All 17 SDGs essential to end poverty: Banuri

Islamabad : A two-day national consultation around ‘Data, Evidence and Analytics for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ ended on Friday with kicking off a series of collaboration between the public sector institutions and universities around the SDGs.

Organised by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms in collaboration with UNICEF and Higher Education Commission (HEC), the consultation was attended by many vice chancellors of universities from across the country, professors, teachers and students as well as government officials from federal and provincial levels, including representatives from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). It focused on two primary themes: the data, evidence and analytics needed to support the SDGs and the engagement of universities, both faculty and students, in fulfilling these needs.

In his keynote address, Dr. Banuri situated the SDGs in the long evolution of international efforts for peace, justice and poverty eradication. He described to participants how all 17 sustainable development goals are essentially aimed at achieving the first goal i.e. ending poverty in all its forms everywhere. The other goals are aimed directly at specific aspects of poverty eradication, some at the determinants of poverty eradication and others at the threats to successful elimination of poverty eradication.