NITI Aayog’s National Conference Accelerates Sustainable Development Goals

Jaipur: NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the Government of Rajasthan, hosted the ‘National Conference on Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals’ on March 4th and 5th in Jaipur. The conference brought together senior officials from 31 States and Union Territories, along with the Government of India, to discuss and accelerate the progress of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The inaugural session featured key addresses from prominent figures, including Suman Bery, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr. V.K. Paul, Hon’ble Member (Health) of NITI Aayog, Shri Sudhansh Pant, Chief Secretary of the Government of Rajasthan, and Shri Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator.

The primary objectives of the conference were to encourage States and UTs to assess the localisation of SDGs, share experiences on institutionalising SDGs at the subnational level, explore the SDG finance landscape nationally and subnationally, and devise strategies to accelerate progress midway through the 2030 SDG agenda.

The second day of the conference focused on technical sessions covering SDG Monitoring, Institutionalisation of the SDGs, Financing the SDGs, and Lessons from Localising SDGs in India.

An SDG exhibition was incorporated into the conference to facilitate cross-learning and knowledge exchange. States and UTs utilized this platform to showcase their technical products related to localisation at their respective SDG booths.

Shri Suman Bery, in his keynote address, highlighted NITI Aayog’s role as a platform for sharing learnings and good practices on SDGs across the country. He emphasized the acceleration of innovative SDG efforts at the subnational level and thanked partners UNDP and UN in India for their support.

Dr. V.K. Paul stressed the importance of relentless pursuit of SDGs and expressed confidence that the conference would focus not only on easily achievable goals but also on challenging ones.

During the conference, three knowledge portals were inaugurated, including the UNDP ‘SDG Knowledge hub,’ the ‘Food and Nutrition Security Analysis Dashboard’ of the Government of Rajasthan, and the ‘SDG -2 (Zero Hunger) Dashboard’ of the Government of Rajasthan. These portals aim to provide valuable insights, good practices, and indicators related to SDGs at both national and subnational levels.