KATHMANDU, FEB 19: /DNA/ – The First Meeting of SAARC Inter-Governmental Expert Group on Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Goals was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 18-19 February 2025. The Meeting was hosted by the Government of Sri Lanka, with financial and technical assistance provided by the Asian Development Bank. The Meeting was attended by delegations from SAARC Member States comprising senior officials of the Ministries/ Agencies responsible for SDGs and Poverty Alleviation as well as Foreign Ministries.
The Expert Group was constituted earlier by the Meeting of SAARC Ministers for Poverty Alleviation with a mandate to contextualize the UN SDGs for the SAARC region and revisit the 2004 SAARC Plan of Action on Poverty Alleviation.
The Meeting was inaugurated by Mrs. MalarmathyGangatharan, Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment, Government of Sri Lanka with a keynote address. In her address, she underlined that poverty undermines human rights, restricts sustainable development, and disturbs social cohesion. She shared that the Government of Sri Lanka recognizes poverty reduction as one of the key policy initiatives involving the three pillars of rural development, digital economy, and clean Sri Lanka. The Secretary underlined the importance of global and regional support in promoting shared prosperity, and resilient poverty reduction.
Addressing the opening session of the Meeting, Mr. Dongxiang Li, Lead Regional Cooperation Specialist, Regional Cooperation and Integration Unit, South Asia Department of Asian Development Bank stated that as SAARC’s long-term development partner, ADB would like to continue its support to further promote regional cooperation and integration in the SAARC region.
Acting Director General of South Asia and SAARC Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism of Sri Lanka Mr. NilukaKadurugamuwa, in his statement, emphasized the need of holding high-level meetings in all sectors, including poverty alleviation. I am confident that this meeting will provide a platform for our region to address our shortcomings, learn from our successes, and to find ways and means to successfully implement the SDGs and alleviate poverty in the region, he mentioned.
On behalf of the Secretary-General of SAARC, Mr. Hari Prasad Odari, Director, Information and Poverty Alleviation Division of the SAARC Secretariat, Kathmandu made a statement underlining the importance of the Meeting as it was to accomplish the vital mandate of contextualizing SDGs in SAARC Region and revisiting SAARC Action Plan on Poverty Alleviation – the mandate emanating from the Declaration of the 14th Summit of the SAARC Leaders as well as 4th Meeting of SAARC Ministers on Poverty Alleviation.
Delegations of SAARC Member States made their respective country presentations, highlighting their national priorities that include high and sustainable economic growth and decent employment opportunities, quality education and health care, expediting digital transformation, strengthening gender equality, empowerment of women and social inclusion, enhancing social protection and safety net schemes, promoting climate resilient agriculture and prioritizing rural development, ttransforming food system and nutrition, developing modern, sustainable, and systematic urbanization and settlements, strengthening institutions, strengthening regional cooperation, and promoting stakeholders’ participation.
The ADB-SAARC Consultant on SDGs and SAARC Plan of Action on Poverty Alleviation Dr. Posh Raj Pandey presented the Study Report and the Meeting finalized the Report, which contains: (i) Contextualized SDGs, targets and indicators for SAARC region; (ii) Priority policy measures to accelerate the progress on SDGs in the Region; and (iii) Monitoring Mechanism to keep track of the progress.
The Meeting also finalized the Concept Note on the Structure and Theme of the SAARC Development Report (SDR) to be published on biennial basis as a tool of monitoring the progress on SDGs in SAARC Region. The Meeting decided that the theme of this year’s SDR will be “SDR 2025: Shaping the Future Together for Resilient SAARC”.
The Meeting was chaired by Mr. GaminiWijesinghe, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development, Social Security and Community Empowerment Government of Sri Lanka.
