National People's Assembly on SDGs 2022
National People's Assembly took place in Kathmandu on September 23, 2022. This is one of the events organised for the anniversary of the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Global Goals Week from 16-25 September, 2022. The event was a hybrid program.
The chief guest of the program was Hon. Prakash Panta, Chairperson of the SDG and Governance Committee, National Assembly. The event was inaugurated with the "Flip the Script" stunt as a part of the Global Week of Action for SDGs with the objective to turn it around for a healthy, green and just recovery and keep the promise of the SDGs.
National Assembly – Parliament of Nepal, National Planning Commission, Delegation of the European Union to Nepal, Association of International INGOs in Nepal (AIN), National Cooperative Federation of Nepal, CSOs, different networks and alliance, I/NGOs were present ans shared their intitiatives to achieve the sustainable Development Goals.
Hon. Ms. Nona Doprez- Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Nepal delivered the introductory remarks in the National People's Assembly. She praised the contribution of civil society to development in Nepal, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19 pandemic. She also emphasized the need for a consultation process and proactive dialogue between government and civil society on the 16th National Development plan and the country graduation from the LDCs status.
Ms. Heather Campbell, Vice Chairperson of Association of International NGO's in Nepal (AIN) said that AIN is fully committed to achieve SDGs in Nepal.
Mr. Min Raj Kandel, Chairman of National Federation of Cooperatives in Nepal shared the role and contribution of cooperatives to achieve SDGs.
In the first session, there was a panel discussion on Sustainable Development Goals: Progress, localization, realizing the "leave no one behind" and civil society concerns. One of the panelists Dr. Narayan Poudel, Program Director of National Planning Commission, presented the progress of Nepal on SDGs and SDG localization.
Mr. Indra Bilas Poudel, Secretary of SDG and Good Governance Committee at National Assembly said that natural resources of Nepal should be utilized to achieve SDGs. Likewise, Mr. Arjun Bhattarai, Secretary General of NFN shared the agenda, role and space for civil society and CSOs. Likewise, findings of the People’s Scorecard 2022 were shared by Mr. Hum Bhandari, Executive Director of NFN.
In the second session, there was a panel discussion on Covid- 19 Pandemic: Access to medicines and vaccines, impacts, and recovering better.The session was moderated by Shanta Lall Mulmi. In this session, public health expert Dr. Jhabindra Bhandari shared the findings of a rapid assessment on the situation of the marginalized and vulnerable communities during COVID-19.
Likewise, writer and activist Ms Radha Paudel presented on the vaccine inequality and gender. Mr. Balram Tripathee, Director of Health Department from Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), shared the experiences of KMC during COVID-19 Pandemic.
Mr Maneesh Pradhan, Regional Coordination Lead - Asia at ActionAid International presented on the access to vaccine, universal health and TRIPS Wavier. Mr. Surya Bhatta, Country Director of One Heart Worldwide, suggested that government should make a contingency plan and also a post-COVID strategy.
Mr. Pradeep Baisakh, Asia Coordinator of Global call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) shared the short message to Nepal through live Zoom . He grieved that the COVID-19 has tremondously impacted the well being of people and increased the poverty levels.
Hon. Saloni Singh Pradhan, Member of National Planning Commission, made remarks and said that National Planning Commission is committed to achieve SDGs.
Mr. Prakash Panta said that Government of Nepal and National Planning Commission are always ready to work collaboratively with the CSOs of Nepal to achieve SDGs.
The program was chaired by Ms. Bhawana Bhatta, Vice Chairperson of NFN. She thanked all the participants for their gracious presence in the event.
