ECLAC promotes integrated national development planning to support the implementation of the SDGs in the Caribbean

Port of Spain.- The Economic Commission for Latin America andthe Caribbean (ECLAC) is promoting integrated development planning as a keyelement of national strategy towards achievement of the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs) in the Caribbean. This willbe the focus of discussion among representatives of more than 20 Caribbeannations at a symposium being held in Kingston, Jamaica from 14-16 February2017.

The Caribbean symposium on mainstreaming theSDGs in national development planning sets the stage for consideration of acoordinated approach to planning, implementation, follow-up and review of the2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the subregion, including through thestrengthening of national institutional infrastructure and by establishing acommon statistical platform for measuring progress in SDG implementation acrossthe Caribbean.

The SDGs represent 17 global aspirations,covering the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainabledevelopment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.

A year earlier, the SIDS AcceleratedModalities for Action (SAMOA) Pathway was agreed by the international communityas a blueprint to further implementation of the sustainable development agendaof Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

The meeting will therefore consider how bestto synergize the SDGs and the SIDS agenda with national development plans toensure that countries pursue a comprehensive development strategy that takesinto account relevant global development platforms.

During the symposium, ECLAC Caribbean willemphasize the need for national ownership of the SDGs for success inimplementing the goals. This would be advanced by the identification ofnational institutional infrastructure for planning. The symposium will alsoprovide an opportunity to identify specific needs for technical assistance bymember States in the development of integrated national development plans.

Discussions at the symposium will also informthe implementation of a mechanism for regional reporting on the SDGs forensuring that national, subnational and subregional indicators, as well as datacollection and reporting arrangements are designed and implemented in a way thatenables globally comparable and standardized statistics to be compiled by thenational statistical systems of the Caribbean.

The symposium is sponsored by the Germangovernment through the BMZ-GIZ programme of support for the implementation ofthe 2030 Agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, and represents the first ina series of planned activities of support by ECLAC Caribbean to member Statesin the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in the subregion.

Senior government officials from theCaribbean in the areas of planning, sustainable development, foreign affairsand national statistical offices are expected to participate in the 3-daysymposium. Officials of the United Nations system and representatives ofregional organizations, international development partners, and academia willalso participate.

For further information, please contactAlexander Voccia at alexander.voccia@eclac.org or Denise Balgobin atdenise.balgobin@eclac.org. Telephone: (868) 224-8067/224-8075.