Multi-stakeholder dialogue leave no one behind: Recommendations to the Colombian National Government to achieve the SDGs
On Thursday, August 13, the multi-stakeholder dialogue “Leave no one behind” was organized by the Colombian Confederation of NGOs, the National Planning Council and the National Planning Department of Colombia. Representatives of the national and subnational government as well as civil society participated in the discussion.
The Director of Cepei, Philipp Schönrock, was invited to be part of the event to present his thoughts and ideas on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Colombia, from the local and national perspective.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Objective
Methodology
About the discussion

To exchange inputs and analyze the effective implementation of the SDGs by 2030; And build recommendations with different development actors, to advance towards the international commitment of “Leaving no one behind”, of which Colombia is signatory.

Each participant made an analysis regarding the state of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Agenda in Colombia, in order to identify key elements on risks and challenges that the country is facing to achieve the SDGs.

The participating actors exposed three main actions that must be completed in the short and medium term to accelerate SDGs implementation by 2030 in Colombia.
CEPEI’S CONTRIBUTION
To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) we need to “create an intelligent integration of efforts, where we work together to achieve common goals, associated with public policies”, our Director, Philipp Schönrock, stated. He pointed out that in the case of Colombia, it is essential to define a working plan that guarantees the operation of the SDG Commission, making its results visible.
According to Schönrock, it is also important to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of each policy. And the first step to do so, he noted, is to work with a policy framework, which mutually reinforces its goals and achievements.
Finally, he expressed that these proposals are only possible if there is sufficient data to plan and implement them: “All actors must be willing to increase their data generation efforts and share their results,” he said.



HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERVENTION
Countries showed a high-level ambition when setting the content of their common agenda for sustainable development in 2015, but that ambition was not reflected in the implementation of the sustainable development goals and targets.
Policy coherence requires that all stakeholders take into account the ways in which their participation impacts the implementation of each policy, but also to evaluate how their actions will positively and negatively impact other policies, enhancing synergies and avoiding negative crossovers (interconnection / correlation).
Regarding data production, we know that at the regional level, and with strong differences between countries, over 30% of the SDG monitoring indicators are still being produced by countries, and there is data to fully monitor another 16% that, for different technical or political reasons, the information is not being produced.
Regarding data production in Colombia, ECLAC reported in 2019 that the country produces information to monitor 25% of the SDG indicators; It does not produce complete information, but has data to produce it in 27% of the cases; It has some information, which is still insufficient to generate the indicator in 32% of the cases, and it lacks data to monitor the indicator in 12% of the cases. For the 4% of the remaining indicators, it has not provided reports that allow us to know the situation regarding the capacities to monitor them.

“Carrying out a reconstruction process associated with sustainable development is the only opportunity to advance in the fulfillment of the SDGs in the existing global context.”