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Belarus’ experience in reaching SDGs hailed as example for other European countries

MINSK, 11 May (BelTA) – Belarus’ experience in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is an example for other European countries. Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia of the United Nations Development Coordination Office (UNDCO) Gwi-Yeop Son mentioned it as she met with Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Valery Belsky, BelTA has learned.

Gwi-Yeop Son said: “It is a great honor for me to be in such a beautiful country as the Republic of Belarus. Extremely productive meetings took place this morning. One of them was with representatives of the United Nations team in the Republic of Belarus. The second meeting was with the chairwoman of the National Statistics Committee of Belarus. Both meetings were extremely informative, especially in the National Statistics Committee where I was told what progress the country had made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and collecting data on SDG indicators. We were told that the possibility of transferring this data from the national level to the regional one was being discussed. It is a remarkable example of how a country can work. I think this experience can be used as the best practice among other countries in Europe.”

In her words, a productive dialogue took place. “We call upon Belarus to increase the targets specified in the Sustainable Development Goals for the national level. In other words, we urge Belarus to be more ambitious. This will be especially relevant in the sense that with regard to many SDGs results have already been achieved or the goal has been met. Plus, if Belarus can raise the bar for itself, it will be very timely in view of the planned summit on the Sustainable Development Goals, which is preliminarily scheduled for September and will be organized by the UN secretary general. During the summit it will be possible to report on Belarus’ ambitious position regarding the revision of the country’s commitments to reach the Sustainable Development Goals as well as to demonstrate other achievements, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” the UNDCO regional director noted.

Gwi-Yeop Son added: “Two requests on the part of the UN secretary general are contained in the form of an invitation letter addressed to the Belarusian head of state. First, UN member states are encouraged to do their best to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, this work should be done with assistance of all parties: representatives of the civil society, the private sector, and the government. In turn, the UN team is ready to support the Republic of Belarus in this by all means.”

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