ISLAMABAD Sept 14 (APP): Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Secretariat of National Assembly and LEAD-Pakistan, a national
think tank today signed a MoU for capacity building of the members
of the parliament and its staff at the Parliament House.
Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq and Ali Tauqeer Sheikh,
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) LEAD-Pakistan signed the agreement.
Marriyum Aurangzeb, Minister of State for Information,
Broadcasting and National Heritage and Chairperson
Parliamentary Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat were
also present during the MoU signing ceremony.
Talking to media after the ceremony, Speaker National Assembly
said that the objective behind the agreement was to overcome the
problems in implementation of SDGs in the country adding that
later similar training would be given to members of the provincial assemblies and their staff.
He said that Pakistan’s Parliament enjoyed the singular honour
of being the first legislature to have a full-fledged SDGs Secretariat.
Marriyum Aurangzeb said that under the MoU, members of
the Parliament and staff would be imparted focused training on
SDGs to improve the delivery at the grassroots level. She said that
LEAD was a research based institution on issues like environment,
water and energy conservation which would provide technical
assistance and research based data to the parliamentarians for informed policy making and even helping them in legislating on various subjects if required, thus enhancing their oversight capabilities in regards to the implementation of the SDGs.
She said that after the 18th amendment the implementation of
SDGs was the responsibility of the provinces and this MoU could also be integrated with the SDGs task forces in the provinces which have
been formed to ensure country wide implementation of SDGs. She
said that SDGs Secretariat could also work with them within the
framework of this MoU.
She said that for the first time legislators had been taken on
board in the process of sustainable development goals
and constituency-based focused funding was being done to meet
the SDGs targets.
The minister said that under the MoU, parliamentarians
would be empowered with knowledge, data and learning of soft
skills through different capacity building programmes.
Members and Chairs of selected Standing Committees would be
assisted for research and inclusion of the priority areas of SDGs
in the parliamentary agenda, she said.
The minister expressed the hope that the signing of the
MoU would promote a new tradition of research based informed
oversight by the parliamentarians while disposing off
their parliamentary business concerning environment and
climate change.
