The Parliament started development of the action plan and the long-term strategy for implementation of sustainable development goals.

Today, the Parliament held the first meeting with participation of MPs, Staff and civil society on “Initiative of Parliament of Georgia for Implementation and Monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals: Definition of Strategic Objectives and Tasks”.

The Chair of the Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council, Irine Pruidze delivered the welcome speech and emphasized importance of Parliamentary involvement in this process not only in capacity of the legislative body but as the representatives elected by people, which is crucial for successful adoption and implementation of sustainable development goals. The Parliament held self-assessment in May regarding the role of the Parliament in implementation of sustainable development goals and developed the draft plan aiming at increase of Parliamentary involvement in implementation of UN sustainable development goals.

“The Open Governance Permanent Parliamentary Council was assigned to coordinate this process. Thus, development of the action plan for involvement of the Parliament in implementation of sustainable development goals stands as one of the commitments of the Council plan, which will be partially implemented within 2019. We decided that the action plan shall be the longer-term strategy similar to sustainable development goals up to 2030 with respective 2-year action plan”.

The main goal of the plan is to ensure successful implementation of sustainable development goals by the country and active involvement of the Parliament with its legislative and oversight, as well as representative function to enhance communication in this direction.

The parties heard the comprehensive information by the UNDP consultant, Nato Alkhazishvili about sustainable development goals and on long-term strategy: definition of the vision, mission, objectives and tasks.

The parties have worked on the draft strategy on implementation and monitoring of the UN sustainable development goals and formulated the Parliamentary vision and mission. I. Pruidze summed up the meeting and spoke about the future steps.

This meeting was the preparatory, she noted, and will be followed with similar meetings where MPs, Staff and civil society will develop the plan to be submitted to the Bureau for endorsement. The meeting was supported by UNDP and Swedish Government.