The UNECE Regional Forum for Sustainable Development takes place on April 24-25 in Geneva, aiming to monitor at a high-level the process of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals form the “Agenda 2030”, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015 and represent the vision for the sustainable development of the Member States.
The event is preceded by a meeting of civil society representatives from across Europe (EU / EEA, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey, Central Asia, Caucasus, Russia, USA, Canada and Israel), which discusses the results achieved in SDG implementation two years after their adoption, and looks at the opportunities to institutionalize the involvement of civil society in this process. The civil society from Moldova is represented at this Forum by Valentina Bodrug-Lungu, Vice-Chair of the Platform for Gender Equality, and Ana Gurău, member of the Platform.
In her presentation on the progress of SDG 5 ‘Gender Equality’ in the region, Valentina Bodrug-Lungu underlined the need to develop qualitative indicators to complement the current paradigm, largely based on quantitative indicators. The need to improve the capacity of NGOs to implement, monitor and evaluate SDGs, including with the participation of UN agencies in each country, was also mentioned.
The official part of the Forum brought together country delegates (ambassadors and ministers) from the region, who presented the progress made in implementing the ODD in three roundtables: 1) nationalization and local adaptation, 2) sub-regional cooperation, and 3) statistical data and monitoring. Relevant to Moldova were the presentations of the delegates from Armenia and Georgia, as well as the intervention of Ana Gurău, who presented the recommendations of the Expert-Grup study on the adaptation of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 to the context of Moldova. Ana Gurău also noted that the recommendations in the report apply not only to Moldova, but also to other countries in the region that do not have experience with policy integration.
