National forum on SDGs discusses opportunities to fast track action to achieve targets

As a national effort to reenergize commitment and action of key stakeholders to achieve the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a forum on ‘Sri Lanka’s Sustainable Development Trajectories and Pathways’ was convened by the Sustainable Development Council on August 29 under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena.

2023 marks the mid-point of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. Although Sri Lanka has made great strides to move the country on a sustainable path amidst a myriad of challenges, taking stock of progress made so far as a nation and identifying critical challenges, enablers and pathways to fast-track progress on the SDGs in the changing context remain important.

The forum saw the launching of the Sri Lanka National SDG Dashboard and the Integrated SDG insights analysis conducted for Sri Lanka offering insights and analysis on Sri Lanka’s progress in achieving the SDGs and highlighting essential trends, scenarios, and strategies to accelerate progress. It also facilitated expert reflections on key areas that could have a catalytic impact on driving transformational change.

The National SDG Dashboard highlighted the considerable progress Sri Lanka has made on SDG data availability such that Sri Lanka has been able to secure the 13th place among 58 countries in the region on data availability on SDG indictors. The SDG Dashboard revealed that while Sri Lanka has made considerable progress in eradicating extreme poverty, reducing undernourishment and malnutrition and enabling access to basic services such as drinking water, sanitation, electricity, health care, education, etc, it is important to step up efforts to diversify the economy to achieve higher levels of growth and the need to address multidimensional poverty, issues related to food security including stabilization of food prices.

The integrated SDG insights analysis showed specific accelerator pathways that hold the promise of driving Sri Lanka’s progress towards SDGs. It was shown that if actions are directed towards ensuring equal rights to ownership of economic resources and access to basic services and technology, sustainable food production and resilient agricultural practices, enhancing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix, achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, strengthening effective, accountable, and transparent institutions and mobilizing financial resources from multiple sources, the country could have multiplier effects on accelerating progress on number of SDGs.

Delivering the keynote address, President Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed confidence in Sri Lanka’s potential to develop independently and underscored the importance of diversifying financial resources beyond traditional channels and engaging the private sector as a critical stakeholder to drive the country’s sustainable development initiatives. In a bid to foster competitiveness and navigate economic challenges, President Wickremesinghe highlighted Sri Lanka’s proactive efforts to overhaul its economy and its efforts to attract foreign investments and capitalize on emerging markets drawing inspiration from successful models such as Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The President further conveyed an unwavering commitment to self-reliance, economic transformation, and sustainable growth positioning Sri Lanka on a trajectory of progress and resilience.

The forum was attended by cabinet ministers, state ministers, secretaries to ministries, heads of key government institutions, international development partners, selected members of the private sector, civil society, and the academia.