Six national priorities towards implementation of the 2030 Agenda
Description
Slovakia has committed itself to implement the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Due to the complexity of this agenda, its implementation requires innovative approaches and coordinated action by central administration bodies, regional authorities and municipalities as well as other stakeholders. To ensure such an integrated approach, it is essential to integrate the 2030 Agenda into all public policies.
In early 2017, the Slovak government adopted a roadmap which outlined the most important steps towards integrating the 2030 Agenda into the overall strategic planning and governance framework of the Slovak Republic. With regards to the countrys limited resources and capacities, as well as specific needs and context not reflected by the 2030 Agenda, the first milestone was to nationalise the 17 Sustainable Development Goals by clustering them around six National priorities for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The next step is the transformation of these national priorities into strategic goals with measurable target values and outcome indicators. According to the roadmap, these goals should form the base of a National Developments Strategy until 2030. The development strategy will serve two main purposes: to increase coherence of sectoral strategies by creating a long-term, overarching strategic framework, and to limit proliferation of strategic documents by integrating national, regional and territorial development plans. Last but not least, the development strategy will feed into a National Investment Plan, which should bolster financing for sustainable development.
The participatory process itself took place at the level of stakeholders, who were representatives of civil society organisations, institutions and associations, think tanks, universities, academia, municipalities, regions, business associations and trade unions. Approximately forty key players were invited to be part of the newly created Chamber of Stakeholders, which was established as a partner of the Government Chamber within the Working Group for the 2030 Agenda and the National Investment Plan. The main responsibility of the Chamber of Stakeholders was to actively monitor and link the participatory activities taking place in each thematic area, and at the final stage of the process to formulate the proposed wording of the national priorities. Early on in the process, the members of the Chamber of Stakeholders proposed to expand the originally suggested five priorities by adding a sixth national priority focusing on the rule of law, democracy and security, with an objective to highlight the normative and human rights aspects of sustainable development. Discussions with a wider group of stakeholders took place in two stages. In the first phase, thematic meetings were organised in the regions of Slovakia, in order to bring the debates closer to the relevant actors. Following the first regional stage of participatory meetings with stakeholders, the proposals and ideas from discussions were reviewed by the Chamber of Stakeholders and incorporated in the proposed wording of the national priorities. This consolidated version subsequently became the basis for the second phase of participatory meetings that took place in the capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava.
The participatory process has confirmed that the citizens of the Slovak Republic wish to be engaged in decisions about the country they live in and where their children will live. Their ideas about the future may differ in detail, but they are united in their desire to live in a country with good governance, high-quality education and healthcare as well as environmentally friendly economy. Participants expressed an ambition to continue in joint discussions, which should result in the formulation of a National Development Strategy until 2030. They agreed that the proposed national priorities need to be further developed into specific measurable targets and indicators that will allow us to measure the countrys progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. They underlined that the principle of partnership, which is also the 17th Sustainable Development Goal, must overarch the entire implementation framework of the 2030 Agenda and all national priorities. Enabling the participation of stakeholders in the next phase of implementation is therefore as important as at the initial stage of the process. The third and the most important message of the participatory process was that the 2030 Agenda as well as its values and goals are universal, and they should be implemented continually throughout government cycles. Participants emphasised that if there is a genuine effort to implement the 2030 Agenda in the Slovak Republic, the principle of sustainable development must be adopted by governments, local authorities and all members of the society. At the same time, the national priorities for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda must be reflected in all public policies as well as in budgetary planning, otherwise the 2030 Agenda will remain a formal commitment.
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Martin Kinces, department for Agenda 2030 coordination