On February 3, JSC "Institute for Economic Research" took part in the Meeting of the Project Management Committee of the Joint UN Joint SDG Fund Programme "Agreement of SDG policy and financing measures PMC) in order to develop an Integrated National SDG Financing Facility in Kazakhstan.
The main purpose of the PMC meeting was to present the results achieved by the UN agencies during the implementation of the Joint Program with the Government of Kazakhstan, as well as to plan further cooperation.
The event was opened by the Director of the Department of Social Policy and Development of State Bodies of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zhannazarova Nurgul Almasovna, who spoke about the work of the Government to promote the SDGs at the national and regional levels. Concluding her speech, Nurgul Almasovna thanked the UN agencies for fruitful joint work.
Addressing with a welcoming speech to the participants of the meeting, acting. UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan Sukhrob Khodzhimatov noted: “A lot has been accomplished over the past two years. As a result, a significant amount of expertise and a number of methodological developments in the field of the budget process, strengthening the financial system, climate finance, budget assessment through the prism of the SDGs, children's budget, etc. were transferred to state and local executive bodies. In addition, in February, state bodies will be able to start using the information panel to monitor trends in SDG financing in Kazakhstan”.
JSC "Institute for Economic Research" was entrusted with the responsibility as a national partner in the implementation of the Joint Program. Cooperation was carried out with the UN country team: UNDP, UNICEF and ESCAP.
To date, in cooperation with UNDP, Kazakhstan has completed the first stage of the Integrated National Financing Facility by conducting a Development Finance Assessment, which provided a detailed picture of all available financial resources, including public, private and other types.
UNICEF Social Policy Representative, Arman Umerbaev, announced the results of budgeting for children. In 2021, as part of the joint Plan approved between JSC "Institute for Economic Research" and the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan Child Well-Being Index was developed, within which one of the indicators is aimed at determining "children's expenses". In 2022, employees of central and local executive bodies were trained to introduce the methodology for the children's budget (coverage of 195 employees of the CGO, LEAs and NGOs).
Within the framework of the Joint Agreement, the experts of JSC "Institute for Economic Research" together with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) conducted a study to determine the share of funding for preschool education in order to achieve the goals of the UN. As part of this study, in order to effectively address the problem of inequalities in access to quality pre-primary education and, ultimately, contribute to the implementation of SDG commitments, the Pre-primary Education Costing Model for Kazakhstan and the rationale for its corresponding financing has been developed. Ms Agapi Harutyunyan, Senior Economic Adviser for Economic Affairs of ESCAP, presented the results of this study.
Closing the event, Mr Khodjimatov emphasized: “Despite the fact that the Joint Program has come to an end, we still have a lot of work to do in the future. The developed methodologies require approbation and piloting at the state and local executive bodies level.”
On behalf of the Prime Minister A. Smailov, in the plan of priority measures, the approved protocol of the 6th meeting of the Coordinating Council for the SDGs fixed the points for conducting the Development Finance Assessment in all regions of the country, as well as the issue of implementing the climate budget. These are the products of the Joint Program that the Government considers essential for the further implementation of the SDGs.
Following the meeting, the meeting participants expressed their readiness for further cooperation.
Originally published at Economic Research Institute.
