Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Pakistan
Background
The United Nations General Assembly pledged in 2015 to take on a collective journey and achieve a sustainable and resilient path by 2030. The roadmap to this vision was laid out in the form of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. This was a universal roadmap for the people, planet, and their prosperity, and the promise was to leave no one behind.
A vision so paramount needed global coordination and collaboration. The United Nations' Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) was devised to bring together national-level think tanks to promote integrated approaches and implement Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, through education, research, policy analysis, and global cooperation. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned economist and UN’s Senior Advisor, the network serves to mobilize the communities of scientific and technological experts, policy think tanks, industry, government systems, and civil society.
SDSN Pakistan
SDSN Pakistan is a national node of the global network, which is housed within the Institute for Global Health and Development (IGHD) at the Aga Khan University and chaired by Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Distinguished University Professor & Founding Director, IGHD. SDSN Pakistan holds an enormous and crucial role to contextualize and localize sustainable development goals, drive the national efforts towards action-oriented research and initiatives in priority areas, and implementation of coordinated and collaborative programs. A specific focus of SDSN Pakistan will be on climate change, gender dimensions, health, and health-related SDGs.
Pakistan is of great significance to contributing to the 2030 Agenda. It was one of the first countries to endorse the SDGs and one of the few countries to have formed the Parliamentary SDGs Secretariat based at the National Assembly. Over the years, it has continued to focus on its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), rooted in the ‘Vision 2025’ of the Government of Pakistan. Therefore, it was crucial to have a SDSN node in the country to steer and synergize the efforts.
Learn more about the members in the growing network of the national node.
Vision
SDSN Pakistan will strive to contextualize, localize, and implement SDGs as articulated in the Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement.
Objectives
Convene multi-stakeholder dialogue in Pakistan
Establish thematic networks to foster and scale-up solutions
Advise leaders and influence policy
Build capacity through education and training programmes
Governance
Leadership Council
Leadership Council is the key body within the governance structure of SDSN Pakistan, responsible for high level inputs and guidance to meet the objectives. It will provide strategic oversight of initiatives and implementation programmes under the national node and serve as a catalyst to drive coordinated action on the SDGs. It also carries decision-making authority to review and guide the overall SDGs implementation work in Pakistan.
The Council is a group of select eminent experts on sustainable development from various disciplines and across Pakistan. It will work in strategic alliance with the IGHD, host organization of SDSN Pakistan, and be the supportive arm of the Chair.
Joining SDSD Pakistan
Who can join?
- Membership in SDSN is free and open to not-for-profit institutions (not individuals).
- Institutions must be knowledge-generating, i.e. they must conduct research, analyses, and/or data collection, and can be universities, research institutions, foundations, or civil society groups.
- Members have to be involved in research and/or education to participate in the global network; they cannot just engage in advocacy or communications activities.
- Member institutions should have deep expertise in one or more areas related to sustainable development and commit a substantial amount of their own work towards finding and/or implementing solutions for the SDGs.
- They should be well-established institutions, having been in operation for over 5 years.
Click here to apply for the membership.
