GUWAHATI, Feb 27 - A two-day interaction with MLAs of the Assam Legislative Assembly on understanding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and a detailed discussion on the �Assam Agenda 2030: Strategies and actions for achieving the SDGs in Assam�, held under the initiative of Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami, concluded here today.
The event focused on bringing together the elected representatives of the State to envision a better future and sustainable world by 2030 through SDGs.
During the event, the MLAs were briefed on the subject by experts from across the country.
Among the experts who interacted with the MLAs were Dr Usha Jumani, consultant and research scholar; Dr Devi Prasad Shetty, chairman of Narayana Healthcare; Dr Mihir Kanti Choudhury, Advisor to the Government of Assam; Anurag Goel, SDGs Advisor to UNDP; Prof Sabastian Morris from IIM Ahmedabad; Dr Navroz K Dubash from the Centre for Policy Research; Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Ashok Lahiri, Chairman of Bandhan Bank.
Senior officials from various departments presented their strategies and action plans for achieving the SDGs by 2030.
During the interaction, Speaker Goswami stressed the need for political leaders to be able to engage more closely with the SDGs for achieving the goals by 2030.
He emphasised the need for MLAs and bureaucrats to work together and the need for more regular meetings and interactions among them.
Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma laid stress on the need to look at finance and its components through the SDG lens to increase accountability in terms of finances.
VK Pipersenia, Chief Secretary, said Assam is moving well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of SDGs and added that this needs to be kept up.
MLAs from all parties interacted closely with the resource persons and asked questions on these issues.
The two-day programme ended with Speaker Goswami declaring formulation of a Legislators� Forum for SDGs which will comprise members of all political parties and will meet once every quarter. He also declared that in each session of the Assembly at least one SDG will be discussed on the floor of the House.
The Speaker declared that a SDG Youth Fellowship Programme would be launched where one young person will be designated to each MLA through a process of selection for assisting them and integrating SDGs in their constituencies.
The SDGs, which have 193 countries as signatories, is a landmark agreement which set forth a set of seventeen goals which are to be achieved by 2030 and Assam was the first state in the country to adopt these 17 goals and to come out with a Vision Document which lays down the strategies for achieving these international goals.
The State government has already started the process of integrating SDGs into its policies by training officials on the SDGs and developing strategies and actions for achieving these goals by 2030.
It has started the process of localising by taking it to the districts and integrating it into the outcome budgeting process.
The government has set up a Centre for SDGs for coordinating the activities of the State. The Transformation and Development Department is the nodal department for the SDGs in Assam.
