Bangladesh is in the fourth year of its journey towards attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It is a high time to track and review the measures taken till date and the methods being used to deliver the SDGs in the country. The International Development Partners of Bangladesh expressed their interest in supporting Bangladesh in attaining the SDGs, particularly in the areas of human rights and good governance. While the current practice of Government to Government (G2G) support will continue in coming days, the international development community also gave importance to engaging and providing support to civil society organisations in the process.

These observations were made today, Wednesday 6 March 2019, at an event titled Goal Groups’ Consultation with International Development Partners at BRAC Centre, Dhaka. The event was organised by the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh as part of its ongoing initiative of organising a “National Consultation on the Progress of SDGs in Bangladesh towards the HLPF 2019”. The meeting of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development of this year will be held in July in New York, which will be followed by the SDGs Summit in September 2019.

Keeping the HLPF 2019 in view, the Platform is preparing review reports on the identified SDGs of HLPF 2019—i.e. Goal 4, 8, 10, 13, 16 & 17. The interested Partner Organisations of the Platform have formed six Goal Groups (GGs) to prepare the citizen’s review reports on their chosen Goals. These reports will, mainly, focus on the progress of the SDGs with reflection from the contribution of the non-state actors in delivering the SDGs in Bangladesh with a view to promote the pledge of Leave No One Behind.

The preliminary findings of these reports were shared at this event with the representatives from the International Development Partners for their comments and suggestions. The event was attended by representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Food and Agriculture Organization, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, High Commission of Canada, Embassy of Germany, Australian High Commission, International Labour Organization, Korea International Cooperation Agency among others.

The event was chaired by Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Convenor of the Platform, and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Core Group Member of the Platform, and Distinguished Fellow, CPD, Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, CPD, and Ms Anisatul Fatema Yousuf, Coordinator of the Platform, and Director, Dialogue & Communication, CPD spoke at the event. The CPD is the Secretariat of the Citizen’s Platform.