Planning Minister Muhammad Abdul Mannan has said Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is strongly committed to both SDGs and effective development partnership. “The current economic outlook suggests that the country is progressing well towards achieving SDGs,” the minister, now in New York, said Saturday while highlighting the progress of Bangladesh in the implementation of SDGs under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, reports BSS.
Mannan was delivering the opening remarks as the Co-Chairs of Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation (GPEDC) in its Senior-Level Meeting (SLM) held at the UN Headquarters in New York, said a press release received here today. The Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury also participated in the event. Both the Speaker and the Minster are staying in New York to participate at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) at the UN.
“We have been able to reduce the poverty level to 21.8 percent, which was 40 percent in 2005. Creating jobs; managing inequalities; ensuring gender parity and inclusiveness; and forging effective partnership with development actors are our strategic approaches for sustaining the growth momentum”. He added.
Referring to the Second High-Level Meeting of GPEDC held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2016, the Minister said, since Nairobi, Bangladesh as a co-chair has tried its best to make GPEDC an effective platform to realize its mandate as Bangladesh was part of several dedicated initiatives within GPEDC.
He also expressed Bangladesh’s continued commitment to GPEDC and its mandate towards attaining SDGs and urged the member states and the stakeholders to support this unique platform. Deputy Secretary General of UN Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of OECD Jeffrey Schlagenhauf, Director, UNDP Ulrika Modeer and 4th Co-Chair of the Reality of Aid Africa Vitalice Meja were the other speakers of the opening session. The session was moderated by Kenyan Entrepreneur and Media Personality Julie Gichuru.
The speakers opined that collective efforts and active regional and global partnerships are needed to realize the mandate of GPEDC and SDGs. They hoped that this SLM will galvanize governments, civil society and other actors into the ‘gear change’ needed to accelerate SDG implementation at the country-level and globally. Besides the member states, there were huge participation from civil society, academies, private sectors and trade unions at the event.
The Permanent Representative of Bangladesh Ambassador at the UN Masud Bin Momen, Senior Secretary of Bangladesh’s National Parliament Dr. Zafor Ahmed Khan and Secretary of the Economic Relations Division Monowar Ahmed participated the senior-level meeting of GPEDC.