COLOMBIA AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: LEARNING BY DOING

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1 COLOMBIA AND THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS: LEARNING BY DOING Milestones, progress and challenges for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDG in Colombia SDG Technical Secretary

2 High Level Inter-institutional Commission for the Preparation and Effective Implementation of the Post 2015 Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals -SDGs- Chair Simón Gaviria Muñoz General Director of the National Planning Department Technical Secretary Alejandra Corchuelo Marmolejo Social Development Technical Director - NPD Members María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauricio Cárdenas Santamaría Minister of Finance and Public Debt Gabriel Vallejo López Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development Maria Lorena Gutiérrez Botero Minister of Presidency of the Republic Mauricio Perfetti del Corral Director of the National Administrative Department for Statistics Tatiana Orozco de la Cruz Director of the Administrative Department for Social Prosperity Sectorial Deputy Director NPD Luis Fernando Mejía Alzate Ana María Romero Tello, Advisor GD Adriana Elena Cozma, Advisor SD Juliana Sánchez Calderón, Advisor SD

3 Introduction Back in 2011 an idea emerged in Colombia to create innovative and transforming goals that would enable the world to achieve sustainable development by That is why the country promoted along with Guatemala, Peru and the United Arab Emirates the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Supported by the United Nations, this initiative was widely consulted in Colombia with the civil society, academia, the private sector and the international organizations with the purpose of building in a participatory and inclusive manner goals that would take into account urgent and emerging matters not considered in the millennium development goals. In Rio + 20, as an active member of the High Level Political Forum on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, as well as of the Open Working Group on SDG, Colombia contributed permanently to the inter-governmental process of the building of the SDGs and their targets all the way to the agreement on the draft resolution of the United Nations for the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, dated 2 August Since then, Colombia has decidedly undertaken a series of actions and has taken the necessary measures to have the required institutions and data tools to get ready for a successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, as an integral part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This document describes briefly the adopted actions and measures that places Colombia at the forefront of the SDG implementation process and ends by outlining those challenges that persist and that shall determine the successful completion of an already successfully initiated process. 1. Milestones in the construction of the 2030 Agenda In June 2014, the SDG Open Working Group published the agreement document on the 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Under this context, in August 2014 President s Santos new administration begun identifying the unique opportunity to formulate his National Development Plan: All for a new country, under the 3

4 framework of the 2030 Agenda, as a first step to implement the goals and targets stipulated therein. Main milestones of Colombia s participation in the SDGs I 2015 II Rio+20 Colombia as part of the High Level Policital Forum Colombia is a member of the OWG SDGs national consultations The OWG finishes the document with 17 SDGs and169 targets The NDP is formulted under the 2030 Agenda Creation SDG Commission Colombia is part of the IAEG-SDGS and the Champions Group Adoption of the 2030 Agenda High Level Group for Informal Political Support This shows a first national effort to guarantee that by 2018, the commitments and targets outlined in the SDGs are reflected on concrete actions and results, paving the way to Once the SDGs vision was incorporated into the Government s plan, there was a need to create the right institutions to facilitate the country s next steps: coordinate sectors and stakeholders, and define the public policies necessary to guarantee the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Consequently in February 2015, the President of the Republic issued Decree 280 whereby he created the High Level Inter-institutional Commission for the preparation and effective implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, the SDG Commission. It is worth to highlight another important milestone of Colombia s leadership role in this process. In the process of defining indicators, Colombia was elected as the Region s representative in the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goals Indicators, IAEG-SDGS, whose task is to define the set of indicators that shall be used to monitor the progress in the fulfillment of these goals in the coming years. Recently, the country joined the Champions Group to promote the launch of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, which shall enable 4

5 Colombia to decisively advance with this important challenge of generating global, regional and national indicators. Colombia, along with Germany, Brazil, India, Liberia, Sweden, South Africa, Tanzania, East Timor and Tunisia, is part of the High Level Group for Informal political support of the Sustainable Development Goals to promote, through various means such as the South-South cooperation, the implementation of this sustainable development agenda. 2. Public policy and monitoring instruments Colombia has an already stablished set of public policy tools for design, implementation, follow-up and monitor that support the implementation of the SDGs. These Government instruments are aligned to the Good Governance model promoted for the 2030 Agenda and are governed by the transparency, accountability and participative processes principles. In order to move forward, Colombia identified those instruments that already contribute to the SDGs with the partial inclusion of some of the goals and/or targets and that shall be strengthen towards the vision of the 2030 Agenda. Three of them are worth highlighting: i) National Economic and Social Policy Council - CONPES. The Council is the highest authority in the planning and coordination of the economic and social policy and who approves the CONPES documents that contain the National Policy commitments. These policy decisions go beyond government administration terms, which makes it a mid and long term instrument with the flexibility of incorporating inter-sector actions. In that sense, it has been important to identify in those documents already approved a support to the various goals and targets of the SDGs. Such is the case of CONPES 113 dated 2008 Food and nutrition security policy" which addresses the targets on food security and diversity; CONPES 161 dated 2013 Gender equality for women which has a great incidence on SDG 5; or CONPES 3819 dated 2014 National policy to consolidate the system of cities in Colombia which contains targets associated to SDG 11, just to name a few. Each one of them puts forth targets and indicators, identifying the actions and accountable institutions, becoming therefore active instruments of policy implementation. 5

6 This review of goals already planned by Colombia, cleared the way to identify those goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development that do not have tracking indicators or that require more emphasis in accordance with the strategic lines of President Santo s second administration, so that they were included in other instruments such as the National Development Plan (NDP). This exercise included a particular reading of those targets of the millennium goals agenda that pose a greater challenge for the country and that are immersed in the SDGs but under a practical approach, under integration models of objectives and putting forth innovative solutions as is the case of Teen Pregnancy Prevention. ii) National Development Plan: All for a new country The National Development Plan is the formal and legal instrument established in the Political Constitution, based on which the Government s goals are outlined. The legal framework that governs the NDP is recorded in Law 152 dated 1994, whereby the Development Plan Charter Law was established. This includes, among others, the general planning principles, the definition of the national planning authorities and institutions and the procedure to develop, approve, execute and evaluate the National Development Plan. This procedure is established as a constructive dialog between the national and the local Governments, the Civil Society representatives through the National Planning Council and the legislative branch, as it must be approved as a Republic s Law. In order to convert the 2030 Agenda into a virtuous tool to achieve the national goals by 2018 and to advance in the a 2030 global goals, the NDP was formulated based on the 3 pillars: peace, equity and education, supported on six cross-sectional strategies and on one comprehensive green growth strategy, which corresponds to the spirit of the SDGs and their targets. iii) SINERGIA The National System of Evaluation of Management and Results SINERGIA, is a supplementary tool to guarantee that the goals outlined by the government have a monitoring system in place to verify the progress of policies and programs. With this accountability instrument, Colombia already monitors at national level and in some cases locally, indicators of the NDP and associated to the SDGs targets. 6

7 3. The SDGs in the National Development Plan The formulation process of the NDP was participation-based, involving the regions, represented in their local authorities, civil society and private sector. This exercise was achieved through 33 regional meetings, 27 sectoral dialogues sessions and more than seven thousand participants throughout the country. The big call-up introduced in the NDP corresponds to the sustainable development premise No One Left Behind. In fact, for a country like Colombia with marked differences in the development and progress of its regions, this element defined the planning vision for the years to come and the development of innovative instruments that allow for the effective implementation of this premise. The three pillars of peace, equity and education on which the National Development Plan is based are in accordance with the areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet : i.e. people, prosperity, planet, peace and partnerships around which the SDGs revolve. Our Plan puts forth for the first time in Colombia s history, the explicit recognition of the territorial differences and the importance of their development for the country to achieve a virtuous path of shared growth, through 6 regional chapters, each one with specific targets and indicators. Cross-sectional strategies of the NDP and the SDGs People Peace Prosperity Planet Partnerships - Colombia equitable without extreme poverty - Colombia the most educated - Colombia in peace - Security, justice and democracy for peace - Social mobility - Green growth - Rural sector transformation - Infrastructure and Competitiveness - Good governance 7

8 It is important to highlight the Green Growth comprehensive strategy, which puts forth a sustainable development model, as a fundamental and comprehensive element of all the policies, implying transformational changes as to how we think and do things. The commitment to green growth represents for Colombia the opportunity to execute productive processes using resources more efficiently, less impact on the environment and greater resilience to the changing climate. It proposes a close relationship between the loss of natural patrimony and wellbeing, where environmental sustainability becomes a goal of the sectors and of the territories that aims at growth, innovation and technology, social inclusion, productivity and the country s competitiveness. That said, the NDP promotes an inclusive Colombia where the permanence of ecosystemic services is guaranteed to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources and to guarantee a healthy life for all the people, with real opportunities for sustainable and inclusive economic growth that considers the population and territorial gaps. This approach to closing the gaps emphasizes the recognition of characteristics proper and unique for each region and population group, in particular, in regards to access to education, health, water and sanitation, housing and transportation (roads). On the other hand, the regional chapters approach recognizes the regional differences as a reference framework to formulate sector related public policies and programs. The NDP distinguishes characteristics of the regions and of the subregions to implement the national pillars and the cross-sectional strategies adjusted to the realities and to the territorial needs, in addition to the differences in institutional capacity of the territorial institutions. To complement these elements, other instruments are planned based not only on the 2030 Agenda but also on the OECD s (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) standards, such as the concurrence of sources, resultbased investment budget and public-private associations. All the instruments target the critical areas as mentioned at the beginning of this section. Once the 2030 Agenda pervaded government s planning for 2018 it was held the definition of targets and indicators that Colombia could engage and monitor. Indeed, various circumstances with respect to the targets of ODS allowed categorize them as follows: 8

9 i) 17 targets previously provided under Colombian law or in the CONPES documents as mentioned in section 2. ii) 24 targets without means of measurement or verification in the country. iii) 34 targets that are not unique to country. As a result of this, Colombia incorporated the goals and targets of the ODS in the NDP for which it was possible to formulate indicators and where the public budget could have a direct influence. That is why today the country has 92 of the 169 targets with a specific indicator, currently monitorable through the National Development Plan. (Annex 1) It is this circumstance that leads us to state that more than half of the proposed goals in the SDG agenda already have an indicator in the NDP that shall enable us to asses and monitor the new model with an initial horizon towards The Government has wanted two of its goals to transcend the temporary framework of the NDP, eradication of extreme poverty and having Colombia as the most educated country in Latin America by 2025, so that the NDP itself shows the country s commitment to the 2030 agenda. 4. Agencies for implementing the SDGs The High Level Inter-institutional Commission for the SDGs, created in 2015, seeks to be the formal arena of monitoring and decision making around the implementation of the SDGs through public policies, plans, actions and programs. It is the Commission who shall guide and coordinate the institutions with jurisdiction in the 2030 Agenda, involving the territorial entities, the civil society, the private sector, the academy and the international community, among other stakeholders to feed the readiness, appropriation and adherence process to implement the Goals. The Commission has a series of support institutions to guarantee an operational and functional scheme that facilitates the coordination process and the monitoring mechanisms in the most relevant topics of the Agenda. Therefore, one of the challenges of the Commission has been to define the working groups that address the 17 goals in a cross-sectional and interconnected manner. And the identification of the sectors that have to work together to achieve one or other goal, which at first glance, it may seem to belong to a single sector. A need has also been identified to create cross-sectional groups to address 9

10 common areas in the 17 SDGs such as data and indicators, communications strategy and regionalization of the SDGs. Organization chart: High-Level Commission for the SDGs and its support institutions High Level Inter-institutional Commission SDG 7 members (President NPD) Support Unit Civil society Private sector Academy Media International organizations Technical secretary NPD Technical Committee 7 members Transversal and intersectoral working groups (to be defined) 5. Challenges Although Colombia has made considerable progress in the implementation process of the SDGs, it recognizes that the path towards sustainable development by 2030 requires greater efforts; therefore the challenges continue to be great. At international level, the concern remains on the development funding sources that may be channeled to implement the goals outlined in the SDGs. There is a challenge in the search for convergence among nations, where Colombia has played a role in the debate on a new reading of the role of the so called middleincome countries. On the other hand, the presence of shared targets and indicators where the international community comes together and that transcend the direct influence of the countries and the regular functioning of the States, demands from the international organizations to adapt their institutions to facilitate worldwide and regional dialog arenas for topics such as migration or free trade, to guarantee that all the SDGs are implemented and monitored adequately. At regional level, there is an opportunity through the south-south cooperation to facilitate the harmonization of the processes and the path of these countries towards It is even an immediate challenge considering the upcoming joint construction of regional indicators. 10

11 Colombia faces challenges at national level that motivates us to persist on the continuous and dedicated work to advance the 2030 Agenda. To that end, it is paramount to continue with the communication and dialog work, already kicked-off with regional dialog groups with the support of the IDB and the UNDP so that the national Agenda follows the international agenda construction spirit, a bottom-up process. The identification of national indicators, as well as the definition of programs and projects associated thereto, involve a significant number of stakeholders and players imposing a challenge in terms of coordination and generation of agreements that support the commitments to be acquired by Colombia. Committed with an inclusive process, there is the challenge of responding to the civil society s expectations in terms of moving from policy to action in order to establish mechanisms that involve the civil society as a key player in the decision making, the joint construction of strategies that take into account the particular characteristics of the populations and territories of the regions and the sub-regions, define innovative and inclusive implementation means that include the civil society and the private sector. Similarly, the technical and operational feasibility of the measurement of indicators and the respective goals and objectives is a challenge in terms information availability and access and the pursuit of innovative solutions and technologies that overcome the barriers of the traditional data collection methods. Other relevant aspect in Colombia s case is the territorial strengthening and the involvement as of the first phases of this process, of local authorities to guarantee that the project outlined by Colombia is the result of feasible and long-lasting regional commitments. The Law that establishes the NDP also marks the process to build local development plans. Therefore, the national government is already developing educational instruments for new mayors and governors so that their local plans are specific, measurable, transparent and participative and incorporate the 2030 Agenda into the territory. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, the CONPES documents correspond to policy initiatives that seek to go beyond the administration s term, that being the case of the SDGs. This way Colombia shall need to reflect on a CONPES document the country s sustainable development policy, all the goals, programs, and commitments that it intends to achieve by

12 Annex 1 Sustainable Development Goals SDG Targets NDP Indicators 1 End poverty in all its forms everywhere End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls Ensure access to water and sanitation for all Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation Reduce inequality within and among countries Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development 19 4 Total