SDGs

On March 23 this year, the next Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development began its work, which will continue until March 26. The event i.organized by the ESCAP Secretariat.

The annual Inclusive Intergovernmental Forum is a regional platform to support countries in implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The 8th forum is dedicated to the theme "Sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region". Despite the fact that this year's forum is held in a mixed format, it has become a platform for identifying regional trends and difficulties in achieving the SDGs by 2030, consolidating and sharing experiences.

This forum is attended by a delegation from Kazakhstan in an online format. The Economic Research Institute is represented by the Director of the Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat (hereinafter referred to as the SDG Secretariat) Bakytgul Khambar.

The ERI expert spoke at a session on linking the national, regional and global dimensions of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Khambar also shared information on the nationalization and localization of the Sustainable Development Goals in Kazakhstan, noting that Kazakhstan, in close cooperation with UN agencies, has implemented an institutional architecture to promote the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and is taking systematic measures to integrate the Agenda 2030 into the country's strategic planning.

According to the Director of the SDG Secretariat, today Kazakhstan has a corresponding normative document that allows ensuring the coverage of the Sustainable Development Goals by the documents of the state planning system.

Bakytgul Khambar also reported that this year an amendment was made to the Decree of the Government of Kazakhstan on the state planning system on the inclusion of SDG indicators in the documents of the state planning system. The Coordination Council for the Sustainable Development Goals has approved a list of national indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The expert also spoke about the measures taken to involve all stakeholders in the process of implementing the SDGs and to increase the capacity of experts:

• with the support of UN agencies, seminars are held on a systematic basis for civil servants and other interested persons in various areas of the Sustainable Development Goals;
• the website of the Economic Research Institute contains a business game "Mission-2030", developed with the support of the UNDP.

Summing up her speech, Khambar Bakytgul noted that at the end of 2020, Kazakhstan improved its rating by 12 points compared to last year. At the same time, improving the conditions for the implementation of the Agenda 2030, taking into account the interests of all stakeholders, is an important task in the long term.