Saudi Arabia has formed a Steering Committee for Sustainable Development (SCSD) comprising 18 government entities as members to oversee the implementation of the UN-mandated sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the country, a senior minister said.
“The SCSD will be responsible for mainstreaming the thinking around the SDGs into policymaking, improving the country’s economic performance and social development, and enhancing its local capabilities and knowledge,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of economy and planning, Faisal Alibrahim, said.
The minister was speaking at the UN High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) meeting in New York on Wednesday.
Alibrahim also urged member nations to invest in youth as it holds the key to unlocking sustainable socioeconomic growth.
“As the world seeks to build back stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic amid increasing geopolitical and socioeconomic uncertainty, a concerted effort to find common ground and focus on delivering sustainable development for all is urgently needed,” Alibrahim said in a virtual address to the forum.
Alibrahim said: “Saudi Arabia is working to put sustainable development at the heart of its evolving economy. We remain determined to continue working closely with the international community to proactively contribute to achieving our shared global goals, because we recognise that no one nation will develop sustainably, until all nations are enabled to develop sustainably.”
He pointed out that in June this year, his ministry signed the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022-2026 to further strengthen its partnership with the UN on achieving SDGs in Saudi Arabia.
Regarding the five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in focus at this year’s High-Level Political Forum meeting, Alibrahim said of SDG4 – access to education – that the Kingdom was committed to continuously investing in the education of the country’s burgeoning youth demographic.
He said the Saudi government has allocated SAR185 billion of the 2022 budget for education, representing 19 percent of the total spend – the biggest share of the entire government budget for the year.
As for the goal related to gender equality, the minister said Saudi Arabia has already surpassed a 30 percent target rate of female labor force participation by 2030, putting it ahead of schedule on critical socioeconomic development matters.
The UN Economic and Social Council organizes the annual HLPF to follow up on national and global progress on the 17 SDGs outlined in the 2030 sustainable development agenda.
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