Bahrain well ahead in SDGs, says UN official

Manama : Bahrain’s leading role in supporting United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) was hailed yesterday by a top UN official. 

This came as Amin El-Sharkawi, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, spoke about a voluntary or optional report which the UN expects countries to develop detailing their experience in adopting the SDGs. 

Bahrain has prepared the report and submitted it for review at the high-level political forum of the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July of 2018.

This, El-Sharkawi said, reflects Bahrain’s “high sense and a moral commitment to achieving these goals.” 

The agency, he said, is looking forward to transferring Bahrain’s experiences to other countries and introducing Bahrain’s advanced programmes, projects and management in the development fields to those countries. 

Bahrain’s progress in SDGs is “clearly reflected in the Government’s Action Plan 2015-2018 and the Country Plan signed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as the Strategic Partnership Framework with the United Nations’ agencies for the years 2018-2022,” said El-Sharkawi highlighting that this is also boosting Bahrain in its economic vision 2030.

“The UN wants countries to listen to all voices of civil society, the private sector, parliament and academic to enrich this report and include their views and proposals in it,” said El Sharkawi. 

The move, he said, will help UN to transfer successful experiences from other countries, which have adopted sustainable development goals, especially with respect to environmental projects, infrastructure, social development and others.

El-Sharkawi stressed that the UN would continue providing technical and technological expertise to integrate sustainable development goals according to Bahrain’s requirements. 

“We at the United Nations have taken upon ourselves the task of supporting countries, both locally and regionally, in their efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals through national initiatives aimed at spreading awareness of the culture of these goals, and how to integrate them into society,” added El-Sharkawi. 

“We held different workshops for this purpose for all sectors and components of society in various sectors, notably - youth, women and persons with disabilities,” he pointed out.

The United Nations Resident Coordinator stressed that the UN hopes to achieve maximum cooperation between the educational sector, at all its various stages and levels, and other parties responsible for the production of the report.