Date and Venue

 2–4 November, Venue: Hotel “Ramada,”Almaty, Kazakhstan

Background

In September 2015, the world community agreed on a transformative agenda for people, planet, and prosperity called the 2030 Agenda and a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including recognition of extreme poverty as the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. The Agenda, though global in scope, its implementation will differ among countries and regions, thus requires adaptation and tailoring to national, sub-national and local circumstances and contexts.

The Central Asian region is facing environmental, economic, and social challenges that need to be addressed in the nearest future to ensure transition to a more sustainable development trajectory. In this context, SDGs offer a turning point for the countries to help overcome the challenges and support the countries in their transition towards an inclusive green economy. Implementation of SDGs at the regional and national level requires an active involvement and partnerships of all actors from Central Asian countries and policy makers, representing ministries, national agencies, regional institutions, civil society organizations, private sector and the public at large.

Within the UN system, UNDP, UN Environment and others are working collaboratively to support Governments in the planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting, and review of policies and actions linked to the 2030 Agenda.  UNDP-UN Environment have been supporting efforts (through the Poverty-Environment Initiative[1]) to improve the ability of governments to steer natural resources better, to reduce poverty, promote environmental sustainability and meet the intertwined challenges set by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mainstreaming poverty–environment linkages into national development has shown benefits that can address SDGs implementation. UNDP and UN Enviornment have been mainstreaming poverty and environment objectives in national and sub-national development planning in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, since 2010.

UNDP Country Offices countries have already started activities on SDGs mainstreaming into national strategies and plans. In most of the Central Asia countries the United Nations Country Team has launched a series of consultations to discuss the SDGs and ways of their localization.

In order to take stock of what has been achieved thus far in the SDG dialogue for Central Asia and to exchange experience from the mainstreaming of sustainable development concerns UNDP, and UN Environment are proposing a joint regional conference on a “Common Vision for Agenda 2030 in Central Asia”. This conference will be undertaken in conjunction with CAREC[2] as a regional entity working on environmental issues across central Asia and with support of UN Women.

Vision

The Regional Conference is envisaged to establish a regional dialogue on SDGs with a distinct focus on Green Economy and delivering on the environmental dimension. The event will raise awareness, develop the capacity, and strengthen the engagement of regional and national stakeholders with respect to Central Asian sustainability issues and the possible ways to address them jointly, through potential alignment of regional and national strategies with the SDGs. In that sense, it will serve as a platform to explore opportunities for developing joint regional actions for Agenda 2030.

Objectives

• To strengthen cooperation between national institutions (key authorities) and other stakeholders (NGOs, Academia, regional Civil Society Organizations) on SDGs implementation at regional and national levels;
• To inform on the latest developments with global, regional and national processes on follow up and review of the Agenda 2030 and the ways that sustainable development can materialize in Central Asia with a particular focus on poverty and environment nexus;
• To introduce the experience from the elaboration of the education curriculum and the joint vision for Agenda 2030 that was developed during the CAREC regional training of trainers on SDGs;
• To take stock and further explore sectoral issues on thematic areas of green economy (e.g. agriculture, ecosystems based adaptation, natural capital) and financing for Sustainable Development;
• To formulate a joint statement and a list of actions for SDG support and implementation at Central Asian regional level.

Participants

The three-day Regional Conference will bring together national (five Central Asian countries), regional and international partners: Representatives of national authorities responsible for different sectors, SDG focal points within government and UNDP Country Offices, policy makers and technical experts in SDGs and Central Asia, educators from governments and NGOs, International and regional organizations from the UN system, GiZ, IFAS involved in the implementation of Agenda 2030. Invitations will be extended to Russian institutions (e.g. UN Environment partners in Stavropol region and Moscow) and other potential collaborators.[1]

Conference formation

During the event the five Central Asian countries (national representatives, UNDP Focal Points, regional organizations with the support of CAREC) will discuss specific initiatives that they have undertaken to initiate SDG processes, the existing partnerships, if any, with UNDP in support of the SDGs in the country.

The event will also facilitate debate of national issues related to Agenda 2030, the added value of the poverty-environment nexus in the SDG discussion, such as integrated approach on enhancing knowledge base and mainstreaming sustainable development concerns and objectives into national and sub national planning processes, as well as on the role of strategic national partners and policy makers in mainstreaming SDGs at national and sub-national levels.

Country presentations will follow the plenary discussions and presentations of best practices from different range of stakeholders.

The conference will also focus on delivering a joint regional vision and specific actions to be taken by the region towards implementation of SDGs. An outcome document “joint vision of Central Asian countries on SDGs” will be based on results of national activities led by UNDP Country Offices and will contain the list of actions and cooperation measures for the region. The measures will concentrate on maintaining and supporting the SDG process at national, regional and global levels and ensure contribution to the universal approach of Agenda 2030.