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Session Introduction

Effective planning and policy implementation through strengthening and re-aligning enabling environments are critical to driving success in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), particularly water-related SDGs at the national level.
Achieving SDG 6 and water-related targets require comprehensive approaches including effective policy frameworks and multi-sectoral decision-making that incorporate interlinked environmental, economic and social values.
Conveners introduce SDG Policy Support System (SDG-PSS) with six policy-critical components and demonstrate how these components can be measured and viewed holistically to enable national evidence-based policy making; and to accelerate progress toward SDG 6 targets.
The SDG PSS system was developed to accelerate the adoption and achievement of water-related SDG targets at the national level and it is managed in partnership by Korea Ministry of Environment, K-eco, UNOSD, and UNU-INWHE.
This workshop will bring together governments from more than 15 countries in Asia region, United Nation systems, other international organizations and civil societies to encourage water actors to adopt the SDG water targets and to draw up strategies in order to meet the water goals.
This workshop will contribute to 1) sharing and discussing experiences, challenges and possibilities on achieving SDG 6 in Asia region; 2) informing participants on the SDG-PSS, and promoting a discussion on how SDG-PSS can be used to produce evidence on water-related policymaking to strengthen the enabling environment of SDG 6 in Asia region; and 3) discussing ways to improve SDG-PSS through regional cooperation.

Session Schedule

Time Contents Speaker/Participants
09:00 - 09:30(30’) Opening Session Moderator: Ms. Eunhae Jeong, Senior development management expert, UNOSD
  • Mr. Jeongseop Hong, Director General of MOE
  • Mr. Ickhoon Choi, Executive Director, K-eco
  • Mr. Jongsoo Yoon, Former head of Office, UNOSD
  • Mr. Vladmir Smakhtin, Director, UNU-INWEH
09:30 - 10:00(30’) Session I: Global efforts in monitoring and progress towards achieving SDG 6 Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director of UNU-INWEH
  • Mr. William Reidhead, Global Monitoring Officer, UN-Water
10:00 - 11:00(60’) Session II: Using SDG-PSS to support evidence-based policymaking around SDG 6 Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director, UNU-INWEH
  • Mr. Guillaum Baggio, Research Associate, UNU-INWEH
  • Ms. Eunhae Joeng, Senior development management expert, UNOSD
11:00 - 12:00(60’) Session III: Status of SDG 6 and use of SDG-PSS in regional hub countries Moderator: Mr. Guillaume Baggio, UNU-INWEH
(Rupublic of Korea)
  • Nationalizing The 2030 Global Goals: Korea’s National Sustainable Development Goals (K-SDGs), Mr. Hakkyun Maeng, Director of MOE
  • Case Study on the application of SDG-PSS in Korea, Mr. Yongjae Choi, Assistant manager of K-eco

(Pakistan)
  • Mr. Muhammad Ashraf, Director of Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources(PCRWR)
  • Ms. Bareerah Fatima, Assistant Director of PCRWR
13:00 - 14:30(90’) Sesson VI: Feedback on SDG-PSS from participating countries for the region Moderator: Mr. Jongsoo Yoon, UNOSD
  • Participation countries: Armenia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Mongolian, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Vietnam
14:30 - 15:30(60’) Session VII: Bulding regional cooperation around SDG 6 and SDG-PSS Moderator: Mr. Manzoor Qadir, Assistant Director of UNU-INWEH
15:30 - 16:00(30’) Wrap-up and clising session Moderator: Mr. Guillaume Baggio, Research Associate of UNU-INWEH
  • Mr. Hakkyun Maeng, Director of MOE
  • Mr. Ickhoon Choi, Executive Director, K-eco
  • Ms. Eunhae Jeong, Senior development management expert, UNOSD
  • Mr. Vladmir Smakhtin, Director, UNU-INWEH

Results

Presentations

Session I: Integrated Monitoring of SDG 6 (Mr. William Reidhead, UN-Water)

  • Reliable and credible data on water and sanitation can play a key role in informing decision-making and promoting political commitment at all levels.
  • For this reason, the UN-Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative (IMI) for SDG 6 aims to support countries in monitoring water- and sanitation-related issues within the framework of the 2030 Agenda.
  • The main goal of the UN-Water IMI is to accelerate the achievement of SDG 6 by:
    • (1) supporting evidence-based policies, regulations, planning and investments;
    • (2) increasing the availability of country data to report on global progress towards SDG 6 and to inform water and sanitation policy making;
    • (3) developing methodologies and tools to monitor SDG 6 global indicators;
    • (4) raising awareness at the national and global levels about SDG 6 monitoring;
    • (5) contributing to technical and institutional capacity for monitoring.
  • One of the key products of the UN-Water IMI is the SDG 6 Data Portal, which gathers data on all SDG 6 global indicators, as well as other key social, economic and environmental data, to allow for comparison among countries and over time, and to track progress at the regional and global levels.
  • The SDG 6 Data Portal offers tailored options for visualization and analysis featuring maps, tables and charts, and allows users to:
    • (1) track overall progress towards SDG 6 at global, regional and national levels;track overall progress towards SDG 6 at global, regional and national levels;
    • (2) produce an integrated assessment and analysis of the state of water resources, including linkages to other sectors;
    • (3) encourage and improve SDG 6 monitoring and reporting;
    • (4) raise awareness on the importance of water and sanitation.

Session II: SDG 6 Policy Support System (Ms. Eunhae Jeong, UNOSD & Mr. Guillaume Baggio, UNU-INWEH)

  • The SDG-PSS is a user-friendly free system currently available online in English and French. The tool is an answer to the challenge of bringing data and information from multiple international and national tools and translating them into a ‘fit-for-policy’ evidence framework. These components stem from more than 20 well-established tools, processes and practices already being used by many countries for water-related management.
  • The tool is organized around six critical components:
    • (1) Capacity Assessment;
    • (2) Finance Assessment;
    • (3) Policy and Institutional Assessment;
    • (4) Gender Mainstreaming;
    • (5) Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Resilience Mainstreaming;
    • (6) Integrity.
  • As policymakers, experts and development practitioners enter data and information required for each component of the SDG-PSS, the main outcome of the system is a summary view at the indicator level.
  • The summary view consists of an evidence framework on the enabling environment for SDG 6, and shows strengths and weaknesses, missing data, and gaps and opportunities across the system’s components and for all targets and indicators of SDG 6.
  • Policymakers, experts and development practitioners can then use this evidence framework for multisectoral collaborative planning to develop and implement water-related policies for strengthening the enabling environment for SDG 6 while getting people from different sectors, agencies and institutions to work together towards SDG success.

Session III: Status of SDG 6 and use of SDG-PSS in regional hub countries (Republic of Korea & Pakistan)

Republic of Korea (Mr. Hakkyun Maeng, MOE & Mr. Yongjae Choi, K-eco)
  • Republic of Korea has been playing a critical role in the development of the SDG-PSS. During the first phase of the project, the regional hub country hosted two national workshops promoting discussions on the generation of data required by the tool, leading thus the contextualization of the tool to fit on the county’s needs.
  • National coordination has been a key success factor to create a common shared knowledge of concepts used in the tool. The country also highlighted that third-party verification of data entered in the tool was critical to ensure quality and was done by national statistics authorities.
  • Currently, the country has almost all the indicators informed in the SDG-PSS. The challenge remains for the components ‘Gender’ and ‘Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience’, which are estimated to be difficult to evaluate.
  • A key learning from work done by Republic of Korea on the implementation and use of the SDG-PSS is to conduct the necessary analysis on already existing policies and programmers and adapt them to the requirements of tool.
Pakistan (Mr. Muhammad Ashraf & Mr. Bareerah Fatima, PCRWR)
  • Pakistan was the first country to adopt the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda in a unanimous parliamentary resolution passed in February 2016. The country’s key development goals are also closely aligned with the SDGs. They are seven pillars specified in the country’s long-term development roadmap ‘Vision 2025’.
  • Status and Challenges of SDG 6 in the country:
    • (1) Legislative role of provinces in services delivery for SDG 6 and therefore reporting
    • (2) A diversity of challenges/state of water resources among the provinces
    • (3) Lack of coordination between SDGs in federal government with those of provincial government
    • (4) Awareness regarding SDGs is low among the key reporting departments
    • (5) Stern efforts are needed to get logical aspirations
  • Potential of SDG-PSS for Pakistan:
    • (1) SDG-PSS allows to set realistic aspirations for SDG 6 achievement by 2030. The tool also encouraged a discussion around SDG 6 reporting at the national level.
    • (2) The tool helps prepare reports on SDG 6 for various forums, such as Federation, SDG’s reporting unit, UNDP and provides comprehensive planning features to help consider new dimensions in policy making, such as integrity, and DRR.
Discussion – Session IV & Session V

Results – Session IV: Feedback on SDG-PSS from participating countries from the region

  • This session provided the opportunity for participants from Armenia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iran, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey and Viet Nam to share their feedback on how the SDG-PSS can be improved to better fit their needs. Participants had the opportunity to test the tool for one month prior to the workshop. Each country had five minutes to brief the audience, answering the following questions:
    • 1. What are your experiences with regards to the SDG-PSS?
    • 2. What are the challenges you have faced?
    • 3. What are the supports/capacities you need to foster its usage?
    • 4. What type of regional cooperation for the SDG-PSS is needed?
  • All participants recognized and praised the development of the tool, its role in providing the platform to work together, and monitor the progress of the enabling environment for achieving SDG 6.

Results – Session V: Building regional cooperation around SDG 6 and SDG-PSS

  • Building regional cooperation might be key for success in promoting SDG-PSS as a tool for strengthening the enabling environments of SDG 6 in the Asia region. Countries that are now engaging in the implementation and use of SDG-PSS can rely on two regional hub countries – Republic of Korea and Pakistan – for support and knowledge exchange. This exchange between countries is a two-way learning experience, as feedback from users contributes to improving and enhancing the SDG-PSS. Providing official support to legitimate the use and institutionalize the SDG-PSS in these countries is, therefore, an important step during the current of the project.
  • During the workshop, participants highlighted:
    • (1) The importance of nominating a focal point not only for national implementation of the tool but also for building and strengthening regional cooperation.
    • (2) The need for regular follow-up to share challenges and practices beyond the scope of the regional workshop.

Major messages

  • Making the right policy decisions in the SDG era can be quite complex, requiring policymakers and development practitioners to assess and combine many pieces of evidence from different agencies and sectors.
  • Deciding on exactly which piece of evidence is “fit-for-policy” to inform a specific policy process can be contentious, especially as there may be different or context-specific situations, or conflicting evidence.
  • In this way, the SDG-PSS provides a strong foundation for countries to advocate for a rational, rigorous and systematic approach to inform their policy processes and support decisions to achieve SDG 6 by 2030.