Public-private partnership is key to SDGs financing: Minister Md Tazul Islam

The Minister of Local Government, Md Tazul Islam, has stressed on public-private partnerships being the catalyst for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 in Bangladesh, facilitated by the United Nations in SDG localization efforts of the government.

"Bangladesh's SDG Financing Strategy identified the private sector as a key source of financing," the minister said as the chief guest in a national-level workshop held at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Thursday, reads a press release.

"Financing is a key aspect of continuing momentum on delivering the SDGs at the local level. While the government emphasizes financing development activities at the grassroots level, we need to work more to ensure that the resources of the government can bring the best possible outcome in achieving SDGs," he added.

"The SDG Implementation Review Report shows that Bangladesh has not only adopted the SDGs in the development agenda but also has started the process of translating the goals according to local priorities, which is termed as SDG localization," Md Tazul Islam said.

The workshop, 'SDG Localisation in Nine Lagging Districts: Findings and way forward' was organised jointly by the Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the key integrator of SDGs in the UN system, with an aim to share results of the efforts in nine lagging districts in the country - Sunamganj, Kurigram, Natore, Cox's Bazar, Patuakhali, Satkhira, Gopalganj, Sherpur and Feni.   

"As part of such efforts, we partnered with the UN to pilot and define the approach across nine lagging districts across Bangladesh, with at least one district from each of the 8 divisions,"  Zuena Aziz, Principal Coordinator (SDG Affairs) of the Prime Minister's Office, said. 

"While this has been a good pilot initiative, our goal is to scale it up countrywide. For that, we ask not only development partners but also the private sector and civil society to come forward with their resources, knowledge, and solutions," she added.

"The Government of Bangladesh has been given more emphasis on SDG localisation. The country has identified 39+1 national priority indicators and took significant steps towards setting the framework for institutionalizing the SDGs at different levels," said Gwyn Lewis, the UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh.

"But still, the country needs to go further in achieving the SDGs – I believe this pilot initiative is a good start, but we will need to strive for scale-up."

She said that while UNDP has coordinated this initiative, the efforts are UN wide – through the SDG localisation technical group (UNW, ILO, FAO, UNIDO, Unesco, IOM and UNAIDS) and other UN agencies involved in the district, Upazila and municipality level consultations: Unesco in Sherpur, Feni and Cox's Bazar; ILO, IOM, UNW, UNHCR and FAO in Cox's Bazar Municipality; WFP in Ulipur Upazila of Kurigram and UNFPA in Bishwambarpur Upazila of Sunamganj. 

"There is an important funding gap to achieve the SDGs both at the national and local levels. An estimation from 2017 shows that an additional US$ 928 billion are needed only in Bangladesh," UNDP Resident Representative Stefan Liller said in his address.

"Therefore, we need to think and act on how to generate new financing instruments and new financing streams to bridge that gap - in this case, for local priorities. We also need to explore innovative solutions of how funding for local priorities can be channelled, allocated, coordinated, spent and reported in more efficient ways," he added.

"Sweden we are a strong promoter of democratic governance, and we are happy to have been a development part in this process," Maria Stridsman, head of Cooperation of the Embassy of Sweden, said.

"It's quite obvious, with local involvement, you are much more likely to develop a solution which will fit local problems. And that is also the case for Bangladesh. This country has a very rich history of local participation and now I would guess the citizens in the communities that have been involved, they are very eager to follow the results," she added.

The SDG localisation exercise covered 13 sectors, including education, agriculture, health, WASH, environment, disaster, law & order, social safety net & food, economic issues, communications & roads, electricity/energy, tourism and the urban sector.

An inclusive planning process has been adopted, led by the Deputy Commissioner, involving national and local political representatives, executive heads of the Upazila and local governments, departmental representatives from sector ministries, chambers of commerce, non-governmental organizations and local media.

Activities so far include consultation workshops at the district (all nine), Upazila (3) and municipal (2) level for rapid identification of five priority issues in the 13 sectors, selection of five priority sector locations and plus One (SDG+1 or District level priority) assessment and actionable priority area mapping.

Prime Minister Office's joint secretary of SDG Affairs Mohd. Monirul Islam, Gopalganj Deputy Commissioner Shahida Sultana and UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Sarder M Asaduzzaman highlighted the various findings and outcomes of the SDG localisation exercise.