Turkey should play strong role for sustainable development goals: UN representative

Sevil Erkuş - ANKARA

Turkey should play a strong role in implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) - a universal set of goals and indicators that U.N. member states are expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies – as it is one of the most outspoken countries pushing for these goals at the General Assembly, the U.N.’s resident coordinator in Turkey has said.

“Turkey was one of the countries that was very strongly pushing for these goals in the general assembly. It was very outspoken for the need of it and that those should be set for all countries. It’s time to show commitment in applying it,” the U.N. Development Program resident representative for Turkey, Irena Vojackova-Sollorano, told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview on June 7. 

Ankara and the U.N.’s office in Turkey have agreed on development priorities for the next five years, Vojackova-Sollorano said, referring to what they called “development cooperation strategy.”

She said this development cooperation strategy, which was signed in 2015, focuses on four key areas: Sustainable and inclusive growth and development, democratic governance and human rights, gender equality and empowerment, and migration and international protection issues.

The U.N. and its local stakeholders - including 10 ministries, civil society groups and private sector companies - discussed all four issues that were agreed under the umbrella Sustainable Development Goals, Vojackova-Sollorano stated.

“The sustainable development goals are a global system that all countries have to report voluntarily, but one point of time they should report on their success in these 17 goals,” she said. 

Some 150 world leaders agreed on 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations including providing clean water for everyone, stopping climate change, and increasing the use of renewable energy.