Strengthening partnerships to support the development of a Comprehensive National Finance Facility for the SDGs in Kazakhstan

Meeting of partners of the UN Joint Program with the participation of the Secretariat on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

It is necessary to approach the formation of a national funding mechanism in a comprehensive manner: institutionalize the structure, determine the scope of existing institutions, agree on a roadmap — said the adviser on financing the SDGs of the UNDP regional Hub Suren Poghosyan at the meeting of the partners of the UN Joint Program on July 16 this year.

The meeting of the partners of the UN Joint Program was held with the aim of supporting and expanding existing partnerships that are important for the successful implementation of socio-economic policy in Kazakhstan, by evaluating the results achieved in the first year of its implementation and exploring new opportunities for effective future cooperation.

Irina Goryunova, UNDP Resident Representative Advisor, moderated the presentation of the progress and main results of the program. The participants were greeted by Vice Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alibek Kuantyrov, Head of the Cooperation Department of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan Johannes Stenbaek Madsen, UNICEF Representative in Kazakhstan Arthur van Diesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan Yakup Berish.

SDG financing expert Suren Poghosyan spoke at the first session of the meeting, during which the participants discussed the issues of transition from the assessment of financing for development (DFA) to the KNMF Roadmap.  

"The issue of harmonization of strategic and budget planning of the SDGs remains very important: it is necessary to determine how much financial resources will be needed for the implementation of certain strategic initiatives," said the moderator of the session, Director of the SDG Secretariat Bakytgul Khambar.

According to Suren Poghosyan, the main components for the introduction of integrated national funding mechanisms (INFM) are:

• Analysis and diagnostics.
• Funding strategy.
• Monitoring, review and reporting.    
• Management and coordination mechanisms.

The speaker also spoke about the process and the main stages of the implementation of the INFM and about the features of their implementation in different countries (the experience of Ukraine, Sierra Leone and other countries).

The next speaker of the session, Deputy Director of the SDG Secretariat Altyngul Utebayeva spoke about the main conclusions and recommendations of the assessment of development funding in Kazakhstan.

"First of all, it is necessary to consider those sources of funding that have potential," Altyngul Utebayeva stressed, speaking about the directions of conducting DFA in Kazakhstan.

The expert summarized the main conclusions of the DFA and proposed recommendations for strengthening the components of the INFM. Among them are:

1)     Development of a global strategy for funding the SDGs.

2)     Coordination of the budget with planning and financing.

3)     Strengthening the monitoring and accountability mechanisms for the SDGs.

In conclusion, the speaker presented a list of specific steps for the implementation of the INFM in the country.

In the second session of the event, issues of budgeting taking into account the SDGs were discussed. The session was moderated by Zhanybek Aigazin, General Director of the Center for Applied Economics Research LLP.

First speaker, international expert on DFA Gregory De Paepe presented conceptual approaches to SDG budgeting in Kazakhstan (steps 1-3 of the UNDP methodology) and the possibility of coordinating the current budget with the SDGs using the experience of Mexico and other possible approaches.

In particular, the expert presented an analysis of possible challenges to achieving the SDGs and tools to support the SDG budgeting in Kazakhstan.

According to him, for the successful integration of the SDGs into the budget process in Kazakhstan, it is necessary to have such factors as high-level political support, nationalization and localization of the SDGs in the country, formalization of dialogue and cooperation with government agencies and stakeholders, and so on. 

The second speaker, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan Dulat Zhekebayev spoke about the ongoing work on the development of the consolidated children's budget and the Kazakhstan Index of Child Welfare.

"The requirements for children's budgeting in Kazakhstan are increasing in terms of increasing the efficiency of state expenditures to create a safe and comfortable environment for children," the speaker noted. He also said that the work on creating a methodology for the formation of the children's budget began in the country since the beginning of the year.

"As part of the NLA(Normative Legal Acts), within the framework of the state program for the development of education and science until 2025, the concept of a children's budget has been introduced, specific values of target indicators have been set and the goal has been set to increase the amount of spending on children by the state annually," said the deputy chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights.

Elena Danilova-Cross, a representative of the UNDP Regional Hub in Istanbul, spoke about the integration of the SDGs into national budgets.

The speaker mentioned the ongoing work on further improving the methodology of rapid integrated assessment (RIA) of national budgets.

"We collected data on budget programs for RIA by the method of expert assessment for three ministries: the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population," the expert said.

 According to her, as part of the prioritization of public spending on the SDGs through the RIA, work has been carried out on: the transition from evaluating the declared financial resources within the framework of working strategies and programs to labeling the codes of the Unified Budget Classification of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the transition from global SDGs to national goals and objectives adopted in the Republic of Kazakhstan; marking the national tasks of the SDGs on children and gender.

During the discussion session, the participants were invited to exchange views on the following issues:

1)     Do you agree that the implementation of the SDGs should be further integrated into the country's budget system for a more objective assessment of progress by indicators in accordance with the allocated amounts of funding?

2)     To what extent is the SDG budgeting model in Mexico applicable in Kazakhstan?

3)     At what stages of the implementation of the algorithm for integrating the SDGs into the budget process in Kazakhstan should significant attention be paid and why?

Director of the SDG Secretariat Bakytgul Khambar spoke on the first issue of the discussion: "We agree with the opinion that the implementation of the SDGs should not be limited to monitoring national SDG indicators. The concept of "sustainable development" should not be limited only to those indicators that have been developed and adopted to date. Because sustainable development is the unity of all economic, social, and environmental processes. We must make it clear to everyone that they are part of sustainable development." 

"To effectively achieve the SDGs, it is necessary to implement and integrate the SDG principles into the budget system," concluded the Director of the SDG Secretariat.

 See also: Working meeting of the SDG Secretariat: Ways to strengthen and budget the SDGs