Published in The Daily Star on Monday, 21 November 2016

Star Business Desk

In achieving the sustainable development goals or SDGs by 2030, the government should engage the civil society in its implementation process, analysts said.

The nongovernmental and civil society organisations need to enhance their capacities in understanding the SDG issues and identifying the implementation challenges, they said. They spoke at a workshop on “Appreciation course on 2030 agenda: framework issues and implementation challenges”, at Brac Conference Room in Dhaka on Saturday.

The Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh in partnership with the Centre for Policy Dialogue organised the event.

Forty-two executives from 36 partnering organisations of the platform took part in the workshop.

The objective of the workshop was to upgrade the level of understanding of the participants on SDGs as regards the key issues and challenges, identifying gaps in policies and strategies, effective resource allocation and financing towards the implementation process in the context of Bangladesh.

The programme was designed with interactive lecture sessions and group activities, CPD said in a statement. Debapriya Bhattacharya, convenor of the platform and CPD’s distinguished fellow, in his lecture, said the goals and targets of the SDGs are all integrated.

The goals will require inclusive approaches and parallel processes from the relevant executive agencies in succeeding with the attainment of SDGs, he said.

The role of the private sectors will be to identify the policy gaps that are potential constraints to the process, and support the government in its efforts to achieving the SDGs, he said.

Mustafizur Rahman, core group member of the platform and CPD’s executive director, focused on institutional frameworks for SDGs implementation, finance, and availability and adequacy of data to monitor the progress of SDGs in his lecture.

Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, vice chairperson and adviser to the chairperson of Brac; Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh; and Asif Ibrahim, vice chairman of New Age Group – core group members of the platform –were also present at the event.

The workshop ended with a certificate awarding ceremony.