On June 30, a working meeting was held on the topic "Ways to strengthen the SDGs and gender-oriented budgeting of the SDGs" in Kazakhstan.organized by the Secretariat for Sustainable Development Goals of Economic Research Institute JSC (ERI) with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Kazakhstan.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Finance, Education and Science, Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the representative of the UN Women in Kazakhstan.  

Opening the event, Director of the SDG Secretariat Bakytgul Khambar noted that for six years Kazakhstan has been implementing the SDG agenda until 2030. 

"The country has established norms for implementing sustainable development at the legislative level, but implementation mechanisms, including budgeting for the SDGs, have not yet been worked out, " said Bakytgul Khambar.  

According to her, the working meeting wa.organized by UNDP as part of a joint program with ERI to integrate the principles of implementing SDG financing into the state planning system.

In 2020, Economic Research Institute JSC and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed an agreement to provide ERI with expert and analytical support in the implementation of the Joint UN Program on the Harmonization of Financing Measures and Policies with the Sustainable Development Goals for the Development of an Integrated National Financing Mechanism for the SDGs in Kazakhstan for 2020-2022.

Within the framework of this agreement, in March of this year, ERI completed an analysis of the Assessment of development financing — " said the Deputy Chairman of the ERI Management Board Baurzhan Mukan.

The event consisted of two sessions.

At the first session, the methodology for budgeting for the SDGs (B4SDG) was presented. The presentation of the methodology was conducted by its main author Suren Poghosyan (Ph. D., Advisor on SDG Financing at the UNDP Istanbul Regional Center for Europe and the CIS).

An independent international consultant spoke about the feasibility study of SDG budgeting in KazakhstanGregory De Paepe. The speaker also presented the example of Mexico on budgeting the SDGs.

The program specialist of the Istanbul Regional Hub of the UNDP spoke about the current critical work on the comprehensive assessment of national budgets for the SDGsElena Danilova-Cross.

"Since 2019, Kazakhstan has been actively working to assess the financing of the implementation of the SDGs, which was conducted by ERI with the support of UNDP and with the participation of independent experts. The analysis showed that the main source of financing for the SDG budgeting is state financing, "the director of the SDG in Kazakhstan concluded.

The second session discussed key issues of the SDG budgeting methodology (B4SDG). During the joint discussion, the participants presented their vision on five key issues of the SDG budgeting methodology:

1. Why? (Why does the country need SDG budgeting, and who are the main

users/ beneficiaries?)

2. Who? (Who will be the main responsible body for the work on

SDG budgeting?)

3. What? (What does SDG budgeting cover?)

4. When? (When the budget cycle will use information about

SDG?)

5. How? (How do the business processes of the public finance management system adapt the SDG budgeting?)

Following the results of the event, the following steps are planned for the implementation of the SDG budgeting in Kazakhstan, including creating a roadmap for budgeting the SDGs by the end of this year.

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25 September 2015 at the headquarters of UN in New York, world leaders, including heads of States and governments adopted the Agenda for Sustainable Development for the period up to 2030, which includes a list of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at eradicating poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, as well as addressing problems related to climate change.

Kazakhstan, as a country that has committed itself to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, is actively working in all directions and is ready to contribute to the successful achievement of global goals. 

The Coordination Council for Sustainable Development Goals, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, was established on the instructions of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 15, 2018. The coordinating body of the Council's work is the Ministry of National Economy. 

The role of the Secretariat is the Economic Research Institute JSC, which provides expert and analytical support.

On June 7, 2021, by the order of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin, Economic Research JSC was officially approved by the Secretariat of the Coordinating Council for Sustainable Development Goals.

See also: Order of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan On the approval of the ERI by the Secretariat of the Coordinating Council for the SDGs