KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 24

Coordinator of SDGs National Network Nepal Daya Sagar Shrestha said that Nepal had not made expected progress with regard to sustainable development goals mainly because political representatives were not adequately aware about the SDGs.

Addressing an interaction organised by Forum for Women, Law, and Development here today, Shrestha said that political representatives had not been able to make right selections of plans and activities to achieve SDG 16 as they lacked adequate knowledge about SDGs.

SDG 16 is a crucial goal for the countries to achieve overall SDGs by the target period, yet many countries, including Nepal, have not made expected progress even after six years of the implementation of SDGs.

SDG 16 pledges to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Shrestha said no other SDGs could be achieved without achieving the SDG 16 goals.

This goal requires all both the government and the private sector to work in tandem to achieve the stated goals by the year 2030 and 55 per cent of the resources needed to be carried out by the private sector to generate employment opportunities, he argued.

Addressing an integration organised by Forum for Women Law and Development and Action for Sustainable Development here, Shrestha said that there had been a shortage of Rs 600 billion every year to carry out activities to achieve the SDGs.

Shrestha said that the SDG 16 pledges to grant legal identity to all citizens but thousands of eligible citizens had not been able to obtain their citizenship yet due to various constraints.

Advocate Kritagya Rai said as thousands of eligible citizens had not obtained their citizenship, achieving SDG 16 had become a challenge.

Children of citizens by birth have not been able to obtain their citizenship due to lack of a new federal law.

The erstwhile KP Sharma Oli government had brought an ordinance to grant these categories of people their citizenship but the Supreme Court stayed the ordinance. A version of this article appears in the print on September 25 2021, of The Himalayan Times.