Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Two day Interprovincial Meeting on Local Governance “SDG Localization†concluded on Thursday. Addressing the concluding ceremony the participants representing concerned departments and organizations from all the Provinces assured that the action plans of development strategy would be aligned with the   targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) fixed to mitigate the sufferings of people besides providing them all basic amenities of life.
Talking on the occasion National Technical Advisor UNDP, Malick Zulfiqar Ahmad said that targets of socio-economic development at grass root level could be achieved by active participation of Federal, Provincial and District level Local Government & Community Development Departments, Community Organizations and other stakeholders. He said that collaborated efforts would help to eliminate poverty, hunger and other issues being confronted by the people up to 2030 as indicated in the SDG’s Agenda evolved under United Nation Development Programme.
Personal experiences in connection with implementation of development projects were shared by Senior Government Officials of all Provinces including Punjab, Sindh, Khabar Pakhtoonkhaw and Baluchistan with UNDP representatives on Thursday. International Expert Tanya Khan acted as moderator and coordinated Inter-provincial meeting.
The Regional Programme Advisor on SDG’s Michaela Prokop shared her views with participants of meeting on Skype from Bangkok and elaborated the concept and implementation mechanism of implementation with the support of Local Government and Community Development Department and other partners. She laid emphasis on Institution coordination, policy coherence at national and sub national level to accelerate implementation process under SDG’s agenda. She was of the view that we can resolve economic, social and environmental issues by prioritizing our development strategies in accordance with the requirements at grass root level and it could be achieved with effective coordination and working of local bodies.
The Director General Local Government & community Development Punjab Shahid Nasir Raja apprised participants about the developments being taken place to consolidate data and other relevant details to develop strategy for sustainable development in the Province. Director Local Government and Community Development Punjab Najeeb Aslam also discussed various success stories about the achievements and future development plan. He also presented various proposals to achieve SDG’s. The Moderator of Interprovincial Meeting on Local Governance Miss Tanya Khan unveiled the targets and SDG’s and highlighted role of public sector organizations including academia and business sector organization to achieve social development targets.
National Technical Advisor UNDP, Malick Zulfiqar Ahmad giving introductory remarks briefed about the UNDP agenda being implemented through Planning and Development Departments at Provincial and Federal level and also asked participants to share their knowledge and development strategies which would help in SDG localization. Mr. Taimur also highlighted the SDG’s in a detailed presentation.
Mr. Riaz Ahmed Aurakzai, Amir Latif, Said Rehman, Farooq Ahmed Siddique, Asma Ayaz, Gul Muhammad , Atta Ullah Baluch also gave suggestions for effective implementation of SDG’s in all Province of Pakistan.
