MINSK, 5 February (BelTA) – Twenty-five countries have confirmed their participation in the regional forum of the national coordinators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be held in Minsk, Marianna Shchetkina, Deputy Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic, National Coordinator for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, said in an interview with the ONT TV channel on 4 February, BelTA has learned.
The regional forum of national SDG coordinators from the countries of Europe and the CIS “Building a partnership to underpin national sustainable development efforts” will be held in Minsk on 21-22 February. “Some 25 states have already confirmed their participation. We have received a lot of applications from international organizations,” Marianna Shchetkina said. According to her, the German side also expressed the willingness to participate during the visit of the Belarusian delegation to Germany to discuss the SDGs and to study the German experience in achieving them.
When in Germany the Belarusian delegation held the meetings at different levels to discuss the specific areas of cooperation between the two countries and reached agreements on a number of projects. “On 7 February we are expecting a return visit at the invitation of our delegation. Meetings have been scheduled in Belarus' Economy Ministry and the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry to discuss the project of regional development through the prism of the SDGs with specific proposals and funding,” Marianna Shchetkina noted.
“Germany takes a leading position in the achievement of the SDGs because they started working on some of the goals and adopted the first program of sustainable development back in 2002. Today the Agenda-2030 combines a lot of areas and interrelated ambitious tasks to improve the well being of people, to ensure the decent life of every person,” Marianna Shchetkina said.
Belarus has already started to work on the implementation of the SDGs at the national level. The country has built the architecture to govern the process to achieve 17 goals on the Agenda-2030. The awareness raising campaign is underway to bring together not only the public sector but also businesses, associations and the population as a whole. It is important to explain what the SDGs are and why the participation of everyone is needed to achieve them, Marianna Shchetkina believes.
“Let's take simple examples: waste, pollution of the air or drinking water. These should be minimized. It is better if they are eliminated altogether. It is important that we leave a healthy planet to future generations,” said Marianna Shchetkina. “If we take a close look at the Sustainable Development Goals, they are universal and integrated. They can be broken down into five components: people, peace, planet, development and partnership,” she added.
