National Conference on Accelerating Progress on Sustainable Development Goals
About
NITI Aayog organized the National Conference on Accelerating Progress on Sustainable Development Goals in partnership with the host Government of Rajasthan and technical partners UNDP and UN in India on 4th and 5th March 2024 in Jaipur. The two-day conference brought together senior government officials from 31 States and Union Territories and Government of India Ministries. Day one, which marked the inaugural session, concluded with Shri Suman Bery, Hon’ble Vice Chairman NITI Aayog, Dr. V.K. Paul, Hon’ble Member (Health) NITI Aayog, Shri Sudhansh Pant, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan and Shri Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator delivering key addresses to set the context.
The objectives of the conference were to convene States and UTs to take stock on SDG localization, exchange experiences on institutionalizing the SDGs at the subnational level, explore the SDG finance landscape at the national and subnational level and conclude by charting a path for accelerating progress at the mid-point of the 2030 SDG agenda. The second day of the workshop included technical sessions on on i)“Beyond SDG Monitoring: Translating Data Insights into Actionable Outcomes and Interventions”, ii) “Institutionalisation of the SDGs: Lessons from States”, iii)“Financing the SDGs” and iv)“Lessons from Localising SDGs in India and the Path Ahead.” To foster cross-learning and knowledge exchange, the conference included an SDG exhibition that provided a platform for States and UTs to showcase their technical products on localisation at their respective SDG booths.
“This conference exemplifies NITI’s role as a platform for sharing the learnings and good practices on SDGs from across the country. This being a moment of acceleration, I am enormously heartened by how much innovation is taking place in the States and UTs in pushing the SDGs down to the district, block and local level,” said Shri Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog in his keynote address. “This event is an example of NITI Aayog’s commitment to Cooperative Federalism. I would like to also thank our partners UNDP and UN in India for supporting innovative SDG efforts at the subnational level,” he added. Dr. Paul in his opening address remarked, “We must relentlessly pursue the SDGs. This conference, I am sure, will not only focus on the goals which are low-hanging or the high-impact ones alone but also the tough ones as well.”
“Accelerating progress on the SDGs is a stepping stone for a Viksit Bharat and Viksit Rajasthan. I am sure the conference will further strengthen our collective efforts,” said Shri Sudhansh Pant, Chief Secretary, Government of Rajasthan in his welcome address. Emphasizing the urgency to accelerate development outcomes at the subnational levels, Dr. Yogesh Suri, Senior Adviser (SDGs), NITI Aayog, said, “It is widely agreed that India will play a leading role in determining the relative success of the SDGs in the world and our States and UTs will play the instrumental role in this journey.”
“I wish to commend NITI Aayog for leading this truly impressive level of SDG localisation, scaling up monitoring the SDGs at the national and sub-national levels,” said Shri Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator.
Dr. G.P. Samanta, Chief Statistician of India cum Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Shri Chanchal Kumar, Secretary, MDoNER and Shri Ramesh Meena, Additional. Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu participated in the first technical session chaired by Shri Suman Bery, Hon’ble Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog on “Beyond SDG Monitoring: Translating Data Insights into Actionable Outcomes and Interventions”. Commending the effort and progress on SDG monitoring at the state level, Hon’ble Vice Chairman emphasized that based on the data insights, answering the question of what actions may lead to what SDG or development outcome –will determine our success in the run-up to 2030 and to Viksit Bharat 2047.
Dr. VK Paul, Hon’ble Member, NITI Aayog chaired the second session on “Institutionalisation of the SDGs: Lessons from States” with panellists Shri Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary (Planning), Government of Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Ashutosh Ojha, DDG(SSD), MoSPI, Ms Caitlin Wiesen, Resident Representative a.i. UNDP India and Dr Manoj Kumar Pant, ACEO, CPPGG, Department of Planning, Government of Uttarakhand. “We must translate the gains of SDG monitoring to actioning –focusing especially on the challenging SDGs,” observed Dr. VK Paul. “Regular review and monitoring mechanisms at the administrative and political leadership levels will be crucial to maintaining the momentum on SDGs and on targeting outcomes”, he added.
“Financing the SDGs” was the theme of session 3 chaired by Dr. Krishna Kant Pathak, Secretary, Finance (Revenue), Government of Rajasthan. Panellists of this session -Ms. Geetu Joshi, Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India, Shri Pankaj, Special Secretary, Finance and Director, SJHIFM, Government of Haryana, Shri Vivek Misra, Regional Public Finance Specialist, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Asia Pacific Regional Hub and Shri Christopher Garroway, Economist, United Nations Resident Coordinator Office (UNRCO). Session 3 explored potential areas for governments at the national and sub-national levels to engage with SDG budget-tagging, sustainable finance instruments including blended finance instruments. Case studies from peer countries in the Asia-Pacific region were also shared along with subnational experiences in India.
Dr. Yogesh Suri, Senior Adviser (SDGs), chaired the fourth and final session on “Lessons from Localising SDGs in India and the Path Ahead.” Shri K Senthil Kumar, Principal Secretary, Planning & Development Department, Government of Bihar, Shri R Ramakrishnan, Principal Secretary & Development Commissioner, Government of Nagaland, Shri Vikas Anand, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India and Shri Ravi Jain, Secretary & Commissioner (Panchayati Raj), Government of Rajasthan were the discussants. Key outlines of the path ahead –from leveraging localisation for moving towards SDG acceleration while focusing on SDG data-based action plans, budgeting and innovative financing, south – south cooperation, emerged as some of the future steps.
National Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals is part of the NITI Workshop Series –under its core mandate of fostering cooperative federalism and providing a convening platform for the exchange of knowledge and good practices among States and UTs.
Quotes
Previous
Next
Launch of the SDG Knowledge Hub
The launch of UNDP ‘SDG Knowledge Hub’; was done by Shri Bhajanlal Sharma, Hon’ble Chief Minister, Rajasthan in the presence of Shri Suman Bery, Hon’ble Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog and Dr. V.K. Paul, Hon’ble Member, NITI Aayog. The UNDP SDG Knowledge hub is a one-stop portal which brings together good practices, SDG indicator frameworks, SDG linked budgets, among other knowledge products produced by States and UTs. The portal also includes i) an online e-certification course on SDGs, customized to the Indian context, aimed at developing capacities and ii) a section on “SDGs at School” which provides knowledge pieces for trainers and young adults to engage on the 2030 agenda.
