Members of parliament have pledged for championing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Over fifty-five parliamentarians including members of the National Assembly (NA) of the Federal Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies are participating in a workshop on "Parliamentary role in implementation of the SDGs and strengthening good governance" in Dhulikhel. 

At the three-day workshop started from 16 August organized by the Sustainable Development (SDG) and Good Governance Committee of the National Assembly with UNDP’s Parliament Support Programme (PSP), Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Minister for Finance said that the inequality that has resulted from the economic growth is tough to be recovered from the investment made in the social sector alone. Dr. Khatiwada further said that addressing inequality should be the central agenda of SDGs in Nepal. Stating that "Leave No One Behind" is the commitment of the SDGs, Dr. Khatiwada stressed the need to address the concerns and needs of the groups that are lagging behind in Nepal.

Ayshanie Medagangoda-Labe, UNDP Nepal Resident Representative, highlighted that MPs of the Federal Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies need more consorted efforts to consolidate the data and statistics as the baseline to work concretely on SDGs. Appreciating that Province 5 which with difficulty did the data collection work and is worth emulating, Labe said that such data and statistics are unavoidable for the parliamentarians for doing macro policy, budget oversight or making laws.

The workshop seeks to form the SDG Champaign Group of MPs for technical knowledge and study, capacity building, coordination and facilitation. It will offer an expert-guided avenue to provide information to the MPs about the national and sub-national priorities on five thematic goals. The group works will also chart a future course of action for MPs' consideration at work.