ISLAMABAD: Pakistan urgently needs a comprehensive country review on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mainstreaming into development projects, data collection and reporting mechanisms to ensure sharp increase in performance.

“The country is severely lagging behind on all SDGs except SDG-1 ‘No poverty’ and SDG-13 ‘Climate action’ where it is on the right direction as mentioned in the Sustainable Development Report (SDR) 2020.”

These views were expressed by Devcom-Pakistan director Munir Ahmed while presenting a country review of SDGs as reported in the SDR 2020. The report is the annual research publication by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) set up in 2012.

Pakistan is ranked 134th with a total score of 56.17, much lower than some of the least developed African countries. The UN report on SDGs shows a bit more performance than the SDR.

SDSN mobilises global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Speaking at a webinar on ‘Country review: Pakistan’s way forward on SDGs’ Mr Ahmed said: “There is no progress on eight SDGs in the five years since the UN SDGs regime was launched.

“There is slight improvement in Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG-3), Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG-6), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG-8) and Peace Justice and Strong Institutions (SDG-16). Pakistan reported nothing on Reduced Inequalities (SDG-10) and Responsible Production and Consumption (SDG-12),” he said.

Research analyst Adil Rashid spoke on lacunas hampering Pakistan’s performance on SDGs, including bureaucratic hurdles and the usual habit of slowing down the process.

“SDGs are not a separate phenomenon but a mechanism to measure the performance of different sectors on certain indicators to evaluate overall progress of the country on social, economic and environmental indicators. Mainstreaming of these indicators, monitoring and reporting are the three main components which could be easily handled by coordination among the stakeholders,” he said.

He said there is no vertical monitoring and reporting system in the ministries.

He suggested having relevant technical experts on all SDGs in the federal and provincial SDGs secretariat for specialised handling of each SDG. He also suggested that Pakistan’s SDGs regime shall be under the president while Nadra’s data could support in developing rapid assessment of each SDG.

Ali Kemal, the economic policy adviser on SDGs, said the sustainable development report 2020 was based on old data of up to 2016 while Pakistan has shown some progress lately but not reported in the report. However, the UNDP report has included the data Pakistan provided to them.

He showed his reservation on Pakistan’s reporting mechanism on climate action that has ‘remarkable progress.’

Dr Nuzhat Khan from the National Institute of Oceanography found a little disappointed by coordination and facilitation by the Planning Commission. She suggested improving the feedback and inclusion systems for stakeholders and partner organisations to enhance the SDGs performance.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2020