Sustainable Development Goals have been marked as to be the most ambitious and important agenda for the prosperous future of the globe. All the states are committed to achieving SDGs before 2030. Concerning Pakistan, the country has been marked to be the first state to adopt SDGs as its national agenda through a resolution passed in 2016. The country right from that time has been working to achieve the goals of sustainability.
Recently, the SDGs Task Force of the National Assembly of Pakistan held Two-Day National Meet on 27th and 28th July 2022, in collaboration with the Mustahkan Parlimaan Project (the funded project of the European Union). It would be not wrong to say that Covid19 posed some unprecedented challenges in all the socio-politico and economic spheres of Pakistan. The main agenda of the National Meet was to review the progress of Pakistan on the implementation of the SDGs agenda in the country in the context of Post-Covid19 challenges regarding its implementation.
The influential National Meet worked as a platform for all the SDGs Task Forces of provinces, Legislative Assemblies of Gilgit Baltistan and AJK, National Assembly and Senate, experts from academia and civil society along with Planning and Development Departments to sit together for the real implementation of SDGs in Pakistan.
As the current challenges faced by the country have made it difficult to achieve the goals of sustainability, therefore, the main purpose of the National Meet was to integrate SDGs into the form of policy and plan for a sustainable future for Pakistan. It has now become an hour’s need to fill the gap of collecting the data on the progress of achieving the goals of SDGs. In that regard, Parliament and all the Parliamentary institutions can play a pivotal role in terms of allocating the budget for its fulfillment before 2030. In the words of Romina Khurshid Alam, Convener of Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat National Assembly of Pakistan, “ Sustainable development is dependent upon High-level political leadership, participation of stakeholders in policy-making, decisions based on data & solutions that aim to integrate all dimensions of sustainable development”.
The novel Coronavirus highlighted the peculiarities which were existed in our health system for a long time. As ensuring Good Health and well-being is one of the main goals of SDGs, therefore, the National Meet emphasized this ambitious agreement to prioritize Goal 3, by encouraging Federal, Provincial and Legislative Governments on adequate financial and Human Resources on health in the light of Covid-19. Above all, National Meet also highlighted the important role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the real implementation of SDGs. It would be appropriate to say that country has made considerable progress on Sustainable Development Goals, therefore, mainstreaming these goals in National policies can lead to a more fruitful and prosperous future for Pakistan
