Four documents on SDGs finalised for cabinet nod

PESHAWAR: A senior government officials meeting on Friday finalized four important documents about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which would be presented to the KP cabinet for a final nod.

According to a handout, the first meeting of Provincial Advisory Committee on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was convened under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan.

All Administrative secretaries, Chief SDGs-Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives and representatives of UNDP attended the meeting.

The chair briefed the meeting about the aim and objectives of the meeting and the Advisory Committee. Director General-Sustainable Development Unit, P&D Department presented a brief overview of the Advisory Committee.

The proceedings of the meeting revolved around four agenda items — approval of Provincial SDGs Framework, Supplementary Annexure for PC-I, recommendations of SDGs Unit with regard to simplifying government’s approval processes to improve project management and District SDGs Scorecard.

The SDG Support Unit made detailed presentation on the agenda items. It was state that P&D Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had developed the SDGs Framework as a policy intervention to guide Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s development process for achieving the SDGs targets and practically localize SDGs in the province.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted during the formulation of the framework. The framework was termed an outcome of detailed consultation with a wide range of stakeholders.

It was added that the unit had developed a supplementary annexure (checklist) for PC-1 with the aim to mainstream SDGs in government plans and projects and track resource flow against SDGs.

The PC-1 annexure will track public sector investment in SDGs and will be handy in measuring the impact of the interventions and capturing the interlinkages of SDGs. The forum participants were of the view that the departments shall prepare their sectoral policies in accordance with the SDGs agenda 2030.

They were informed that the scorecard has been developed to present a disaggregated picture of SDGs at district level.

The underlying objectives of the scorecard are to discover development challenges, identify policy gaps, make informed policy decisions, monitor the progress on SDGs at the district level, conduct a comparative analysis of districts and improve optimal resource allocation.

The committee appreciated the efforts of the unit in making the SDGs localization process more viable and visible in the province.

After detailed deliberation, the forum approved all agenda items and decided that Provincial SDGs Framework shall be presented to the KP cabinet for approval; PC-1 checklist shall be made supplementary annexure with PC-1 and shall be shared with Resource Centre of the P&DD.

It was decided that the Planning Cells shall be capacitated and engaged to integrate SDGs in the planning process; all departments shall prepare own sectoral policies in line with SDGs targets set out in the framework.

The forum also decided that District SDGs Scorecard would be published in the form of a catalogue and its spectrum shall be broadened, adding all departments shall use the catalogue as the base for future planning and resource allocation.