NUR-SULTAN, 16 July 2021 – UNDP jointly with UNICEF, ESCAP and national partners hosted a Partners’ meeting of the United Nations (UN) Joint Programme (JP) on aligning policy and financing with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards an Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) in Kazakhstan.
The Partners’ Meeting brought together government officials, the donor community, international organizations, as well as representatives of the private and non-governmental sectors. The purpose was to support and scale up the existing partnerships vital for the successful implementation of the JP in Kazakhstan through assessment of the achieved results in the first year of the programme implementation and exploration of the new opportunities for efficient future collaboration.
As progress demonstrates, during this short period Kazakhstan has almost completed the Inception phase of the INFF which focused on the overall assessment and diagnostics of the country’s financing landscape and is almost ready to proceed with implementation of the next phase - development of the Holistic SDG financing strategy.
“That large scope of work will require more efforts from everyone engaged in the JP implementation and, therefore, our collaboration and interaction should be scaled up and enhanced with regards to limitations that occur in the pandemic conditions. Relying on the vital commitment of the Government we will draw on a continued support of local, national, and global partners to secure and strengthen existing efforts,” stated Yakup Beris, UNDP Resident Representative in Kazakhstan.
The attention of the partners was drawn to such important issues as development of the INFF roadmap, streamlining SDGs into budgeting process and child budgeting including child well-being index.
During the event, the SDG Coordination Council Secretariat reported on key findings and recommendations of the Development Finance Assessment built on three key issues to be solved within JP: insufficient financing for growing investment demand, weak consistency between development planning and its financing approaches, incomplete SDG financing structure. Recommendations developed by the DFA will form a basis for the INFF Roadmap to support implementation of the state priority reforms in the long run.
The Committee on Children’s rights protection presented the progress made on child budgeting and key milestones achieved in the development of the Kazakhstani Child Wellbeing Index implemented jointly with UNICEF. The introduction of the budget for children in Kazakhstan will allow determining the amount of financing of public expenditures allocated for children, the priority of these expenditures, and the level of their effectiveness. Child Wellbeing Index will allow to conduct a comparative analysis between different regions of the country, deepen understanding of the issue of children's well-being and identify interregional disparities in providing state support for children.
The event provided a platform to explore new synergies magnifying the JP’s impact and ensuring the presence of participatory decision-making which is vital for the continued implementation of the JP.
