Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 15 November (BelTA) - International experts point out Belarus’ systemic approach toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, Marianna Shchetkina, Deputy Chairperson of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus, National Coordinator for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, told the media ahead of the seminar “Sustainable Development Goals - implementation at the national and regional levels”, BelTA has learned.

“Recently we have had a great workshop on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which was attended by international experts. From their point of view, Belarus is more systematic in this issue than a many other states. We were very happy to hear that. We have developed a management architecture to achieve the SDGs. You will never be able to achieve the goal if you d onot know how to act. Everything should be addressed in a systematic, comprehensive manner. Our architecture has been built both vertically and horizontally. It includes the National Coordinator, the Council for Sustainable Development which is divided into 4 major sectoral groups. These are the economy, the environment, social policy and statistics. A parliamentary group and a partnership group that includes public associations, together with the Council for Sustainable Development, monitor the SDGs-related efforts and ensure public control,” Marianna Shchetkina said.

A great contribution is made by the regional groups headed by members of the Council for Sustainable Development – the vice chairmen of the regional executive committees and Minsk City Hall.

“To make our work more focused and the efforts more synchronized throughout the country, all heads of the regional, parliamentary and partnership groups, some of their members have gathered for the seminar. The main objective of the seminar is to discuss everything in detail, to review the strategic areas and outline the operational and tactical tasks,” Marianna Shchetkina said.

The seminar “Sustainable Development Goals - implementation at the national and regional levels” is running Minsk on 15 November. The seminar focuses on the development of the national system of indicators to monitor the SDGs, their implementation in the economic, environmental and social fields, the main approaches to the national strategy for sustainable socio-economic development of Belarus in the context of the SDGs. The publication “Belarus’ starting positions with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals” and the national versions of the UN SDG logos were unveiled during the event.

The seminar will be held as part of the program “Support to the National Coordinator on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals and Strengthening the Role of the Parliament in the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals” which is financed by the UN Development Program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the national executing agency. The project partners are the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly and the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.