2030 Agenda – Serbia meeting new challenges
The ”SDGs for ALL” Platform organized an annual online conference on December 8 and 9, 2020, with the topic “Prospects for the development of Serbia in the context of the 2030 Agenda: Is Serbia on the right track in achieving the goals of sustainable development by 2030?”. The conference was attended by more than 200 participants from various sectors and fields of work.
The platform is part of the project Public Finance Reform - Agenda 2030 project and is implemented by GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) in cooperation with six civil society organizations: Belgrade Open School, Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence, Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, Center for Democracy Foundation, Center for Advanced Economic Studies and the Timok Youth Center. The work of the Platform is supported by the Governments of Switzerland and Germany.
During the two-day event, representatives of various sectors in Serbia - state institutions, civil society, business sector, international organizations, academic and research community, professional associations, media and others, participated in the exchange of views on development priorities and public policies for a better future and sustainable development for the benefit of all citizens. During the conference, participants were addressed by, among others, the UN High Representative in Serbia Françoise Jacob, Swiss Ambassador to Serbia Urs Schmid and German Ambassador to Serbia Thomas Schieb, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for Agenda 2030 Slavica Djukic Dejanovic, Head of EU Delegation Cooperation in Serbia Yngve Engstroem, UNFPA Regional Director John Kennedy Mosoti, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Republic Secretariat for Public Policy, the World Health Organization and others.
The special focus of all keynote speakers was on the need to recognize that, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new balance and even greater interconnection of key dimensions of sustainable development is necessary: economic, social, and environmental dimensions.
Representatives of partner civil society organizations presented the key findings of the publication on priorities for sustainable development of Serbia, as well as the publication in which the strategic, normative and institutional readiness of Serbia for the implementation of Agenda 2030 was overestimated. Priorities such as health care accessible to all, dignity of all citizens of Serbia, reaching the European level of rule of law and quality of institutions, responsible and efficient use of natural resources and others, will serve the Platform in defining development policies and dialogue with decision makers.
An important aspect of the conference was the presentation of the work of the Platform at the local level, as well as discussions on this topic, which included representatives of local authorities, local civil society and local companies and business associations.
Given that the Platform “Sustainable Development for All” seeks to establish a discussion on Serbia's development priorities with the goals contained in the Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 and implementing the agenda among members of various social groups, representatives of partner organizations during the conference called these important actors to get involved in the work of the Platform.
More information about the conference can be found here.
Photo source: Belgrad Open School