By sundus abbas

“Empowered Iraqis in a safe country, a unified society with diversified economy, sustainable environment, justice, and good governance” The Iraq Vision 2030 which came while Iraq, goverment and nation, experience difficult circumstances, although Iraq was busy fighting terrorist groups and handling the repercussions of the falling crude prices in the international markets at the declaration of the national development Plan. Nevertheless, Iraqis never stopped aspiring to a better future. The vision 2030 considered as a major step in the Iraq’s efforts to follow up on the sustainable development agenda. Building a long-term future vision required analyzing the nature of the structural challenges and how they interact with each other and focuse on the aspects of stability and Iraq’s influence on the international level.

The Government of Iraq has taken advanced steps in the preparation process of its first Voluntary National Reviews (VNR), including the establishment of a professional team of national experts, clear road map was in pleac, methodology and participatory approach, in additional to develop a consultation plan with Council of Representatives ,civil socity, Acdimia and privet sector. since the Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) is a critical component of the review and implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, as stated in paragraph 84 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, regular reviews in the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) are to be voluntary, state-led, and provide a platform for partnerships, 111 VNRs have been presented at the high-level political forum on sustainable development (HLPF) since 2016, with a further 51 due to be presented in 2019 including Iraq.

The Iraqi VNR acts as a declaration that Iraq has resumed attempts to return to the global scene, as a strong and healthy nation which enjoys security, peace and aspires to achieve sustainable development, distributes its fruits equitably among all categories and areas without any marginalization or exclusion.

As part of Iraq's endeavours in this regard, the Ministry of Planning ,under the patronage of the Minister of Planning H.E Nouri Sabah Al-Dulaimi and in cooperation with UNDP, organized a national consultation conference to review and discuss the first Iraq VNR in Baghdad on 2^nd May, engaging of more than 124 representatives of line Ministries, NGOs, CSO, government authorities and international organization.

Presentetions in firstsession  reflected  the commitment of the Iraqi Government towards achieving SDGs with a brief description about the process of SDGs localization, identified challenges, promotes Iraqi vision 2030, sharing Iraqi experience and provides a database of SDGs in addition to showing the existing data gap in order to guide the future statistical efforts.

The Minister of Planning, Mr. Nouri Sabah al-Dulaimi said: “Today, we would like to present our sincere gratitude to the senior government officials, the international community and the United Nations Development Programme who supported in all possible means the implementation of the Iraqi vision 2030, and we hope to continue this coordination and collaboration due to the importance of this vision to achieve the SDGs in Iraq”.

In the same vein, former secratery  general of COMSEC, Dr. Mahdi Al-Alaaq stated that: “The actual realities reveal that current conditions in Iraq can provide an unprecedented historical opportunity to achieve the desired development change we looking for, hence, the sustanabil development and social service is one of the three pillars of the ministerial platform which had been built on the the vision’s priorities; “empowered people in a safe country and unified society with a diversified economy, sustainable environment, justice and good governance”.

The Deputy Resident Representative for UNDP Iraq, Mr. Vakhtang Svanidze affirmed that: “The implementation of the SDGs will be a generation challenge and this momentum is an opportunity to take advantage of the goals, to overcome the obstacles that prevents the eradication of poverty, for example, or improve the quality of life”.

The Iraqi VNR seeks to achieve many objectives including stress Iraq’s intention to continue working to return to the global stage and achieve SDGs, provide a brief description of the progress made toward the SDGs and their indicators on the national level and the steps which will be taken by the government and its partners in this regard, identify the challenges facing achieving the SDGs and its possible competition with the nationally urgent expenditure and reconstruction requirements in an unstable environment, enhance the participation policies and institutions and translate the global goals into national ones which help take measures to bring about the intended transformation according to the SDGs 2030, promote the SDGs nationally, arouse the interest of the public opinion and the government and gain their support and that of international donors and organizations which can help Iraq overcome the difficulties it is facing, build a compact SDGs database and identify the current data gap to guide future statistical efforts and provide appropriate data, provide quantified tracking of Iraq’s progress toward sustainable development and identify the challenges facing its goals and targets based on the national priorities and share Iraq’s experience with other countries to exchange expertise and experiences to enrich the international expertise.

For additional information, please contact:
Sundus Abbas, SDGs Project Manager – UNDP Iraq (m): +964 (0) 780 197 6464