Bhubaneswar: In order to put Odisha on fast track for realising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 agenda, the government, civil societies, corporates, business houses and other stakeholders should work for localising the SDGs, said Jagadananda, co-founder and member secretary of the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), a Bhubaneswar-based non-profit organistion.
Speaking at a panel discussion on “Localising SDGs: Activating the Local Self-Governments, Panchayat Bodies” on the 40th Foundation Day of the CYSD, here on Thursday, Jagadananda said though Odisha’s performance in achieving the SDGs has increased by 10 score points in 2020, it remains among bottom five states. SDGs cannot be realised without partnership of people, he added.
SN Tripathy, Director General of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), emphasised on involvement of local self-governments in understanding and implementation design of SDGs. With a new set of urban and rural local bodies, Odisha has immense potential to carry out the planning and implementation at grassroots level, he added.
“Palli Sabhas and Gram Sabhas need to be strengthened to take forward the SDGs. The current framework of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) should be aligned with the SDGs and the capacity building framework for the PRIs developed accordingly. Currently, the GPDP capacity building module is not aligned with the SDGs,” Tripathy said.
Chandrasekhar Kumar, additional secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, said realisation of SDGs should be simplified for proper understanding of the villagers and the CSOs need to be engaged.
Monika O Neilson, Chief of Field Office, Unicef India, said there should be partnership at the community level – local youth, Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) members, NGOs and CSOs – to recognise the local contexts from setting goals and targets to determine the means of implementation and facilitate stewardship.
Dr Saroj Dash, joint director, State Institute for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (SIRD & PR), lamented that currently the SDGs are confined to district level. It is high time each stakeholder at block, panchayat and village level was sensitised to work for creating an appropriate framework for inclusive planning, budgeting and convergence.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a video message, lauded the efforts of CYSD for catalysing the development process in rural and tribal pockets.
Among others, Dr Abhaya Kumar of World Food Programme; Prof AB Ota, director-cum-special secretary, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI), Ambika Nanda, Co-Convener-CSR, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC); Abha Mishra, State Head, UNDP; JB Pani, Odisha Chairman, ICC; Rajesh Tondon, UNESCO Co-chair on Community Based Research, India also spoke during the panel discussion that was coordinated by Basanta K Nayak of CYSD.
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