Panama: July SDGs Month

Posted on 2018-07-13

With the purpose of involving citizen participation to develop a process of national ownership, July was decreed as the month of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The Government of Panama, through the Vice President and Chancellor, Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado, who in turn chairs the Social Cabinet, launched the "Month of the SDGs", established by Executive Decree No. 75 of June 29 2018, with the purpose of disclosing the contents of the 2030 agenda and promoting the appropriation by all sectors of society.

The interest is that the citizens take ownership of the 2030 agenda, commit themselves to this and follow up the different sectors to comply with the SDGs.

During the first month of the SDGs, an agenda will be executed with actions aimed at sensitizing the different sectors of society and equipping them with tools that allow them to align their actions with the different objectives and monitor the impact they have on them. Additionally, personalities from different areas have been invited to be ambassadors for the SDGs, adopting an objective and promoting it to their influence groups, with the purpose of connecting more people with the 2030 agenda and knowing ways to impact these objectives in their day to day.

The 2030 agenda is composed of 17 objectives and 169 goals, and is the result of what is possibly the most inclusive process in the history of the United Nations, reflecting the contributions of all sectors of society at the global level. It was adopted by the 193 countries that make it up in September 2015, and rests on three fundamental pillars: social inclusion, economic growth and environmental sustainability.

Starting in 2015, through the Inter-institutional Commission and Civil Society for Support and Follow-up to the SDGs, established by Executive Decree No. 393, which adopts the 2030 agenda as a guideline for national development, it has been carried out an important work to land the 2030 agenda in the local context, among which the development of the National Strategic Plan with State Vision "Panama 2030" stands out; the submission of a voluntary progress report to the United Nations High Level Political Forum; the erection of a mapping of indicators to measure progress, and the creation of tables for the prioritization of country goals, among others.

"The 2030 agenda is universal, and represents an invitation to think and act with a state vision, putting forward a commitment from a country that unites us for the same purpose: a prosperous, fair and inclusive Panama," said the vice president and chancellor, who also referred to initiatives of the administration of President Juan Carlos Varela that directly impact the fulfillment of the SDGs, such as: Bilingual Panama and Learn to the Maximum (ODS # 3: quality education); the adoption of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (ODS # 1: end to poverty) and the gender parity initiative (ODS # 5: gender equality).

She was accompanied on the main table by Mr. Harold Robinson, Coordinator of the United Nations System and country representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP); Alcibiades Vasquez Velasquez, minister of social development and technical coordinator of the Social Cabinet; Michelle Muschett, vice minister of social development; Edwin Rodriguez on behalf of the members of the National Development Agreement and Ricardo Moreno on behalf of the ambassadors for the SDGs.

Source: AN Panama