On August 20-22, in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan on the Issyk Kul coast, the multilateral forum of North and Central Asia on the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) was held, organized by the Secretariat of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
About 80 representatives from 9 countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as SCO, ECE and UN specialized agencies took part in the forum.
The head of the Division for Statistical Observations of Education, Healthcare, Science and Innovation of the Department of Social and Sustainable Development Statistics of the State committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on statistics - Jakhongir Qambarov took part in the forum’s work.
Relying on the ESCAP’s information, it was noted in the forum, that the subregion’s countries succeed in eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and in ensuring quality education. For a number of SDGs, the overall progress is relatively better than that of other countries of the Asia-Pacific region: in particular, the speech is about clean water and sanitation, peace, public justice and effective institutions. At the same time, it is necessary to take urgent measures for achieving goals such as gender equality, providing citizens with decent work and creating sustainable cities.
The video message of deputy secretary general of the United Nations, ESCAP executive secretary for Asia and the Pacific - Armida Salsiu Alisjabanu was shown in the forum. She noted three important directions for accelerating progress in achieving the SDGs.
The first is to mobilize additional investments in social protection, general health care, providing cleaner energy and a climatically sustained infrastructure.
The second is to focus on gender equality.
The third is to make cities sustainable by eliminating among others the risk of polluting air.
Countries discussed the current position with achievements of sustainable development goals. In addition, they identified priority areas for accelerating achievements of the most important goals.
The results of the event will be presented in the next Asia-Pacific forum for sustainable development.
Information service.