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  2. [2020] Lessons Learned from the Use of SDG6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS) to Accelerate Progress towards SDG 6

[2020] Lessons Learned from the Use of SDG6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS) to Accelerate Progress towards SDG 6

Tuesday, 10 November 2020 - 9:00am to Wednesday, 11 November 2020 - 5:00pm

 

Description

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) by 2030 is expected to allow countries to reach an important milestone in their journey towards sustainability. Nevertheless, “ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” is a global challenge and many countries are still struggling to realign their policies and implementation plans while lacking reliable evidence on SDG 6. In this context, strengthening the enabling environments is critical to the achievement of SDG 6, and evidence to support countries with a systematic approach for effective planning and policy implementation must be a priority. If countries aim to achieve SDG 6, they need to assess their current national progress effectively now. This means identifying the gaps and weaknesses and addressing them with workable policies and action plans to promote strong enabling environments.

To address these challenges, the United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) and the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment of Republic of Korea (MOE), Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco) and national partners from Tunisia, Costa Rica and Pakistan – the Regional Hubs countries – developed the SDG 6 Policy Support System (SDG-PSS). This tool was designed to generate evidence on the enabling environment of SDG 6 through a framework that shows strengths and weaknesses and missing data across all SDG 6 targets and indicators, and consists of the following components: Capacity Assessment; Finance; Policy and Institutional Assessment; Gender Mainstreaming; Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)/Resilience Mainstreaming; and Integrity. These components are a result of a collaborative approach between project partners and were chosen as they allow a better understanding of the enabling environment for achieving SDG 6. SDG-PSS also monitors and evaluates another component of SDG 6, ‘Status’ – which gives an overview of trends for targets and indicators of the goal. The tool and its online course for capacity building are currently available online in English, French, and Spanish languages.

During the project’s second phase (2019-2020), project partners organized three regional workshops to engage with more countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean regions and promote the implementation and use of the SDG-PSS. In these workshops, experts and policymakers from 34 countries (Figure 1) discussed how the tool can be used to generate evidence on the enabling environment of SDG 6, providing regional and national perspectives over the challenges and possibilities in achieving the goal. Overall, participating countries provided critical feedback and recommendations on the SDG-PSS and contributed to the project’s advancement. According to their feedback, strengthening institutional leadership and building technical capacity are key to ensure successful implementation of the tool at the national level. Identifying national focal points to champion the implementation of the tool and its integration in national reporting mechanisms for SDG 6 is an important step. Countries also need to identify key sectors, those who are more likely to benefit from the use of the tool. Data needed by the SDG-PSS was also mentioned as a critical aspect of the challenges experienced by countries.

In this context, project partners have been providing support to countries currently implementing and using the SDG-PSS. For this reason, the project’s third phase (2021-2022) aims to build on the lessons learned to further expand the implementation and use of SDG-PSS to more countries and strengthen its implementation in countries already using it, leading to a revision and improvement of the tool and its associated products according to the needs and recommendations of project partners. The final project workshop aims to reflect on the next steps, as the project enters in its third phase, and is an opportunity for project partners, regional hubs and participating countries to share their feedback on the implementation and use of SDG-PSS, exchange on the lessons learned, practices and different approaches used to collected data and generate evidence on SDG 6 through the tool.

 

Documentation

Concept Note (Updated as of 4 November 2020)

Agenda (Updated as of 5 November 2020)

Participant List (Updated as of 20 January 2021)

 

Programme and Agenda

Day 1 (Tuesday, 10 Nov 2020 at 8-10pm (KST))

Workshop Instructions: Ms. Yujeong Kim, Senior Development Management Expert, UNOSD

 

Session 1: Formal Opening

Moderator: 

  • Ms. Yujeong Kim, Senior Development Management Expert, UNOSD

 

Welcoming Remarks:

  • Mr. Chun Kyoo Park, Head, UNOSD
  • Mr. Dongjin Kim, Director General, Water Resources Policy Bureau, Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea
  • Mr. Jaecheon You, Executive Director, HQ of Water Environment Management, Korea Environment Corporation
  • Mr. Vladimir Smakhtin, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH)

 

Introduction of the Workshop

  • Mr. Manzoor Qadir, UNU-INWEH

 

Session 2: SDG-PSS, a tool to support evidence-based policymaking to expedite SDG-6 achievement

Moderator: 

  • Ms. Jinah Park, K-eco

 

Presentation

  • Mr. Guillaume Baggio, UNU-INWEH

 

Session 3: Status of SDG-6 and use of SDG-PSS in regional hub countries

Moderator: 

  • Ms. Youngeun Choi, Associate Policy and Research Development Expert, UNOSD

 

Presentation

Pakistan

Republic of Korea

Tunisia

 

Day 2 (Wednesday, 11 Nov 2020 at 8-10pm (KST))

Workshop Instructions: Ms. Youngeun Choi, Associate Policy and Research Development Expert, UNOSD

 

Session 4: Integrated Water Management of Korea: Implementation status and cases of the SDG indicator 6.5.1

Presentation

 

Session 5: Use of SDG-PSS beyond regional hub countries

Moderator

  • Mr. Manzoor Qadir, UNU-INWEH

 

Presentations

Costa Rica

Brazil

Madagascar

 

Session 6: Revisiting the SDG-PSS for its future improvement

Moderator

  • Mr. Guillaume Baggio, UNU-INWEH

 

Session 7: Project's next phase and way forward with SDG-PSS

Moderator

  • Mr. Manzoor Qadir, UNU-INWEH

 

Session 8: Closing Remarks

  • Ms. Yujeong Kim, Senior Development Management Expert, UNOSD
  • Ms. Jiyeon Kang, Deputy Director, Water Resources Policy Bureau, Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea
  • Mr. Young-Gwon Yoo, Director, Department of Sewerage, Korea Environment Corporation
  • Mr. Vladimir Smakhtin, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH)