Welcome to the United Nations
Nationalization of the SDGs– the process so far
After the adoption of the post 2015 development agenda held in New-York in September of 2015, Government of Georgia took an initiative to contribute to sustainable development through volunteer efforts as a continuation to the Millennium Development Goals. The performance made through the implementation process of MDGs was a key driver and progress for Georgia’s development goals. Herewith the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union and implementation of Visa Liberalisation Action-Plan furthermore assissted country to perform and progress institutional and fundamental reforms. Still, much remains to be done and in the coming years the Government of Georgia will be focusing on sustainable development activities towards providing real opportunities and improving the living standards of its citizens.
Georgia has undertaken active measures to adjust SDG agenda and its targets to the national circumstances and to advance their implementation.
Institutional mechanism
Administration of Government of Georgia (AOG) established joint technical working group including experts from different line ministries and National Statistics Office to facilitate the landing of Sustainable Development Goals at the national level and discuss the process of nationalization. Reasonable efforts have been made to identify first order, direct goals and targets and map the linkages with Georgia’s policy and plans. The SDGs have been well fitted into the national policies and also are integrated in strategic umbrella document - Annual Governmental Work Plan (AGWP), other national, multi-sectorial strategies and action plans.
The localization of SDGs has been done according to the national context, challenges and opportunities. In 2015, Georgia prioritized set of 14 goals out of the total 17, as well as 88 global targets.
The adjusted version of goals and targets covers preferences of economic growth and addresses a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, climate change and environmental protection, inequality, energy and consumption.
Monitoring SDGs
With the support of the National Statistics Office of Georgia (hereinafter Geostat) a reliable information base has been analyzed to fix the baseline indicator to each target in order to see the right directions and a certain level of obvious progress in future. Geostat has worked with the line Ministries to collect the relevant data and analyze certain weaknesses of disaggregated statistics. In this regard early this year nearly 120 indicator has been identified as a baseline data. Though lack of the statistical data remains a challenge to set the quantitative and reliable indicators for this time being.
Government of Georgia intends to support local audiences in linking goals to their concerns and review progress in implementing the SDGs with engagement of private sector and NGOs. For this purposes in April, 2016 within the UNDP funded programme ‘Continuation of inclusive dialogue with regard to the implementation of the post-2015 development agenda’ introductory meetings were held in 5 regions of Georgia, with the aim to raise the awareness of local governments, private and civil sector on SDGs. The programme was implemented by Civil Development Agency (CIDA) and Administration of Government of Georgia.
Next steps
Georgia has already selected options for next activities to mainstream 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on a national level. Before HLPF GoG intends to set-up thematic working groups on Human Rights, Social Inclusion, Economic Growth and Environment Protection issues, with the aim to establish complementary national indicators and adapt global ones to suit the national priorities.The participation in groups will be broad and multi-stakeholder, with the composition of representatives from line Ministries, statistical office and Non-Governmental Sector.
Government will foster a dialogue to serve as a platform for the development of more comprehensive implementation and accountability mechanisms with crucial step in successful implementation - building public awareness and engaging local stakeholders. Administration of Government of Georgia plans thematic meetings with private sector to help them understand how they can leverage SDGs to drive good practices and growth opportunities.
Government will ensure that the statistical systems, capacities and methodologies are in place to track progress and ensure accountability, with the engagement of national stakeholders. As a next step, afore named thematic working groups will capture the specificities of the development needs to strengthen national statistical capacities & data collection. Due to the identified statistical gaps, supplementary sector researches will be organised and conducted, though this process will face difficulties in terms of additional financial resources. Efforts should continue to upgrade the Georgian statistics system which will allow closer monitoring for the attainment of the goals enunciated in the Agenda and, hence, to create a more refined system of reporting.
Government of Georgia will continue review of existing cross-sectoral policy to identify areas for change vis-à-vis the Agenda 2030.
