Ministry of Planning Development and Reform holds Pakistan’s 1st National Conference on Sustainable Development Goals in Islamabad.

Minister PD&R Dr. Shamshad Akhtar was Guest of honor while Secretary Planning gave the welcome address to the worthy guests. Mr. Neil Buhne, Resident Coordinator United Nations, Mr. Zafar ul Hassan Chief SDGs MoPD&R also discoursed the salient features of SDGs and it’s implementation in Pakistan! 

Addressing the conference, the Secretary Planning, Mr. Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui welcomed the worthy guests and noted Pakistan’s strong commitment for the implementation of SDGs agenda. He remarked that SDGs are integrated with country’s national development agenda and that the Minister of PD&R also attaches high importance to it by placing it in her top three priorities. 

Secretary Planning thanked the Minister PD&R for gracing the event and for her commitment for implementation of SDGs both in her personal and official capacity. 

Mr. Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui stated that Government of Pakistan also wants to engage the private sector, NGOs for SDGs agenda implementation. He hoped that the Conference would help to understand the mechanics related to the component of SDGs.

While addressing the conference, Minister MoPD&R Dr. Shamshad Akhtar stated that there are decent accomplishments in terms of advocacy and socialisation by the Federal Planning Ministry as well as the provincial governments, however, SDGs must be advocated at much broader levels also. 

The Minister proclaimed that we will not be able to implement SDGs agenda until we adopt a strategised and high priority approach to it. Dr. Shamshad Akhtar stressed that there must be partnerships with different groups of development entities inclusive of research and academia with proper terms and references to proceed further for SDGs agenda implementation. 

She also asserted that partnerships at local government level should be well thought out encouraging the startups, using power of micro finance to galvanise implementation at local level through NGOs and other private partners. Partnerships with corporate sector can also be used as means of implementation. 

Pakistan is going through unprecedented macroeconomic set of challenges where our fiscal deficit current account deficit is above our target level. In wake of that, stated Dr. Akhtar, given resources constraints, all stakeholders including development partners, private sector, CSOs, and all tiers of the government pool resources have to join hands to achieve most critical and prioritised SDGs targets. 

She advised that Planning Ministry must pick up very critical SDGs and should sort out their needs and financing requirements. The prioritised SDGs may further be mainstreamed with the development agenda making them feasible for implementation. 

Later the provincial SDGs Support Units also presented their progress in localizing Agenda2030 across the country, emphasizing the need of partnerships between all stakeholders.