The week of roundtable discussions on the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), economic modelling and exploring ways to transform Afghanistan’s war economy into a peace economy concluded on 2 August 2019. The discussions involved key Afghan government ministries, a group of renowned international economists and modelling experts, as well as UNDP Afghanistan’s leadership.

The week started on 27 July at the Ministry of Economy with Minister Mustafa Mastoor co-chairing the discussions. The passionate discussions at the Ministry of Economy was focused on integration and localization of SDGs in the context of Afghanistan, economic transformation and regional connectivity. The initiative was warmly welcomed by the Minister who emphasized closer coordination between all parties involved with supporting and promoting SDGs so there can be real progress made towards achieving them. The Minister proposed a ‘whole of partners’ approach in addition to ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approaches to succeed.
 

UNDP’s Resident Representative for Afghanistan, Mr Abdallah Al Dardari, presented the new approach UNDP is taking towards development programmes - that is, to move away from isolated projects to coherent and interconnected programmes that focus on macro-economics and transformation of the country from a war economy to a peace economy. 

The roundtable discussions continued throughout the week at the Office of Chief Executive of the Government, Ministry of Public Health, National Statistics and Information Authority (NSIA) and Ministry of Finance. The lively debates included challenges of data collection and how to utilize existing data in programme designing, SDGs modelling and policy options to improve health services. The sessions also included presentations on the simulation of SDGs and the impact of increased spending in one sector on other sectors.

Later in the week, the roundtable discussions moved the debate to the next level, involving the Ministry of Finance in exploring ways to align the government’s macro-economic policies and programmes with that of the SDGs. Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammad Humyon Qayoumi, welcomed the initiative by UNDP and underscored the government’s interest to work with UNDP and other partners on the alignment of the government’s macro-economic strategies, such as Afghanistan’s Self-Reliance Accelerator Package (ASAP), with the SDGs. The Minister reiterated the need for Afghanistan to move from dependency on aid money to a sustainable economy. “We need to end this cycle of begging and aid dependency, so we can have sustainable growth,” said Dr. Qayoumi. “That’s why we have a lot of interest in this discussion to identify the linkages and align our programmes.” 

Reforms in the finance sector, identifying priorities and linkages between the fiscal space and SDGs; with investment in agriculture, horticulture and sustainable and clean energy, regional connectivity and trade identified as the main areas of investment to help Afghanistan move away from aid dependency to self-reliance and sustainable growth. While national ownership of financial policies was emphasized, technical support from UNDP was also deemed crucial for success of the programmes.

The discussions also included Afghanistan’s path to a peace economy with Chief Executive of the Government, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, chairing the session. The CEO vowed support for the initiative to develop momentum around SDGs. “As the head of SDGs Executive Committee, I welcome and fully support the initiative by UNDP and hope we can make good use of the SDG modelling for long term and sustainable growth in Afghanistan,” said Dr. Abdullah. UNDP’s Resident Representative assured the Government that integration of SDGs is the top agenda of UNDP and going forward the organization will design all its programmes around that mandate. “As per the UN’s institutional reforms, UNDP has been named SDG Integrator. So, we will avoid siloed projects and build platforms within the framework of SDGs” said Mr. Dardari.

The roundtable discussions continued with briefing sessions for the diplomats and representatives of donor countries and organizations, as well as United Nations’ agencies operating in Afghanistan. The donors took a keen interest in UNDP’s transformed approach, moving away from siloed projects to integrated programmes. Other sister UN agencies also emphasized on the ‘One UN’ approach to programmes and acknowledged the championing role of UNDP as the integrator of SDGs to lead and coordinate development programmes within the framework of SDGs.

The roundtable discussions concluded on 2 August 2019, with an internal session involving UNDP Afghanistan’s management and senior programme and operations staff. The session included a presentation by the Resident Representative on the way forward and adjustments to the programmes under the new vision. Six main signature solutions – poverty reduction, good governance, increased resilience, clean energy, sustainable environment and gender equality - were identified as the main areas of focus for the new UNDP programme interventions. The session included discussion on how best UNDP can organize and structure itself to carry forward the immense work ahead.

Over the next few months, UNDP Afghanistan will reshape its programme areas as per the new vision and the outcome of the roundtable discussions and will reorganize its structure to respond to the new programme design. The work ahead is immense, but there is huge potential and great opportunity to succeed.

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