On May 2, 2021, Kardan University’s Faculty of Economics attended the first round of the “Stakeholders Consultation Meeting on Afghanistan Sustainable Development Goals (A SDGs) Voluntary National Review (VNR) 2021 at the Ministry of Economy. In the meeting, various stakeholders, including Government, academia, private sector, civil society organizations, and development partners, gathered physically and virtually to discuss, gathering and measuring data for the A SDGs, and present Afghanistan’s SDGs progress in the VNR to the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on the Sustainable Development in July 2021.
The opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Karima Hamid Faryabi, Minister of Economy, and Mr. Abdullah Al-Dardari, Resident Representative for UNDP. Subsequently, Nabi Sroosh, Acting Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economy, added further information on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) current status, previous VNR report, new and emerging challenges limited to Covid-19 pandemic, discrimination, inequality, and issue of climate change.
Dr. Ismail Rahimi, VNR Consultant, explained the VNR preparation update. He talked about the theme of 2021 HLPF as “Sustainable and Resilient Recovery from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” which promotes the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development: Building an inclusive and effective path for the achievement of the 2030 agenda in the context of the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development.
In the end, key Stakeholders participated in the discussions. Ms. Sajida Muhammad Tayyeb, lecturer at the Kardan University’s Faculty of Economics, on behalf of Kardan University, expressed her gratitude to the Ministry for engaging stakeholders in the process, academia in particular. She further talked about the Kardan University’s contributions towards SDGs, including Kardan University’s ranking by the Times Higher Education, to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mr. Tayyeb also mentioned that Kardan University published its first SDGs report 2019-2020, highlighting its contributions towards achieving the SDGs. Kardan University has conducted various information sessions, panel discussions, and a symposium on SDGs. The third symposium and the First National Conference on SDGs in Afghanistan Perspective are the other upcoming events. Ms. Tayyeb persuaded Kardan University’s engagement with the Ministry in the VNR consultation.
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To know more about our sustainability activities, please visit https://kardan.edu.af/sustainability/.