Speaking at the Sustainable Development Goals Summit under the 74th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York, Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering highlighted the importance of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 17 for Bhutan in achieving Sustainable Development and its 17 goals as she prepares to graduate from Least Developed Countries (LDC) by 2023.
SDG number 17 calls for the need for global partnerships for sustainable development to ensure that no one is left behind.
Presenting Bhutan’s progress on achieving sustainable development, Prime Minister highlighted on how Bhutan has localized the SDG into its development activities as guided by the development philosophy of Gross National Happiness which has been there way before the onset of SDG. He also underscored the importance His Majesty places on free quality healthcare and education as the best and efficient social levellers which go in line with SDGs slogan of leaving no one behind.
“And I am so happy to report here that last June we managed to make teachers in Bhutan most highly paid profession in the country almost to the tune of 75 per cent more than rest of the civil servants. With this, I am very hopeful that it will not only encourage the present teachers but also draw in more brains into this profession. And through that, I am very confident that we can live beyond SDGs.” said Dr Lotay Tshering, the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister also reported to the gathering that as per the United Nations’ recommendation Bhutan now has a Parliamentary committee to monitor the progress of SDGs:
“And I am happy to report again that we managed to make a joint committee on this composing of the upper body, Opposition and government MPs to monitor the development of SDGs. With this, we also have a national dashboard in the Gross National Happiness Commission to monitor on a daily basis the progress of SDGs. I am happy to report that I chair the Gross National Happiness Commission and they report to my office on a monthly basis. Our country has identified 17 National Key Result Areas (NKRAs). These are the front-loaded version of SDGs that we are targeting to achieve by 2023.”
Prime Minister thanked Bhutan’s development partners and mentioned that Bhutan’s way to achieve sustainable development and graduation from LDC depends heavily on SDG number 17. SDG number 17 calls for a global partnership to work towards reducing inequality, end poverty, protect the environment and promote justice and peace in implementing sustainable development.
“On the way forward we have identified a lot of very important national flagship programmes on digitalizing Bhutan, on the organic flagship, on sustainable use of water and many other activities for which we will definitely need help from all our well-meaning partners. On this front, of all the SDGs I would like to request the UN to have a closer look at SDG 17 that is more appropriate for Bhutan as we prepare to graduate from LDC group by 2023. With this, I look forward to working very closely and be one of the early achievers in SDGs,” added Lyonchhen.
The United Nations held its SDG Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York to bring together world leaders to review progress and identify measures to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs.
Phub Gyem
