Continuous monitoring and evaluation is vital to implement the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 using the local resources, government officials from different line ministries urged that in a daylong training programme held on 27 December at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

The training programme titled “SDGs Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation: Challenges and Way Forward” was organised by the Economic Relations Division (ERD) with support from UNDP’s Knowledge for Development Management (K4DM) project, where 32 government officials from relevant ministries including ERD took part, in order to build the capacity on SDGs implementation.

Attending the programme, participants emphasized the importance on proper knowledge management among the government officials to track the data on SDGs implementation for better monitoring and evaluation about the progress. It is equally important to measure the failures along with the success for achieving 100% SDGs.

Addressing the inaugural session of the training programme, Monowar Ahmed, Secretary, Economic Relation Division, said, “Government officials have a major role to play in implementing the SDGs, brining all the stakeholders including the private sectors together, along with their other day to day work.”

Sudipto Mukerjee, Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, highlighted the principle of SDGs, based on “5P's”—people, prosperity, planet, partnership and peace. He said, “The training is just a part of attaining the 5P’s’, but the real work should be done holistically.”

Among others Sultana Afroz, Additional Secretary, and Wing Chief (UN), ERD and National Project Director of K4DM, Mohammad Nazim Uddin, Joint Secretary, ERD and Deputy Project Director, K4DM also spoke at the inaugural session.

Dr. Md. Rezaul Bashar Siddique, Joint Secretary Economic Relations Division, explained SDGs Implementation: ERD’s Perspective as one of the training facilitators and Md. Mokammel Hossain, Additional Secretary (SDG), Prime Minister’s Office, briefed on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Bangladesh Perspective in interactive sessions. Later, participants came up with few recommendations on SDGs implementation.