United Nations in Belarus hosts a meeting of the UN Resident Coordinator a.i in Belarus with the National SDG Coordinator

During the meeting the UN Resident Coordinator a.i and the National SDG Coordinator discussed preparations for the next meeting of the Council of Sustainable Development in August, where the UN will be presenting results of its work in 2022, as well as for the forthcoming 2023 SDG Summit in New York.

The UN in Belarus values Belarus’ commitment to SDGs and for incorporating SDGs in its national programme documents and the meeting of the SDG Council is a good opportunity to have an open discussion with national partners, which also helps to have a better understanding of the national needs and priorities.

“The Council of Sustainable Development has potential to be even more collaborative, if multi-stakeholder engagement is expanded, including civil society organizations, which will be also in line with SDG implementation”, said Erol Arduç.

The SDG Summit which will take place on 18-19 September in New York is aimed to serve as a wake-up call to all countries, and to remind that it is vital to keep the promise of SDGs and that acceleration is needed.

The UN Secretary-General encourages Member States to put forward commitments on national and global levels. On a national level Member States are encouraged to outline a forward-looking National Commitment to SDG Transformation at the SDG Summit.

In accordance with the SDG Index, Belarus is well-positioned, ranked 34 out of 166 countries, with almost 78 per cent progress to SDGs completed. At the same time, Belarus should be even more ambitious in its commitments to SDGs.

“The UN in Belarus is willing to support Belarus in the process of re-assessing its SDG ambitions to identify evidence based and concrete areas, where additional acceleration is needed and increased commitments are possible. This work can be interlinked with the ongoing preparation of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development until 2040”, stressed the UN Resident Coordinator a.i in Belarus during the meeting.

Joint work of the national partners and UN can highly contribute to the preparation of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development until 2040, while at the SDG Summit in September 2023, Belarus might indicate its evolving work with UN regarding SDG Transformation with the aim to present its results during the Summit of the Future (September 2024) and potential incorporation of increased SDG targets in the National Strategy for Sustainable Development until 2040.