We are happy to note that Bangladesh is on the right track to attain the global sustainable development goals by 2030 despite numerous challenges in her progressive journey.
It is apparent to all that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in reaching the goals set for 2020 under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The bold and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ensured that the SDGs remained well aligned with the national mid-term development plan, the 7th Five Year Plan, which ended in June 2020.
As very appropriately expressed by Zuena Aziz, the Principal Coordinator of SDGs for Bangladesh, that the foundation of SDGs is inclusively embodied in the phrase ‘Leaving no one behind’ and ‘Reach the furthest behind first’. Continuity of inclusive democracy and government policies for the past decade has helped in the continuity of the development of the country.
The people-centric development approach under the visionary and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been effectively focused on achieving the goals in a timely manner and reaching the erstwhile unreachable millions of our population who were left out from enjoying the benefits of our independence for decades.
However, the Voluntary National Review 2020 has identified some challenges which need to be attended for real time progress in the future. As a matter of fact, despite the sustained GDP growth, Bangladesh has been unable to reduce income inequality and some other indicators vital for continued progress of the society. Also though our health sector has been highly successful, attaining of Universal Health Coverage for the entire population is still a daunting challenge, particularly in the pandemic period. The technology divide has revealed the weaknesses in ensuring quality education at multilevel educational streams throughout the country. Furthermore with the increase in domestic migration, ensuring sustainable urbanisation remains a formidable challenge for the urban planners. Over time the climate vulnerability will continue to be a threat to our economy and will require intense planning and finance.
We are confident that the government will undertake effective target-oriented steps to facilitate domestic resource mobilisation at all desired levels for reaching all the goals for everyone.
