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As he pointed out regionalism can generate useful information; enable sharing of experiences; and create a bridge between national development agendas and the global SDG framework. As stated by Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), ESCAP's membership has passed a resolution to constitute and operationalize the annual Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Forum (APFSD). This will offer assessment of regional trends with supportive analysis of issues and progress; promotion of policy coherence and consistency; and knowledge and tools for institutional coordination and implementation of the SDGs. Other ESCAP efforts in support of SDGs implementation, include strengthening and developing common SDG databases with harmonized monitoring indicators and tracking mechanisms; offering modalities and tools for SDG prioritization and integration to mainstream sustainability and inclusivity in national development plans; enhancing regional knowledge of public financial management, including domestic tax reform options with supportive fiscal redistribution policies; supporting the leveraging of science, technology and innovation (STI) for sustainable development; and facilitating trade liberalization through single-window, electronic trade platforms and investment liberalization.

Latin America and the Caribbean: Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), noted that ECLAC maintains a repository of national development plans, including institutional experiences to achieve full integration of the economic, social and environmental dimensions, while also supporting the incorporation of the SDGs into national and territorial development plans, budgets, and public and private investment procedures. The repository aims to strengthen and link national statistics systems with the help of big data, as well as to improve the availability and quality of statistics for 2030 Agenda follow-up and review. ECLAC will convene the annual Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development. Established in May 2016, it will serve as a regional follow-up mechanism to the 2030 Agenda. Its first meeting will take place in April 2017, in Mexico.

Other speakers included: the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and Kazakhstan; the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States; the Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AMEXCID); the UNECA Executive Secretary; the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA); and the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Christian Friis Bach.

Note: It will be important for organizations to engage at the regional level to ensure that national level implementation is promoted and supported. Looking at the ECE website, for example, while there is ‘medium involvement’ on health, there is only ‘some involvement’ on Goals that relate to gender equality and women’s empowerment and education.

read more: http://sd.iisd.org/news/sdg-cooperation-in-focus-for-regions/